Rain!

Feeling at a loss this morning as to what to write in the blog I asked one our clients who was in early making a “Mississippi Mud Pie”. As the weather today is incredibly wet, in a flash he said, “Where does a street drinker go when it’s raining”?So I put the question back to him and he shared a few things which we would possibly not see or realize. The most common place to shelter and have a drink is in shop doorways. Unfortunately a group of street drinkers in a shop doorway is not an attractive sight. So they will be moved on very quickly. Most supermarkets today have “bouncers” at the door and they will relish clearing the doorway. In Sheffield with the Alcohol Restricted Zone (ARZ) in place you are not allowed to drink in the city centre so you are very restricted indeed. Our clients feel very displaced from life anyway and this just re-enforces this thinking and pushes them further to the edge, not only in the city but from society. Before the ARZ came into place street drinkers used to congregate on a green not far from our centre. They would sit on the benches and shelter under the trees and have a place to relax. One drinker who I worked with many years ago used to call it his office and if I needed to meet him he would say you’ll find me at the office! But now that place has become a very up market place surrounded with apartments and bars and cafes. So it is not pleasant for any of us when it rains, and heavily like today, but for our clients it’s another hurdle to add to what is a difficult life.