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Dead dogs are treated better than dead homeless people. It’s a disgrace | Tamsen Courtenay

Some 440 people died homeless in the UK in the last 12 months – but the government doesn’t even bother to count them

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a book I wished I’d had to hand as I scrolled through the names of the homeless dead in Monday’s paper. The book gives words for emotions that have yet to be defined and I needed a word that reflected my pain, disbelief and anger. No word that existed was strong enough.

Whenever I read about a homeless person’s body being found in some sad and loveless place (an underground car park, a rubbish tip, a bus stop) I wonder if it is one of the delicate and fragile people that I met while I was writing my book Four Feet Under. The 30 people who told their stories for the book (and the dozens of others who didn’t want me to record their thoughts but didn’t mind just talking to me) spoke not only about their lives as they were forced to live them now but also about their fear of a death that was likely to be early, lonely, and very possibly violent.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2RJh6T5

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