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Life

09th Nov 2015

This Man Is Pretending To Be Homeless In Belfast – For a Brilliant Reason

A truly unique endeavour.

Megan Cassidy

Gordon Cruden has no money, no place to stay, no fresh clothes and no food to eat.

The man, who is from North East Scotland originally, is voluntarily homeless.

The 48-year-old is taking part in a 30-day homeless challenge and has already fundraised almost £200,000 for a what is a really unique project.

Gordon

Thus far, slept rough in London, Cardiff, Dublin and now Belfast, in a bid to raise awareness of of the plight of the honeless and to raise funds to purchase a female addiction recovery centre, Benaiah, in the North East of Scotland.

Speaking to Belfast Live, he explained: “I got here on Friday, the response and support from volunteer groups has been amazing and the homeless agencies has been very helpful and supportive of what I’m doing.

“It’s a very small community in Belfast where all the homeless know each other.

“One street worker said Belfast is a tougher animal than other places and I tend to agree with that with it being a smaller community.

“I guess as an ‘incomer’ I’d be easy prey on the street as in bigger cities where no one knows anybody and where homeless people come and go regularly.

“But then, the Belfast community seem to have taken real practical ownership of ‘their’ homeless. I’ve found them to be genuinely kind and loving to the unloved.”

You can donate to Gordon’s campaign by clicking here.