For some guests at London City Mission’s Webber Street day centre, near Waterloo, rehabilitation and restoration is a life-long journey. This is Josef ’s story.
Ten years ago, during the winter that Josef slept on the streets of London, the only way he could find reprieve from the biting cold was by sleeping on the vents that blow warm air out from the Underground.
He came down to London from Scotland as a young man in 1976. London was the place of opportunity, so he took on cash-in-hand labouring jobs. He got a flat in Russell Square, found a partner and settled down. Life was going well, but it all came crashing down when his partner died. ‘When she died, I went downhill, I started drinking again,’ he says. ‘I fell behind on my rent and eventually got evicted to live on the streets.’
