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Matt Barnes
Aberdeen, United Kingdom
I am formerly homeless in the UK through circumstances largely beyond my control. I now work as an advocate, running and writing for the website Homeless Tales as well as doing work on the ground whenever possible. I am particularly keen on projects geared towards social inclusion.
Recent Activity
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Matt commented on the article |Hi Steven,
I find insight from tent cities to be fascinating. It is quite remarkable how similar each one seems to be no matter where they may exist across the country. Most notable is the sense of community which invariably exists and also the relatively low level of crime.
I have recently been corresponding with people who are connected with the encampment known as Nickelsville in Seattle and a lot of what you say here would also seem to apply to the people there too. The possible exception being that they do unfortunately have families with children in residence.
One thing I would like to note is the importance of the community to the people that live there, which must be taken into consideration when rehousing. These people have established friends and relationships and a spirit of mutual cooperation and breaking these ties is potentially detrimental to their chances of long term success of reintegration to regular society.
Thanks Steven for a thoroughly interesting article.
