Patrick Button clambers down a muddy ditch and into a clump of trees between a playing field and the busy Chippenham bypass. But this was where Button, 43, first tasted life without a roof above his head, one of an uncounted population of hidden homeless in Britain’s rural areas and small towns. Since May, Chippenham’s homeless hostel, Unity House, said it had looked after 46 at-risk or current rough sleepers. But people in Chippenham who have been living the cold, fitful, anxious life of the rough sleeper were sceptical. Counted or not, the hardship of rough sleeping remains a fact of life.

Source: The Guardian December 14, 2018 06:00 UTC