at my wits end....

David - Sarah from Shelter in Manchester has emailed you, I hope it proves helpful. I've let her know that email is best. 

Longman, I'll let our campaigns team know

Cretins is one of my favourite words Longman.

Is this something campaigns could look at?

I asked my local council about this, and they've come back to me to say there are three homeless people they know have autism and a number of others they know of with traits of autism. They have taken this into account in service provision.

Now if campaigns got NAS members to write to their councils across the country about this we might get something positive done, and get some information on it to present to Government (if in the unlikely even those self centred cretins are listening).

Hi David

Thank you. I know you have issues with the telephone, so I'm trying to get ahold of an individual adviser at Shelter for you to have email contact with. 

hi anil

i am formally giving you permission to contact shelter on my behalf...

however i have a serious issue with telephones but not sure how this would work...

im not much better face to face either...

but you can try, im grateful for any help i can get at the moment...

thank you for your emails i will read them when i can

david :(

Hi Davek75 - I've emailed you with some information from our helpline. Please do get in touch, I know you don't have regular internet access so please reply when you can. I'd very much like to put you in touch with someone from Shelter but I'd need your permission.  

Davek75 - I've tried emailing you, I can see you've responded using the feedback system. I've passed on your message to our helpline for them to get in touch with you. 

I'm going to have to "go against the grain here" (not unusual for me) and caution about this kind of approach.  I do a lot of lobbying from the safe ground of being a householder, and it is a "tightrope walk" between being a credible protagonist and a vexatious trouble maker.

The trouble is we are in one of those backlash periods - public reaction against disability and political correctness.

It is interesting that when a similarly minded Government targeted single parents as villains they found a lot of public sympathy, and this country is still paying the price for this in the ever complicated legislation pursuing father's for support.

We are in a similar phase now. The Coalition Government has chosen to target the disabled as society's scroungers, to deflect attention from their mis-handling of the recession, and the public seems to approve. Hence there has been very little real criticism of the current benefits review stategy, despite the papers trying to front the concerns.

It is hardly a great comfort to davek75, but he is living through an age when the majority of people have no sympathy with people living off benefits, however genuinely needy, and further, seem not at all sympathetic to the homeless. Brits have always been inclined to the "I'm alright Jack, cannot see your problem" perspective - they aren't down on their luck to that extent, and don't see why those who are cannot pull themselves out of it "get on their bike".

It shouldn't be down to Davek75. NAS should be talking to Shelter and other homessness charities, and the organisers of community and cooperative ventures like Camphill to be on the look out for people with autism amongst the homeless, and to get in place some sort of safety net. But the charities are short of funds, another fall out from the recession, so its going to take a while.

NAS could honestly show some sign of effort to solve this problem. Just saying he can phone them (has Davek got a mobile phone account as a homeless man?) or email them, when he is using public access to library computers. I get the feeling NAS hasn't the foggiest idea of what homelessness involves. Which is not a good start.

But where does this leave Davek75 for the time being? I don't think the newspapers will help an individual, and occupying the housing office will get him into trouble.

Some accommodation is around for people to act as temporary guardians of protected buildings (eg "camelot security through occupation" http://uk.cameloteurope.com) - trouble is you've got to know where these are, and a lot of the stuff on their website looks posh. But some of these are tumbledown residences that need someone there to deter vandals. It is a solitary job, suitable for someone on the spectrum?

There are lots of other watchman situations, including blocks of flats, building sites, and public buildings, and while many of these nowadays are contracted as part of building life by the building companies, there are ways in at the lower end of the market.

I was always under the impression hotels and restaurants took on casual kitchen staff, even quite posh ones, and would help people on the streets get started. Also casual cleaning, while companies usually collect people from their homes, can also be a way into getting some kind of accommodation.

But this is something NAS could do - find out about options for people with autism down on their luck/homeless - and put this advice on the website (and in conjunction with homeless charities generate a leaflet that can be left at soup kitchens and help centres, or in libraries).

People like Davek75 need workable options. NAS could really do wonders by getting something like this started.

have already thought about the papers... but didnt think they would be interested or bothered about my story...my story isnt really "groundbreaking"....

im at my wits end with it all.... am and do contemplate suicide on a daily basis....

feeling let down and forgotten....

thanks for all your help at times this site has saved not only my sanity but my life on more than one occasion!!

im glad and i hope this site will support others as much as it has supported me...

sat in a public library again... lost and unheard by the local authority that the library is in... wonder if i will get noticed today??? i doubt it...... :(

"Homeless man with Asperger's syndrome, a lifelong neurodevelopmental disability, shunned by [name] authority.

DaveK, a 38 year old man with Asperger's syndrome, a legally recognised disability, speaks of how all his attempts at turning to the authorities for help have failed.

DaveK reports that he approached his GP, his MP and [name] local authority, and has been stonewalled.  He is living on the streets in the depths of winter, contemplating suicide..."

You get the picture.

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Let me know if you want any more...

If I were you, I would go and sit in the housing office and refuse to move until they offer you some accommodation.

If that doesn't work, go to the media and shame them all by highlighting your plight - you can bet your bottom dollar things would happen then.

I can't understand why those bodies are saying it's in hand if it's not.  Homeless is an emergency situation, especially in the winter.

i have had people try every means to try to help, varying from local authorities to the local m.p....doctors... social services... charities...  all to no avail... all i get told is things are in place and moving forward... but are pretty stagnant!!!

im truely at my wits end, fustrated, fed up, unheard and feeling like im going round in circles... ive been sent from pillar to post for nearly 6 months now... same s**t, different year!!!

i seriously dont know where to turn for help now... im stuck and screaming but am being totally ignored by all the relevant people...

what now... where now.... how do i get the help ive been crying for???

what will it take for everyone to sit up and pay attention on how discarded i feel... pushed to the bottom of the pile everytime and told to go here,there and everywhere on a daily basis... i have contacted NAS as a very last resort to try and get some notification of my situation... 

maybe someone will have some say to the right ears as i and a few others on my behalf are completely stumped....

if there is any help out there i would like to see somebody finally get heard...

david :(

Hello Davek75.  I'm so sorry to hear how bad life is for you.  There are a number of posters here who are very concerned for you.  Please have a look at recent posts regarding homelessness + references made to your plight.  Please do not give up.  You are certainly not forgotten or unheard on this site.  It can be so difficult to keep on struggling, especially when you are homeless + unsupported.  Are you absolutely certain you've tried every service, whether through the local council, (social services, housing, your local councillor who is likely to hold a weekly or fortnightly "surgery" in a local community centre) or charities, including churches?  I apologise unreservedly if anything I've typed is crass/insensitive in any way.  I feel so powerless, but please look at the recent posts.  We are concerned for you.