Bekki Perriman

An incredibly moving and emotional account of the reality of living as a street homeless woman in 21st century Britain. The dark-edged pages of the book are transcripts of Perriman's interviews with women living in the streets, all of whom report (not graphically) sexual harassment and rape by men with homes to return to, and the common degradation of being urinated on by drunken clubgoers 😮‍💨

The contributors are keen not to present homeless people as "the homeless", a homogenous mass of victims or scapegoats fitting easily stigmatisable categories, but as individual human beings with the same complex histories and needs as the rest of society.
Really thought provoking, challenging and emotionally intense.

The question of whether to give money directly to a homeless person or to support a charity was argued in a couple of articles which make for interesting ancillary reading. I don't think they need to be mutually exclusive, and I tend towards the "give directly" argument. Links to articles:

Matt Broomfield "Why you should give money directly and unconditionally to homeless people":
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/welfare/2017/10/why-you-should-give-money-...

Jeremy Swain's reply as former director of one of the charities, Thames Outreach, criticised in Broomfield's article:
https://www.endinghomelessness.uk/2018/01/street-homelessness-dangerous-appeal-o...… (meer)