BURY Red Door provides a vital service for the borough’s homeless people.

In last week’s Bury Times, manager Julia Coulton explained how the centre, on Peter Street, offers a whole range of services and resources to those who have found themselves without a roof over their heads.

Today, reporter Neil Brandwood speaks to one of those people…

DESPITE the beliefs of bigots, no-one chooses to be homeless. Nor is it any child’s ambition to be a rough sleeper when they grow up.

It is sometimes forgotten that rough-sleepers are someone’s son, daughter, brother or sister and they have a life history like you and me. They are not an anonymous “mass” to be pitied or despised.

Paul is in his thirties and attended a local primary school. He is an avid reader and spends a lot of his time in the borough’s libraries, losing himself in books.

Once a week he visits his elderly grandfather.

Paul is also homeless.

At the age of eleven he had to leave mainstream education and boarded at an alternative educational establishment due to his behaviour which, years later, was found to be caused by a personality disorder.

There are many grim tales concerning life in such schools, but for Paul it was a positive experience.

“It was helpful,” he said. “They understood me.”

After leaving school, he initially lived with his mother and stepfather. But due to a breakdown in the relationship, Paul was no longer able to live there. “My stepfather gave me a sleeping bag, and that was it,” he said.

So began a life on the streets. Paul’s first “home” was a car park in Bury. That’s where he slept at night alongside other young homeless people. Surprisingly, he adapted quite well.

“I was only young, so it didn’t really bother me.” Paul got by begging and, after a couple of years a council flat was found for him .

However, problems with a neighbour, who Paul claims victimised him, resulted in him losing the flat and he was back on the streets .

This time however, he was drawn to Manchester where he began taking Spice a synthetic, but much more potent version of cannabis, which has been banned since 2016 under the Psychoactive Substances Act.

Although some people wrongly condemn all rough sleepers as drug addicts and alcoholics, it is a fact that many of them are.

But instead of just looking at them like scum – a common experience for Paul – perhaps people should consider why rough sleepers turn to drugs and alcohol. “It blocks out my problems,” explained Paul.

Faced with sleeping out in the cold and rain, and being hungry and vulnerable, is it really that surprising that they turn to something that allows a temporary mental and physical escape? Thankfully, Paul is no longer on Spice and is being helped by Bury Red Door, which he says “means everything” to him. “What I’d like people to understand is what has happened to me could happen to everybody.”

While he waits in hope for a flat, Paul continues to beg on the streets of Bury. “It’s not necessarily money I’m asking for,” he said. “For people in my situation it’s food and toiletries that are the priorities.”

You can provide practical help for Paul, and others who use Red Door, by donating items. Just take them to the centre during opening hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Alternately, you can make donations via ://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/caritassalford/burytimesreddoorspecials For further information visit the website, Bury Red Door.