Daily Post reporter Steve Bagnall investigates the makeshift 'shanty camp' that has sprung up in the shadow of Wrexham's suburban streets, laying bare the town's homelessness crisis
Squalid, cramped conditions, no sanitation, makeshift tents the only shelter, the inhabitants living in constant fear of violence, the makeshift encampment would not be out of place in the war-torn landscape of Syria.
But this shanty camp is not on the arid deserts of the middle east, it is hidden away behind the streets of Wrexham , and its existence lays bare the shameful homelessness crisis in North Wales .
While the council recently approved plans to resettle refugees from Syria in the town , Wrexham has its own microcosmic humanitarian problem to deal with.
Neil Maxted is one of 15 people now living behind Benjamin Road. His life a cycle of drug and alcohol abuse, he has nowhere else to go, and has little or no hope of finding proper accomodation. And the size of the camp has swelled since a number of homeless people were forced to quit their spot near Capel y Groes, Brynhyfryd, after one man died there.
While community leaders clamour for a solution to the homelessness crisis, Neil’s day to day concern is the struggle to stay alive. And though the summer weather is a blessing, Neil is not sure he will survive another harsh winter with little more than a tarpaulin tent for shelter.
In his time in North Wales, he estimates he has seen at least 12 homeless people die, mainly from drug overdoses.
And unless things change, the same fate may well await him.
“I have taken everything from smack to the new legal highs, which I died on, but survived” he said: “At the moment I take speed, because I need to stay awake,” he tells the Daily Post.
Originally from Sunderland, admits he made himself intentionally homeless about five years ago after a broken relationship in the north east England city. The break-up saw his life spiral out of control.
As a result, he has no hope of finding a home, and with many others in his position, there is no room left at the small encampment hidden behind bushes to the rear of Benjamin Road.
“The thing is we get robbed by other homeless and other people. My mate recently had his trainers robbed while he was trying to sleep.
“This was a quiet place that nobody knew about, but after the man died at Capel y Groes and the camp there was moved on, they all came here. Sometimes you get others who are not homeless, they just want to take drugs.
“We have had people shouting at us from the field. I am moving on from here but I don’t know where I’m going to go.”
The threat of attack is not all in Neil’s head. The new North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones, has said he fears people living rough will be targeted by vigilante mobs.
And there is a concern that a crackdown on anti-social behaviour in other parts of Wrexham is moving the problem on to Benjamin Road.
New Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPO) have been introduced to stop bad behaviour in public, but it seems the moves are funnelling homeless people into makeshift camps like the one Neil currently calls home.
Mr Jones told the Daily Post yesterday: “I feel this order is only moving the problem on to other areas like Caia Park.
“Since the recent sad death by Capel y Groes the authorities have cleared that encampment but the homeless that were there have only gone as far as the Pigeon Loft field at the back of Benjamin Road.
“Local residents are very angry and we are in danger of seeing vigilante action against these homeless people.”
While community leaders talk of “working in partnership with other agencies” to find a solution, but with so little social housing available, and waiting lists at capacity, for people like Neil there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
“It’s like a merry-go-round,” he says. “We were by Asda before being moved and I was also by the swimming baths for a time.
“At one point we were in a storage area at PC World, it was great, but that finished.
“Everywhere we move to we always seem to be opposite a school or park and now they are making difficult to be in the town centre.
“Its okay in the summer when the weather is warmer, but I don’t know if I can survive another winter in the cold.
“It is horrendous living in these conditions. All I want is some accommodation and a chance to start again.”
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/wrexham-shanty-camp-shames-north-11438079
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