"Enough is enough" is commonly spoken, along with "Enough is as good as a feast" ... but what does it really mean?
Well, the feast story is for another post ... this one is about shelter and how human beings in 2017 England (and other similar countries and cultures) have moved so far from simple shelter, which is to say dry, warm, safe ... plus the taken for granted wonders of clean water from the tap, foul water piped away, electricity at the flick of a switch, gas on tap (or in bottles) ...
Of course the needs of humans change from time to time ... as babies and children we need a nest, like the birds, with some assistance to flourish from parents or surrogate parents ... as fledglings we may fly the nest ... perhaps human parents might learn from the birds and shove us out at the appropriate time ... as young adults all sorts of rudimentary shelter may suffice .... tents, hostels and depending on the weather, the open air ... then, with children of our own, if we have the luck of that, a new nest is needed to nurture them ... and when they have flown, a return to simplicity is possible .... though more likely an attachment to comfort has shifted our level of need/want ... towards the end, the need for shelter includes, perhaps, care or nursing ... this evolved from a family responsibility to a government one ... believe it or not, in contemporary DUK, an elder coming to the attention of agencies of the state, typically going to hospital and assessed as incapable of safely living at home, is offered options of residential or nursing "homes" ... institutions once run by local authorities as well as charities and private business, have mostly taken over the family role ... for obvious reasons, such as geographical dispersal, busy adult children and maybe a shift in personal and family attitudes as a result of the otherwise laudable Welfare State ... which, having performed heroically in health and social care since its inception over 50 years ago, has degenerated as all things tend to do ... having struggled to keep up with the demographics of the baby boom, rising expectations, technical possibilities (new hips, knees etc) .... all of which has diverted us from the shelter theme, since, of course, everything is interconnected and a whole systems approach would integrate housing, health, social care and everything else ... hard to do in our reductionist reality!
Housing in DUK has moved a long way from its initial role as shelter, of course ... on the idyllic terrace in Stanhope only one is owner occupied .... that's nonagenarian Tommy at no.6 ... no.7, sometime base for A Place to Be and shelter for the blogger, is for sale, as Sunderland based owners seek to decrease their debts to the Bank; nos.5, 2 and one are owned by the landlady who very occasionally stays at the otherwise empty detached house nearby, and rents them out; no.3, first abode and vacated after financial shortfall in 2006, now second home to Hartlepool based family; no.4, current dwelling, owned by friends pondering relocation to Spain or Portugal and currently renting in Valencia ... houses as business, separated from primary purpose and great driver of Great Crash of 2008 .... new models required .... co-housing ....
Bringing all this conceptual rambling to the experience of the writer: this life, having begun in a cottage hospital (that's a much loved kind of local hospital, where the high tech and very clever consultants, typical of the huge illness factories favoured by privateers are less important than compassion ...) continued in a tied cottage on the country estate where Dad worked as a carpenter, earning just enough to feed four children without Mum going out to work (as if she didn't have enough to do) ... aged 5 we moved to a smallholding, financed by gifts and loans from family and a mortgage from the previous owner (if memory is correct) ... and Dad's workload increased to setting up his own business as a builder and looking after cows, pigs, chicken and a large vegetable garden ... no wonder he was occasionally irascible, as well as embracing the ethic of hard work as a good thing in itself ... a concept absent from this writer who has somehow survived by doing just enough to earn a crust, whilst opening space and time for relaxation .... flying from the nest aged 17, the next shelter was a staff hotel room in Aberfeldy, where food was also provided in return for serving the guests, who were not so many in the winter period ... then, before the work got busy, taking off on a road trip round Spain, Morocco, France and Germany ... sleeping in small hotels, hostels and sometimes alfresco ... before other live-in jobs in Andorra and London ... then student accommodation ... hostels and digs .... shared flats, squats, co-habitation with various lovers, house co-ownership (an illusion, since the "co" included the Bank, who really owned it and, as later optimistic mortgage slaves discovered, is quick to evict if payments slacken off .... ) let go with little sense of attachment (twice) ... renting small cottages .... house-sitting a grand and crumbling villa in Spain ...
Which is to say: Not really convinced of any model with a sense of permanence and, anticipating the resources to secure some shelter, thanks to the childhood smallholding finally harvesting houses, some options .... hence the Retreat House, as a service to others and maybe offering a small room for the writer/walker/social-entrepreneur/other role yet to be revealed ... let's see!
Meanwhile, having found shelter at three of the seven cottages on Wear Terrace, by the river in Stanhope (which feels more like home than anywhere else at present), the third bid for the free and homeless life starts on the 10th June, with a trip to Totnes and some market research, a month in Torreguadiaro helping Susie with her six dogs, as she helps her friend with the 80 in the rescue centre at Ronda .... back to Brockwood in July for a working week ... then ... who knows? Perhaps a walk ... as the Retreat House in Stanhope bears fruit in Autumn .... maybe ... if "Home is where the Heart is", Stanhope has as much chance as anywhere ....
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