A Homeless’ Lament
"In shadows deep, where city lights don’t reach,
I wander the streets, a life without a speech.
No roof to shield me, no bed to warm my bones,
Just endless nights on unforgiving stones.

Once I had a name, a place to call my own,
Now I drift unknown, like leaves wind-blown.
A face in crowds that never see my plight,
Invisible by day and lost by night.

The world moves on, with haste and hurried pace,
As I am swept aside, without a trace.
Yet, in my heart, a stubborn ember glows,
For dreams long faded, and love once known.

A weary soul beneath the autumn skies,
My life unfolds in quiet, unheard sighs.
A home is but a memory, faint and torn,
And hope, like warmth, feels foreign and forlorn."
Malmö, October 2024

An Audience Granted with Cleopatra
That Cleopatra would grant an audience to a poor homeless soul isn't so far-fetched, not due to any excessive social goodwill, but because charity used to be an essential element in a monarch's exercise of power. This historical context of charity, where illusions mattered in an era dominated by destitute citizens, sheds light on the evolution of societal structures. There was no middle class; graphically, the upper class consisted of a few hundred stones at the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which held 2.3 million blocks—one for each subject. Of course, allowing every citizen entry to the ruler's palace was impossible, but part of the performance was letting one or another occasionally catch a glimpse. Otherwise, people had to settle to admire their ruler from a respectful distance, as the Pharaoh, the demigod, cast gold coins on the crowd. This system continued for thousands of years, and in Rome, the practice of the so-called "cast coin" prevented the mob from revolting and killing the emperor.

Homelessness in today's sense wasn't a concept then, as a large portion of the population lived hand-to-mouth, under the mercy of someone. This societal structure, where one could be a servant or maid, granted a place to sleep and food in exchange for hard labour, shaped the perceptions of homelessness. It was not seen as a societal issue but as a norm, a part of the social fabric.

A modern monarch granting an audience to a homeless person is unheard of. Today, monarchs are more ornamental and only grant audiences to the established elite to bestow a medal or honour. Instead, it is in the borderlands between dream and reality where the occasional Time Traveller can give yesterday's society a chance for humanitarian symbolism. And so, it happened that Cleopatra and a homeless traveller traversed time and space so that Pharaoh could display her palace, hidden under the desert sands behind Alexandria for millennia.

Homelessness can strike anyone. With today's housing shortage in many countries, it has become harder for people to find and keep a home. This societal challenge of homelessness, a situation where a person lacks stable housing in a society where having a home is the norm, is more complex than it seems. The definition of homelessness varies from country to country. Different definitions encompass people lacking a roof over their heads or those with temporary accommodations that do not equate to proper housing. Homelessness is most common in large cities and their suburbs. Having a place to live is a human right, and a UN strategy 1990 describes states' responsibility to address their citizens' housing needs and the right for citizens to expect such action.

Housing shortages are one of our time's biggest challenges. Society must support individuals in asserting their right to housing and tackling the structural causes of homelessness. Nowadays, obtaining your own home is a demanding process. Large groups lack high enough incomes or a flawless financial record for a rental contract, and buying a home is equally out of reach. They are entirely excluded from the current housing market. If they aren't considered to have social issues like addiction or mental health issues, they are classified as "structurally homeless" and receive no help from society. A payment remark is a significant obstacle, which, combined with other issues, can shut someone out of housing.

Lacking a home creates additional problems. It makes it harder to find work, pursue education, raise children with stability, and maintain friendships. Only when all people have housing can we realize the vision of a more humane society—for everyone.

There are many causes of homelessness. Divorce, being fired, or a company downsizing can result in homelessness, as can addiction, family violence, mental illness, or a severe accident, fire, or natural disaster. A lack of affordable housing and long-term poverty are common causes. Poverty is the common thread in most causes of homelessness. Many who are homeless have been poor for a long time, only to lose their income or carry previous debts—something landlords generally avoid in tenants. Others were once better off but ended up poor and homeless due to bad decisions or changing circumstances. A significant group is asylum seekers or migrants, who often struggle to access the job market and thus seem less appealing as tenants.

