A weekly programme which focuses on people and the situations which shape their lives.
Reporters Jeremy James, Jeanne La Chard, John Pitman, Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson
This week: No Room at the Doss-house
Over 8,000 men sleep rough in London on park benches, in derelict houses and railway sidings. No one knows the total for the whole country; how many will spend Christmas alone this year, out of doors?
These men weren't born homeless. Many of them had good jobs, a home and a family and they thought they were secure. Ending up jobless, without a roof and alone, is a gradual process, but those who've dropped to the bottom rung on the ladder say you get there almost before you know it-once things really start to go wrong.
Harold Williamson talks to men who admit they brought it all on themselves; some who are trying to fight their way back and others who've accepted life on the doss-house circuit at a time when hostels for homeless men are fast disappearing in property development schemes.
(Colour)