My answer to What is it like to be homeless? What is an average day?
Answer by Desmond Last:
I can answer this question with authority and from the perspective of having been homeless in two countries; Australia and the United Kingdom.
First Australia. I was sat in my home when without any notice the ANZ Bank illegally evicted me. I was in default by only £3500 one one home and £7000~ on the other.
I had two homes and equity of approximately $650,000. I owned my car -worth $20,000 and had some money in the bank. The photo is of my home in Sydney – that I was illegally evicted from.
The ANZ were taking part in the abuse of my human rights which are still being continued in the U.K. I was told to leave immediately – not even being allowed to take 5 years of very valuable writing or any clothes.
You can read all about the criminal actions of the ANZ here ANZ Illegally evicted me
I now own one home outright but the Australian Gov will not let me have it or my writings unless I go back to prove who I am.
The Police told me to go to a men's hostel. Who gets evicted for £3500?
I wandered round in absolute shock. I had endured 5 years of Hell in Australia being watched, stalked , my privacy invaded, all my work stolen and copied , my business Sydney Boat Sales destroyed and now I was being evicted.
I later wrote to Malcolm Turnbull the Prime Minister of Australia -he said there was nothing he could do. He will be able to repeat that to a Criminal Court of Law when I return to Australia.
Immediately you are in another world The rest of the world is now foreign to you. People pass by in cars, with money, with homes to go to. You are invisible now.
You have no status. It is all your fault and nobody will look you in the eyes.
If you make a fuss or stand up to authority you may either be roughly handed, taking away for a mental assessment or arrested. The Police are now the State and you are in their custody.
You are no longer part of that ‘belonging’. The Police have just downgraded you to non-person. You have no influence or authority.
Here I was in Sydney, a City I had lived and worked in for 23 years and it was as if I were in an alien land. There is nobody who is going to help you.
Then there are simple considerations we all take for granted. The toilet. Having a shower. A change of clothes. Food. Drink. Safety. Where to sleep at night.
I was lucky. After a couple of days I managed to get some money.
However, when I arrived in the U.K seeking Justice and the vermin who destroyed my life, my bag and wallet with my passport was stolen and by then I had no money at all.
I was moved on while slept in Hyde Park. I slept rough and it smells. You are constantly waiting for the Police to move you on and you worry that as you sleep somebody will steal your belongings. You are angry but you must keep calm.
Nobody would even give me a cigarette. The Police hound you and treat you as if you were subhuman. At one point I could not even afford a bottle of water. I could not get any benefits as I could not prove who I was. The Australian embassy would do nothing to help me. Remember that when you to buy a bottle of Australian wine.
I went to a Shelter and was treated like s..t by some kid and then left it was too humiliating.
It is horrible. That is why I am so against the homeless to be without any shelter or future. I have always been against a system and a society so rich yet it it allows children to starve in Africa, and its own citizens to sleep on the streets.
Whatever country I finally to decide to live in will not have any homeless – I will make sure of that.
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