Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 3rd January, 2025)

Thankfully there are places like this to take the homeless

My heart goes out to them in weather like this. They would not survive in these temperatures were it not for the shelters and the citizens who support them.

I can't imagine the misery of being homeless in winter. is this a permanent shelter now? it's a big building

How has it come to this? there never used to be this in the 60s 70s 80 90s people being homeless the last lot and this laughable lot who are in are doing nothing but other people who come over here from other places get somewere to live straight away its a joke!

I cannot blame people up and down the country for buying their council homes and flats, I probably would have done the same.
The reality is though that Council homes were meant to provide safe, warm places for low income families and for many a springboard towards buying their home when their situation improved. They should never have been sold off.
Now we have little in the affordable rented market, they’re mostly in the hands of unscrupulous profiteers, many badly maintained at exorbitant rents.
People like those queuing will probably never stand a chance, they are the forgotten to be brushed under the carpet.
A shocking situation in this supposedly one of the richest countries in the world.
No wonder people are disillusioned with politics and all the falsehoods and platitudes of politicians both main parties. They have failed us miserably.

Terrible in this day and age. There will be more of this as time goes on.

What makes you so certain that they’re homeless and queuing for a bed at Coops Mick Did they tell you this ?

A group of individuals assembled outside a building noted for taking in the homeless isn’t proof in itself is it ?

They could just as easily be waiting for a minibus to take them to the David Hockney exhibition in Manchester
couldn’t they ?

Unlikely as this may seem , it cannot be denied that this is just one of many other possibilities .

Millions of people in this country are now only one accident or serious illness from poverty and homelessness.
Anyone with a paid for roof over their head should count their blessings.
This country is getting poorer and poorer by the day and as been for the last 10 to fifteenth years.
Too many bad decisions and too many wrong decisions have brought us nearer and nearer to third world status. Make no mistake, if nothing is done things can only get worse.

Hey there Ozy i am sure that you are not stupid seeing them people there on the photo with carry bags and all there worthy belogings look at the photo properly and you will see that for yourself thats an insult to those people who have nowere to sleep and live!

I was guessing Ozy, maybe I should have got Closer so they were Bigger.

They might be Jehovah's Witnesses.

The group looks young and the one sat down looks like a Muslim woman. I could be wrong. There was a young Muslim woman begging outside the Coop in W/H which is rare as they are moved on swiftly. She looked healthy enough. I think they are finding in Bolton there is too much competition. They're now spreading their wings and coming into the smaller reaches. The Motel on the A6 is where they are put up. She was probably having a day out. Gee Tee’s shop has photographs of people who are not allowed inside because of shoplifting. I don’t know if it works! The photos are of quite a few Asians .You can’t escape seeing the photos as they are pasted up next to the entrance. Shop lifting is worse than ever.

Have you forgotten which name you’re using today Mick?

What I see ex Wigginer is a group of people standing outside Coops building ( one sitting ) with an assortment of bags … that’s all .
Mick says they’re homeless and you appear to be making the same assumption as he is .
I’m not saying they are or they aren’t homeless .
Im merely pointing out that the act of standing
( or sitting if it comes to that ) on the pavement outside any building doesn’t necessarily categorise a person as being homeless .

We have been here before with the thatcher government in the 1980's. Tragically this is what happens with a long.conservative government. Notwithstanding other faults and unnecessary invasions of other countries the Blair government did successfully deal with homelessness. I cannot see this present government doing so.

They may be waiting for an office that's in Coops Building to open, as The Coops Foyer is for homeless young people 16 to 25, though they have plans to move to a custom built hostel now being built on Boundary Street, at Wigan/Ince border.
https://www.yourhousinggroup.co.uk/about-us/latest-news/yhg-news/a-new-home-for-coops-foyer/

https://www.wigan.gov.uk/News/Articles/2024/August/New-Foyer-Building.aspx#:~:text=Located%20on%20the%20site%20of,Chequers%20Street%20in%20the%20town.

I remember there being homeless people around in the 1950s and '60s, though then we called them tramps, I'm sure that then it was only the Salvation Army who bothered about them, and many a tramp was found dead under a hedge during very cold winters.
Though not to worry as Captain Keir and his Starmertroopers have their eyes set upon a lot of farmland, and will buy it up dirt cheap when the farmers have all gone bust, and on this land they'll build the millions of council houses they have planned. (dreaming of more like)

Veronica i am sick of seeing them lot you see enough in bolton if you go there shopping its overpowering.

On the News today 15 came over in a Peugeot so it’s not just boats. How they managed that only God knows. If you are going on a coach trip over the Channel you are kept waiting ages to have passports dealt with. Coming back is the same but the coach is thoroughly searched. How fifteen got through in a car I don’t know! Where on Earth were they hiding? I have heard of haulage transport being used but not a car with so many. I know single individuals have got inside caravans and been found but the people who were driving got fined and they were old age pensioners who hadn’t any idea!

Hang on Cyril … one job at a time eh ? Give the lad a chance

That’ll only happen when he’s finished …
“ smashing the people smuggling gangs “ .

And it follows that this’ll only happen after he’s made a start on …
“ Smashing the people smuggling gangs “.

These successive governments of ours are nothing less than a bumper Christmas compilation of Brian Rix farces .

Just an endless parade of useless tossers .

Oops ! … and there’s me going down for a 30 month stretch . Never mind eh ?
… Any volunteers to mind the cat until I become eligible for remission ?

The old Coops building is probably one of the nicest buildings in Wigan.
Great photo Mick

I remember an old man Cyril probably a tramp with a long white beard in the early fifties. He used to knock on people’s doors whether it was for money or not I can’t remember. I was with my mam when she opened the door and I felt really sorry for him. I wanted her to let him come and live with us! All I recall is her pulling me inside and shutting the door. To my mind he looked like Father Christmas. Probably would have been a veteran of the 1st WW because we used to see them a lot around Scholes. No wonder there were so many lodging houses at that time. They were genuine cases mostly.

As you say Cyril , Coops foyer have rooms to accommodate 24 homeless individuals , …providing they are between the age of 16 and 26 years old and are prepared to accept a job or skills training .

If then , the people in Mick’s photo are in fact homeless and looking for a bed , as Mick and the other bloke appear to think they are , then the follicly challenged fellow with his back to the photographer may just as well bugger off now and buy himself a woolly hat , as to my mind , based purely on the criteria listed above , he’s destined to fall at the first hurdle .

If he’s under 26 then I’m the Aga Khan .

I still remember the feeling of shame when I made an assumption about someone, based on nothing but what they looked like. It was the 1970s and I was asked by a man sitting on the pavement for money for a cup of tea. I gave him a measly £1, thinking that it would probably be wasted on a flagon of cider. The gentleman got up and walked into a cafe at the bottom of King Street for his tea. He might have been poorer than me money wise, but I morally was much poorer than him.

They all look outward bound.

The door to the building is open, but they are hanging about on the street.

Could they be waiting for a lift to go to the work, or life skills training they are obliged to do?

Could the senior looking chap with the bare yed be supervising the youngsters on a team outing?