Bristol is Booming. Sleep on Our Streets. The UK’s Homelessness Crisis Continues.

The gap between rich and poor continues to increase, is there anything we can do about it?

Photo by Chelsey Flood

Bristol has a growing, prosperous economy, but this prosperity doesn’t extend to its most vulnerable residents.

Sunday morning in Bristol, England. White sky with bright patches. The city sleeps, streets empty, shops shut.

By Cabot Circus, one of the city’s malls, security guards crowd together in high-vis. A man lies on the pavement, face to the sky.

“Is he dead?” I blurt, accidentally.

The man’s eyes flicker. His nose is crusted, mouth open. Around my age, white, wearing a parka. Spice, I think.

“He’s breathing,” a security guard says. “Just on another planet.”

“Is an ambulance coming?” I ask. He nods, hands in his pockets, and I walk on. What else can I do?

The city centre is empty and silent except for the occasional herring gull. A serviette drifts by on icy wind and a man scurries past, arguing with himself.