“I am speaking from personal experience as a homeless hostel was opened next door to my home,you dont know what a nightmare this is until it happens to you,bear in mind this is a residential house and neighbours all along the terrace have young children apart from afew vunerable old people who live alone,firstly we saw the homeless residents staggering around ouside one in underpants at the front of the house(seperate incident), we have seen one of them badly beaten up and been taken away in an ambulance, they regurlally go in thier garden and drink super strenght cider and the like,but worse was to come one day my young son and I were getting ready to go out and heard a rucus as I looked outside I couldnt belive what I saw there must have been 25 police officers including detectives and forensics they had to batter the door down and they arrested one of the homeless men this went on for hours and eventually I saw them take bags of evidence out which some was computer equipment (guess what I was thinking) this was terrifying in itself and I was sure this man would not be allowed back to live there and thought he hadnt until we saw him about two weeks later staggering around, then one evening about 11.30 we heard banging at the door I peeped out and my stomach went it was him and he was not giving up banging on our window then realising we had a bell ringing this also( woke my eleven year old up on a school night)Thank god my husband was there as he sometimes is away with work so he answered as it was clear he was not giving up until we did, the man was stinking of alcohol and demanded that we tell him if we had complained about him to the people who were supposed to run the house (we had not)to scared of repercussions and even if we had what would he have done if we told him we dont have death wishes, he was about 6.3 and of huge build with a gruff menacing voice behind him was a small meek looking man who said I told him not to knock he didnt explain himself but I assume he was a staff member of the homeless organisation, he eventually left our front door and continued to argue with the small man outside for a while then went inside and pobably passed out as it went quiet, but you never know that is the scary thing what if he wakes up and decides to come back round and attack us ,he eventually moved on and we never knew what he did or what was on those computers as when I phoned the poice they would tell me nothing ( this brute has to be protected that is the law) never mind us fearing for our children and our safety,Just recently we have new people in the hostel within 3 days of them moving in one of our other neighbours had a valuble motorcycle stolen so we had the police at the door asking if we had seen anything I had not to be fair, but on talking to my husband he said he had heard them coming in very late and making noise on the night the robbery occured so who knows two days after the theft of the bike I was in my kitchen which backs on to my garden and I saw two of them in the garden 1.00 in the afternoon drinking super strenght cider then I ducked back further in to my kitchen as I saw one of them put a garden chair next to thier wall and stand on it he then proceeded to lean across in to my garden and look in to my house with his mate holding his legs so he could see as far as possible this went on for about 4 or 5 mins then they went in to the alleyway that backs on to out houses and took the chair and one of them proceeded to climb a tree (this was a real skill because the back wall of the alleyway has broken glass cemented in the wall )he then was able to see in to my sitting room and the middle and back bedroom which he did for a good 3 mins I cant think of any other reasons for doing this other than wanting to see if we had anything worth stealing, and there was me hiding in my own home I dont know what to do for the best tell the police (they havent actually broken in or even tresspassed) Th”

“Why do people always feel they are in a position to judge others when they don't even live in Southborough. After all if it's in Southborough, it won't be in their own backyard! What happened to Night Stop on the edge of the Industrial Estate. It was away from all our communities, and appeared to work well. Why are the Wayfarers Project not looking into reopening that?”

“Well said Michael of Southborough. To add a few hard statistics, "81% of homeless people are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Heroin is top followed by alchohol." (CRISIS report Home and Dry? 2002.) Does anyone honestly think that this figure (seriously) has got LOWER? In a perfect world nobody would be living on the streets, however the world is not perfect, and neither is this horrific proposal.
The nimbys would appear to work in TWBC planning office - maybe Hester does too. Would she want her children to be going to school at the same time as these people (8pm to 8am) are being returned to the streets of Southborough?
Let's keep it real here, this is about allowing people to go about their daily lives in our little Town without fearing for their well-being, and NOT silly Warwick Park Road Park style sectarrianism.”

“Does anyone know the latest on the proposed plans for the homeless shelter? Is Vale Road still a consideration, despite the opposition to the idea?”

“So Michael, as long as you are ok, and the homeless problem is not yours, (lucky you to have a paid up mortgage, and secure job) that's ok then. pls re-read my post, i did not say all single mothers are on benefit, just the pregnant vocal one who was objecting at the meeting.”

“It is a great pity that many people posting these comments know so little about the facts or choose to ignore them. How ridiculous to assume that single mothers live off the state when plenty of them work full time to look after their families. It is offensive to imply that objectors do not have christian values when the issue is not religion but helping other human beings. Of course we all want to help them but the question is whether this is the best way or the best location. Finally, it's easy to be a 'nimby' caller if you don't even live in the area.”

“I suggest that the Southborough parents consider how they would hope such shelters existed for their own children in the furture, should they become homeless.
How sad that the voice of the local catholic community also has a 'not in my backyard' attitude-surely, there is a rub between christian ideology and closing the door on an initative that would make life just a little more tolerable for these vunerable people.
Thank goodness the methodist community are truly representing christian values and living by their faith.”

“Matthew 7: v1... "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you....'
Please lets open our eyes, lets see beneath the grime, past the fear, lets see our hurting brother and sister beneath. Lets give this a chance, lets find a way or we will all be condemned for not trying”

“All of us, are only a few mortgage/rent payments away from being homeless. So some compasion is needed here, The single mother in vale rd, sould remember that if it were not for the taxpayer paying housing benifit, she and her kids would be homeless too.”