Why is Craig Sleeping in a Church Doorway Tonight?

I didn’t think to ask

Craig is a regular around the Kirkcaldy High Street. You’ll often see him with his bicycle and backpack all dressed in blue. His clothes hang off him and he is missing his top front teeth and incisors.

He is lucid and speaks intelligently with me. He turns down my offer of a hot drink or some food, patting his tummy as he declines.

I ask him where he stays to which he replies in the church doorway and sometimes he has a night in the Holiday Inn. It’s going to be six degrees tonight.

I tell him about my writer friend, Brian, who has to pay a discounted rent at a hostel. Craig immediately comes back with the fact that hostels usually charge more than rent in a private house. Brian is paying £332 per four weeks. There is a room in a house available for £325 and an unfurnished flat for the same price. Craig is not that far off.

I tell him my friend has been waiting since the 14th of September that’s seven weeks now for his first payment from the Universal Credit system. He has another ten days to go until his payment will arrive.

The first payment date was delayed by the Welsh fire break which shut down and simultaneously cut off the, one would assume, the automatic payment set up in the five weeks they had before for the 25th of October. The 3rd of November was the second date. Now it’s the 17th of November. Eight weeks with no payments.

Next on my walk along the High Street, I see a young woman sitting outside one of the shops. I saw her yesterday too but I couldn’t go over and chat with her because I was crying. So I went home.

Today, as I approached, another woman was handing a cup of coffee and a paper bag from the bakery to the blonde-haired petite woman. Dressed in a thin red anorak and her legs covered in a blanket, I asked her what she was doing there. She told me her daughter had been taken away from her and she was sleeping on a pal’s sofa. There was good news though, she had been offered a house to move into soon.

I asked her if I could get her something for later, sweet or savoury or both. She said for me to surprise her. I continued up to the far end of the High Street. It was still too early for four of the other regulars. Two hot chocolates with three sugars, one with four and a cup of coffee with three, all made with milk. Stuart’s Bakery does the best value hot drinks at £1.50 each.

There was a new guy called Sean outside the cheap processed food shop I was heading for. I took his order for a coffee with two sugars. He said he was sweet enough as he was. Coffee delivered, we somehow chat about his facial hair — I have no recollection of what else we talked about other than wishing each other a nice day and me amending my hope for him to as much as he could in the circumstances.

I picked up a medium-sized box of chocolate-covered biscuits for Kerry Ann. I wondered whether the box would be too big for her to manage. Turns out she loves biscuits and was happy with the size and having something to share with her pal in the evening. I asked her if she needed something warm to wear. She said that she was fine and had another blanket if need be. We said our goodbyes.

I smile at Craig as I go past him on my way home to my end of the High Street.

Later, on my hike this afternoon I realised that I hadn’t asked Craig why he was sleeping in a church doorway.

I know from speaking with another homeless chap in Dunfermline that he didn’t want to live in the accommodation the council gave him because of the drug users there. He had had a problem with drugs in the past and wanted to avoid temptation. He told me he found a bed at a local church. Inside, I presumed at the time.

So I will ask Craig the next time I see him and hope the night temperatures don’t drop anytime soon.

In the meantime, I will continue my campaigning for Brian here and on Twitter and Facebook. His next — and I hope the last — rent payment is due on Tuesday 10th November.

He still needs our help to keep the roof over his head and put food in his belly.

Brian, Craig, Kerry Ann, and Sean are not the only ones.

Please help Brian via Paypal or drop me a private message for other methods.

This is the best petition I’ve found, addressed to Prime Minister Johnson. Please sign it.

The Guardian, as always, asking the right question.