Being different and not fitting in is another disadvantage in today's streamlined society. Yesterday's eccentrics are now simply inconveniences. Put it bluntly, it's enough to look different or lack charm. Searching for housing is much like applying for a job. It would be best to keep up your appearance; today's property owners want no tenant problems. The surplus of rundown houses from the 1960s, where anyone could get a demolition contract, is a thing of the past. Luxury-renovated apartments have long replaced those homes, and real estate companies operate on key performance indicators, not heart.

The so-called "bag lady" in this scene is deliberately provocative, for it's rare to see a woman pushing a cart full of belongings from the upscale grocery chain Waitrose, especially when the cart's contents hint at a glorious past filled with shopping habits from elite retailers like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly. The latest issue of *Vogue* suggests her dreams are still alive. Her mini-library tells of an educated woman studying sociology and classical myths. Therefore, her fall from grace is unusually high, though not unheard of.

Fifty-six-year-old Helen McFarley didn't abuse drink or drugs, and she always paid her bills, but now she sleeps in a homeless shelter alone after her landlord sold her rented family home on the private market. Her personal story, one of an ordinary woman who faced extraordinary circumstances, is a stark reminder of the human side of homelessness. She was ordinary but, on a higher level, married to a man with a stable job and a good profession—until one day, everything fell apart. First, her husband died, and it turned out he had left massive gambling debts. The estate ended up in the red. Helen had worked part-time off and on, lacking a stable income. The timing was terrible since such jobs were scarce post-Brexit. Living with them were their daughter and granddaughter, whose lives had been turned upside down by divorce.

Helen's plunge into homelessness, which separated her from her daughter and grandchild and sent them to emergency shelters, has been a horrible, heartbreaking experience. After staying in a hotel room until the money ran out, Helen has spent the past six months at a London-based charity's temporary emergency accommodation centre, where house rules, like those in her daughter's family shelter, don't allow visits.

Fighting back tears on a bench in Kensington Gardens, clutching her grandchild's teddy bear, Helen said, "I have nowhere to meet my grandchildren, so now we meet on the street corners of ultra-fashionable Notting Hill, where I once lived. It's devastating."

"Homelessness," Helen warns, "can happen to anyone. It happened to me. People don't realize it. Until it happens, you think, 'This won't happen to me. I'm happily married, and my husband has a good job, so why worry?' I used to think, 'Definitely not me; why would it knock on my door?' You believe you have everything, not recognizing how fleeting life is. We had friends. They vanished after the funeral when they realized the widow was penniless. Both my parents are dead, and I have no siblings. I feel like the loneliest person on Earth." Her story is hard not to be moved by.

"A shortage of one-bedroom units has made exits from homelessness extraordinarily difficult, blocking access to emergency accommodation by single adults like me who are stuck too long in the temporary system," she continued. Despite her ordeal, Helen hopes she will one day "be able to cook for my grandchild and be a meaningful part of her and my daughter's lives."

Helen could tell me her story because she froze to death the previous winter. The climate crisis is playing tricks on humanity; as temperatures rise on average, extreme weather becomes more frequent. Record cold nights in London took Helen's life. Newly arrived among the stars, she was finally granted her own star, her first home in many years. Such is the irony of eternity. Re-visiting Earth, Helen found her old cart and recreated it for her audience with Cleopatra. In the afterlife, there is a kind of equality; no one is better than anyone else, though the customs remain. Helen had met Cleopatra by chance due to shared interests. In her youth, Helen had studied art history and especially admired the richly decorated tombs of the ancient pharaohs. Cleopatra was one of the speakers at a seminar on Sirius. Imagine there were 200 pharaohs from Egypt's First Dynasty (circa 3100 BCE) to its last, Cleopatra, who died in 30 BCE. Helen and Cleopatra bonded as women, finding plenty to talk about, and eventually, the female Pharaoh offered to show her grand palace, hidden under the desert sands. That was an offer one doesn't refuse.

“Meet you on Earth, dear!” said Cleopatra.

"What should I wear?" asked Helen.

"Come as you were accustomed to on Earth," Cleopatra replied unsuspectingly.