Homelessness Project: Crisis Case Study

Brian and Kevin Dooley

Twin Homeless Guests at Crisis Open Chrismas

"I was on drugs, which caused the divorce and my head wasn't really right. When I was on the streets I didn't really care, I wasn't looking for a place, I was just getting out of it all the time to escape. Heroin and crack all the time, constantly."

Brian and Kevin are twins whose lives appear to have taken similar turns at similar times, resulting in them both being homeless for over four years.

Brian explains how hard life has become: "I was on drugs, which caused the divorce and my head wasn't really right. When I was on the streets I didn't really care, I wasn't looking for a place, I was just getting out of it al the time to escape. Heroin and crack all the time, constantly."

Kevin's life began to spiral downwards following the death of his son, and the brothers moved to London together, to escape the difficulties back home. The majority of their time in London has been spent rough sleeping. That was over four years ago and now they are in a hostel where they are receiving excellent support and services.

Brian explains how far they have come over the last few years: "But now I've changed, my head's cleared up, I've kind of got over the divorce bit."

Kevin continues: "We've been at this hostel for five weeks. At the part of the hostel we're in there's a lot of support, it's geared for helping our problems. Their aim is to try and get us a place to stay or if we want we can go to rehab after this. Everything we've been looking for, everything that we think we need, they all came in this package at the hostel."

Kevin and Brian first visited Crisis Open Christmas two years ago when they were amazed by the enormity of the event. This year they're looking forward to visiting the Open Christmas again, particularly to make the most of the services available such as medical care, chiropody, massage, hairdressing and resettlement advice.

Robert

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