Pearl Maiden is a lady with a mission, writes Emma Suddaby. What she does, and why it’s needed, should concern us all.
Pearl and her best-friend Janet Groves opened Mark’s Pit Stop, a drop-in cafe in Wellington for the homeless and those in need, with the £900 they collected at the funeral of Janet’s son Mark, after he tragically succumbed to a drink and drugs overdose, four years ago.
Pearl’s son also battled with drug addiction, though he fared better than Mark and has been clean for three years now. I went along to meet Pearl at Mark’s Pit Stop, to find out what it’s all about and who goes there.
The KIP Project is a Salvation-Army-run centre in the centre of Wellington. Inside it, for two days a week, lives Marks Pit Stop. There are no facilities for hot food, but they manage just about everything else . . . hot drinks, snacks and more importantly, warmth and company.
KIP was set up to help deal with issues of homelessness, which organisers claimed the local authority, at the time, denied even existed.
Their target was to see 50 people within the first year - but since they had already seen that many by their third month, they proved just how much of an issue homelessness really is in the county.
The project is open three days a week as a drop-in centre, and on Fridays for one-to-one sessions, in which Alan Olver and his team attempt to solve the practical problems of their broken and defeated customers. Mark’s Pit Stop is open inside on Tuesdays and Thursdays 10.30am-1.30pm and no charge is made for the services they provide.
Most of us are lucky enough to have people in our lives that love us enough to catch us when we fall. Not everyone is so blessed.
Two regulars at Mark’s Pit Stop have shared their stories, to give readers a taste of a world with no safety nets and no forgiving relatives waiting, arms outstretched.
People, like you and I. The big difference is that they didn’t have the supportive family and friends that we do, to provide their hand-me-down sheets. They weren’t told by their mums, like we were, how to budget, how to make a shepherd’s pie and what to aim for in life.
They’ve had to find their own way, and to be honest, the fact that they’ve somehow made it this far, and to this place of safety that can guide them on from here, is a credit to their incredible survival instincts.
All the way through my visit, our chats were interrupted with regular calls from Pearl “Can you get the socks from that box for me?” or “Have you give Steven his sandwiches to go away with?”
Mark’s Pit Stop will help anyone in need, supporting them over the hurdles of life. And this is why Pearl is a winner of the Star Woman of the Year award, for climbing out of her own tragedy to help complete strangers’ climb out of theirs.
She’s inspired a whole troupe of volunteers in her wake and they’re all at Mark’s Pit Stop, on Tan Bank, busily buttering toast. So let’s all just take a minute to appreciate our own, thickly-buttered bread.
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Tracey
Tracey grew up in care. When she left she was found a job cleaning and had her own flat when, through no fault of her own, she found herself with two weeks notice to find a new home.
The timescale was impossible and when the two weeks ran out, so did her luck. At first she stayed with a work colleague, then the police provided her with emergency accommodation (a police cell) for one night. When they regurgitated her back on to the streets the next day, she was so terrified of sleeping rough, she’d return to the Police Station, every night, to curl up in the relative safety of their doorway.
She admits she’s fond of alcohol but says drinking makes sleeping rough tolerable, blurs the sharp edges.
Eventually, desperate for change, Tracey contacted IMPACT, an alcohol advisory service, which put her in touch with KIP. Two years on, she’s in her own place, thanks to the local housing trust, enjoying the safety and unaccustomed luxury of her own four walls.
Mark’s Pit Stop provided her with some security and belonging. A routine to cling to through the early days of her recovery. When she first got her flat, Janet got her all the basics, tea, biscuits, toilet rolls etc - everything she’d need to move in.
Once again, Mark’s Pit Stop was there to provide the human touches that aren’t offered by any official schemes. Tracey’s happy for the first time in a long time.
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Phillip
Phillip is 53 now, and has been drinking since he was 21. Seven years ago he was living in a flat but succumbed to his own good nature and began putting up other homeless friends. Eventually the local authority tired of the complaints and evicted him.
He admits he was unable to address his alcohol problem and, seeing no alternative, began living in a tent in local woods. He somehow survived the cold, damp, and marauding drunken teenagers and when Christmas came around, he’d get himself arrested for some misdemeanour and spend the holiday in prison, being fed and looked after, with his own bed to sleep in at night.
He lived like this for over seven years. On his final prison release, fate smiled on him and he was given information about the KIP project. He went along and met them, and the rest is history.
KIP organised a bedsit for him and he’s now sober and taking medication for his alcoholism, and seems to be managing a good recovery.
He thanks prison for saving his life by giving him an annual opportunity to dry out and recuperate from his otherwise chaotic existence.
He’s hoping to start helping as a volunteer in Mark’s Pit Stop, a role he’s been offered as an incentive to remain sober.
He told me he’s writing a book about his life. He’s going to call it “Inside Out” and do you know, I think he’ll do it.
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