Looking Back: 2007

Looking Back: 2007 – our 35th Year

As we approach the middle year of our 50th anniversary, I am looking back at the year 2007 – and our 35th Anniversary memorial Booklet, which was produced to celebrate 35 years of supporting people affected by homelessness.

Over the next few weeks, I plan on reproducing some of the content from that booklet – as a reminder of who we are and where we have come from. It’s so important that we are able to look back at the journey we have been on, as well as the growth we have seen as a charity. It’s thanks to that growth that we are able to help and support more and more people each year.

Since the booklet was produced in 2007, we have opened a cafe where the public can pay it forward, taken on two care homes – and increased our support network for homeless people across Hampshire.

So let’s take a look at some of the stories from the booklet.

Patsy

We have already told the story about Patsy. Our CEO wrote a blog about him nearly two years ago, you can read that here.

The booklet goes on to say that Patsy was a well known and well-loved character around St James. Unfortunately, his drinking kept him unsettled, and he was in and out of the shelter and detox unit – but was most often found sleeping rough. Anne Barrett had the chance to take a number of portraits of Patsy, and from these, a painting was created – and this still hangs on the wall of our CEO, Trevor Pickup at our head office.

Sadly, one evening, Patsy was drinking and sleeping rough. It was a cold night and he went to sleep in a ‘skipper’, where he got locked in and sadly, suffered an alcohol induced seizure. Patsy was found unconscious the next day but passed away in hospital a few days later.

We would highly recommend reading the blog by Trevor to understand more about the character of Patsy.