Meet Melanie...
She's nine years old and homeless. Melanie and her family were evicted from their house in Denby in January. She now lives with her mum, dad and two siblings at a shelter near Mold in North Wales.
Melanie has written a blog post for us:
"Hi. My name's Melanie, I'm nearly ten years old and I live in Plas Bellin. Well Plas Bellin is all about the homeless really. We became evicted from our home in Denby because the landlord wanted to sell the house. We had nowhere to go and so Social Services brought us here.
I just like it. I've got new friends and the staff are quite nice to you. They can be strict, but they keep you safe.
My best friend Molly lives here. We became best friends as soon as we met. Her mum sometimes takes us to the fair and lets us have MacDonalds. Molly's from Liverpool and she has been teaching me how to speak "scouse", which is quite tricky actually.
And we do something called "sessions" , which I really like. I do singing and dancing, I love ballet and tap and disco. And we do drama and art and I even play football. I'm a bit of a tomboy and a girlie girl as well.
I go to a local school. My friends there think I'm a bit weird. They know I'm homeless and I think they feel sorry for me and they think it's really weird we can't keep pets here. I think it's weird too. And some of the kids don't like me coz I live here.
When I grow up I'd like a nice big house with lots of space and lots of games and where my mum is allowed to have a glass of wine. You can't have a glass of wine if you live here. But, like, on Christmas Eve she'd really like one.
But you can't live here in Plas Bellin all your life, and I dont think that's fair. I am quite scared about that. I don't know where we will go next. We'll get kicked off here soon and I dont know where we'll live. I'm worried me and my brothers will have to be put in care and my mum and dad will live on the streets. They tell me that wont happen, but it still frightens me. I never want to be apart from my mum. I love my mum.
I have two brothers here. One is fifteen. Simon is eight and he's just like me really. He's a nice brother. He doesn't like the singing and dancing sessions though or drama. Thinking about it, he doesn't like any of the sessions, except football. I love him as a brother, but I wouldn't choose him as a friend. He winds me up. But he is very kind inside and he does love me. He'd never, ever, admit it though".
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~19~RS~)
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hi victoria i think this is a great subject your discussing with regards to young melanie and her family being homeless she seems a great kid who who is very level headed my advice to melanie is to allways believe in her ability and do her best regardless of where she is liveing as long as she has a bond with her mum and brothers thats all that matters its never nice loseing your home but we live in a great country and have many things folk in the third world can only dream we have free health service and a welfare system which helps people who need it as long melanie has a roof on her head and the love of her family that is all that matters the world is her oyster she can do and be anything she wants in life if she puts her heart and soul in to it the main thing is she enjoys what she wants to do and has a passion and love for it but not to forget where she came from and keep her feet on the ground and stay level headed when she makes something of her life one day which i am convinced she will good luck to you and your family melanie you seem a great kid
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When you conclude that the only worthwhile system for living is capitalism, you accept that there will be winners and losers. Sadly,the likes of Melanie and her family are included amongst the losers in a profit obsessed and driven capitalist society in which the economy itself is regarded as more important than individuals.Programmes such as yours could do more to highlight the fact that Governments such as ours, willing to see people like Melanie and her family suffer whilst doing little to discourage the excesses of dishonest bankers and even more dishonest MPs etc are illustrations of the lack of caring,lack of morals and lack of standards that the inevitable a capitalist system engenders. We badly need leaders in this country who genuinely care and can lead the rest of us into becoming a caring society rather than one built around our individual and collective greed.
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I'm pleased to hear that Melanie and her family are housed via Save the Family. In my opinion there should be many more schemes of this nature to help people in similar circumstances, due to a combined reasons such as; Current economic climate, lack of timely information available to prevent eviction/homelessness, lack of Local Authority scoial housing due to huge reductions in same because of Right to buy and restrictions on building new homes with the funds, increased numbers of evictions due to anti-social behaviour and the general lack of care and independant assistance for families facing this situation. Forty years after Cathy come home we are still seeing homelessness at levels which are preventable in many cases if advice were available - it's shocking!
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