Why did Michelle die?
This is the shocking story of homelessness in Exeter. Michelle Conray was a homeless 21 year old girl. In dreadful weather a tree fell on her tent, she later died in hospital. Michelle was camping in Exeter, a middle class, middle management town; it's a shopping town; John Lewis towers above the town centre. This is a testament to the middle class dream of a comfortable home, so why do so many people in Exeter have no home of their own?
One of these people was Michelle Conray. Michelle was crushed under a tree while camping in a spell of terrible weather. This was an awful, pointless death of a girl barely out of her teens. This girl had no addictions, she was nicknamed "orange squash girl" because she never drank alcohol, she had no interest in drugs either, so if this girl sold you a Big Issue or asked you for change she needed it for food. There are two questions, why didn't Michelle have a home? And why she was camping under a tree? Talking to homeless people in Exeter gave me some answers to both questions.
Homeless people are often caught in difficult situations. Exeter is short of council houses, she was in competition with 5016 other homeless people. Remember there are many stories behind these figures, from the 20 something who can't afford to fly the nest to the older alcoholic sleeping in doorways. Many of these people are invisible, a 53 year old woman who lived in a van drove to different locations every night to avoid trouble, she had tried staying in a car park in Exeter but was woken up by people bothering her, she told me “I tried sleeping in an underground car park where it was warm but people kept banging on the door.” She was a bright, articulate ex nurse who had bad luck. The woman pointed out a card she wears around her neck to warn people of her condition. The women explained how she was thrown off her own land where she had a mobile home. Bad luck and tangled red tape seem to drive lots of people to the streets.
While visiting local homeless charity "St Petrocks" I was told "sofa surfing" is conman, crashing on family and friends floors for as long as you can get away with; we can't see these people but their lives are more difficult and unsettled thanks to not having a permanent address. Michelle stayed in a patchwork of places, like many homeless people. Michelle had spend her life with foster parents, she was in contact with some on Facebook but none of them knew she was homeless.
Michelle was young at 21 but not young enough to be a priority to the council, she as not pregnant, she had not left prison or the armed forces, so Michelle fell through a safety net with huge holes in it. Many other people I spoke to had fallen through the same net, and then they had a frustrating journey to find a home. The guidelines talk of people being vulnerable but after being made homeless people are vulnerable to the weather, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction and never living a normal life again.
This year the weather has been extreme, the council has a duty to get homeless people shelter if the temperature goes below 2 degrees. Many homeless people are regally at the mercy of terrible weather conditions. The cold is only one hazard one young man told me “I got soaked, I was staying down the tunnels in South Street, “It was like a river own there." The middle aged nurse told me even though she had a van cold weather was still a hazard, I asked how she survived in cold weather and she said, “Very, very poorly...it’s absolutely dripping with condensation.” There seemed to be very few places for people to stay “Even on a cold night the shelter a homeless person get may well not be suitable. The woman told me, “They put me in bed and breakfast but I have a mobility problem and it has stairs....I had to leave”. The same woman was put in bed and breakfast but it was not suitable. There are more homeless men than women, this makes a very macho world, mot shelters are full of me, many are addicts, one middle aged man told me, shelter may be in a shelter called "Gabriel House" the man told me, "It's like a prison, your camered from when you get up." He also said he had not heard reports from Ester House, a woman's shelter. The town centre would have been a safer place to stay in such bad weather; this is often not an option. The same middle aged man told me, “They’ll (the police) will move you on, and security will follow you” I asked the man if she may have driven out of town and been frightened of staying in a shelter and he thought this was likely.
The story of Michelle is complicated, terrible circumstances cost a young life. Every homeless person has a complex story. People gave £3000 because of Michelle’s death, this will only help for a very short time, shelters are in short supply and many homeless people who are not addict don’t want to stay in them and people need have a roof over their head. This crisis can only get worse with the government stopping housing benefits for under 25s and repossessions at a 14 year high; along with a shocking shortage of council houses mean more people will be homeless; another pointless death is not very far away.
