In this country the life expectancy of the homeless is lower than the life 

expectancy of the population of any other country in the world. Including 

countries currently at war. The last person who died in the shelter was 

thirty. The people in the shelter who I thought wouldn’t live to see forty 

aren’t even living to see thirty-one. Whenever a homeless person dies they 

are not named in the news out of respect for families who often didn’t even 

know they were still alive. Excluding the vicar I’ve been the only person in 

attendance at a funeral. There are so many who never even had a funeral. 

Whose names never made it onto a headstone. There are so many names 

that I will never forget. Names that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.