Homeless at Christmas

Twelve years ago, 15-year-old Tony Welch returned home from school and found his family had gone.

The house was shut up, the locks had been changed and everything inside had been removed.

He was left with £2.50 in his pocket and his school uniform.

Bewildered, he turned to the police, his school and social services for help.

But somehow everyone passed the buck and Tony found himself homeless and alone.

He has never heard from his parents or any of his nine brothers and sisters again.

He has no idea where they went or why they left him behind.

Tony's story is extraordinary. He is now 27 and lives on the streets by day.

At night he takes shelter in a hostel. He believes the shocking desertion is the sole reason he is homeless today.

Unsurprisingly he has had more than his fair share of problems - not least drink, drugs and crime.

But he is slowly trying to repair some of the damage and rebuild his shattered life.

Tony is staying at St Patrick's Hostel in Cambridge Road, Hove, and has found a part-time job as a cleaner at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.

He will spend Christmas Day at the hostel and is grateful for the roof over his head and the comradeship he finds there.

But the one thing he longs for is to see his family again.

He said: "I want my dad to stand in front of me and tell me why.

"Even if I knew, I could never forget what happened but it would go some way to making me feel better than I do now."

Tony's father, a bus driver, wanted him to be a police officer and Tony believed he was doing everything possible to make that a reality.

Originally from Hartlepool, Tony has been over the scene in his mind a thousand times.

He was the youngest child but was not a problem teenager. Did he do something wrong?

Did his family have some terrible secret to hide? Was he their child at all?

"How could they disappear without trace? Why would other relatives not help him?

"Basically, people just told me 'It's your problem, deal with it'. I hit the streets and started learning how to survive.

"I did drugs but came off. I did alcohol but came off.

"Then I became a criminal - street robbery, car thefts, walking into a shop, snatching a stereo and running out. And I served time."

At one stage Tony managed to stabilise his life. He met a girl, set up a business as a landscape gardener and had three children.

But some kind of interior self-destruct mechanism kicked in and he once again found himself homeless and alone.

He says he has searched every town and city in Britain for his family.

The trail brought him to Brighton and he is now determined to make a new life for himself.

"I've grown up. I've learnt there are other ways of doing things. I've been a criminal and now I'm doing this. Being homeless is hard - very hard - but crime destroys you."

Tony has applied for countless jobs over the years and has found himself in the typical Catch 22 situation.

"Without a home you can't get a job. Without a job you can't get a home.

"As soon as employers see your address is the hostel, they don't want to know. You really have to fight for it."

Luckily Tony has retained his fighting spirit and is hoping his part-time job will lead to a full-time position which will eventually allow him to have his own home.

Others at St Patrick's are defeated by their circumstances.

Father Alan Sharpe, who runs the hostel, night shelter and newly-opened night cafe, said: "The hardest thing for us is to see the same people come back time and time again.

"If they are not deeply into homelessness we can help get them out. But the damage inside people is often so great there is little we can do."

The hostel is home to 29 residents and offers night shelter to another 22.

The night cafe is currently attracting up to 20 people for each session.

Last week some of the residents were having their weekly "Tea with the Vic" session with Father Alan.

The group, largely male, gathered in the canteen, which is lined with lockers and has an upturned table tennis table at one side.

Dressed in overalls and heavy sweaters, they tucked into sandwiches over mugs of tea, had a cigarette and chatted. It could be a scene from any office canteen. The banter was good-natured.

One resident asked if there was somewhere he could store three packed suitcases Short of space, the solution offered was: "Can't you wear more clothes?"

A woman resident complained: "I don't even have a spoon."

A helpful colleague offered: "Do you want a wooden one?"

However, the cheerful mood masks the poignant stories that brought them to the hostel.

Father Alan said: "It could be anything from a broken home to losing a job or mental problems.

"Although we have women here, it is overwhelmingly a male problem and the people we see here are getting younger.

"It used to be that people had had jobs and lived their lives before we saw them but now the average age has come down quite markedly."

It is a depressing story but some, such as Tony, are fighting back.

He said: "There is no point in living in the past when all I have in front of me is the future.

"I have set myself a goal to have a full-time job and then I can rent somewhere.

"I am the way I am because of what happened to me but I can change what happens to me next. Being homeless is very hard for us.

"We want to be with our families at Christmas but for all sorts of reasons we can't.

"St Patrick's is the next best thing. It is like a family environment - everyone has been in a similar situation and you make friends.

"This place helps when no one else will and it has helped me a lot."

The team from St Patrick's will be offering "a good meal" on Christmas Day and the chance to make a phone call home.

Tony will enjoy the hospitality - but where to find his family remains a mystery.