Homelessness

Homeless people sleep on the streets and under any roof they can find. They don't have beds due to the lack of money so they have to sleep on the pavement on the streets covered only by newspapers cardboards and if lucky, in a sleeping bag. Winter is the hardest season to survive in for a homeless person due to the cold and snow. Because it's under freezing point, finding shelter is the priority for them, which is usually in a hostel so they have to spend their on money on it.

Many people say that giving money to homeless people will not do any good to them because they are buying drugs out of those money. 80% of the homeless people in the UK were tested for drugs and it turned out positive. 4 out of 10 homeless people say that they are recovering from drug addiction. Also, giving money to homeless people fuels their addiction. Instead of giving them money with which they will most likely by drugs, you should give them something to eat and something to drink. If you don't have something to give them, at least treat them like human beings and say "No, Sorry." while smiling. This shows that you care about them and you are worried but you cannot help at this moment.

Charities are trying to help the homeless people, and 75% of them are only sleeping one night on the streets and then they are taken to a large center where they are given food, drinks and shelter. People who volunteer to help with homelessness have to go on the streets from 8am to 2pm once every 4-6 weeks to look for homeless people and take them to the large temporary centers. In these

Callous - being hard or mean or cold to someone, when you play guitar you get a callous on your fingers

Plight - unfortunate or difficult situation

Patronizing - Making someone feel below you

Unanimous - together

Vociferous - expressing things in a loud or forceful way

Benign - not causing harm or damage

Scour - to search something, clean something really well

Augment - make something better by adding to it

Winter is the worst time to be homeless
Do not give money

The plight of homeless people is even greater in cold seasons!
Lots of the now existant books are trying to explain a situation that is aplied to real life as well, and so does Stone Cold, it shows how a child was left without a place to rest in. The child, Link, was sleeping on the pavement in doorways begging for money from people because he was homeless and besides getting a job which he was unable to do, it was his only choice left. But sleeping on the streets wasn't the bad part, it was the cold weather that he was forced to sleep in with only a sleeping bag. Also the cold weather had made it pretty impossible for him to stay in so he had to rent a place where he could sleep for a few weeks. In real life, the homeless are going to be taken to a refuge where they are fed and offered something to eat and drink. Stone Cold and Reality are not too far apart from each other even though one is a book and the other one is happening right now.

Link was forced to go on the streets.

Sentence:
Subject - Who or What it's all about
Verb - Action, Being
Object
What Where When

Homelessness has increased due to the lack of space and lack of houses, and to the fact that prices are too high and poor people can't afford much. One of the most frequent reason is when private tenancies come to an end and people don't have an alternative but to go on the streets.

Homelessness increased every year and in the last 3 consecutive years it increased by 185,000 homeless people per year. House building is at it's lowest since 1920's. 1 in 10 people experienced homelessness and 1 in 50 people experienced homelessness in the past 5 years.

The housing minister said that strong measures against homelessness are already being applied, they have given people the freedom to rent homeless people private houses and they have provided £ 1 billion to fight against freedom.

"More people are having to be housed in temporary accommodation"
Stone Cold and real life homelessness have tons of similarities since it was based on a true story. But not everything is the same, it has some differences as well. It wasn't;t very hard for LinK to find a place where he could sleep in, like it said in the article. There were lots of place where he could go for accommodation, like the hostel he was in for one week, or the boat where it was war. Also, no one offered Link any place to sleep in, like they say in the article. He had to sleep roughly on the cold pavement of the streets with only a sleeping bag, without anyone coming up to him to offer him break fast and a bed for a night for free. Due to this, the book was trying to make homelessness a lot worst then it actually is.

Genres
Mystery
Crime
Suspense
Realistic Fiction

Theme
Taking care of others

Link vs himself
Link vs shelter
Link vs nature
Link vs society
Link vs poorness

Cold, hunger, friends, no one cared about him, shelter, Vincent - catalyst reason why the story happens, can't trust, treated badly, safety, toilet, hygiene,

Link - love interest,
Ginger - further reinforcing of the theme of the book,
Gail - journalists, nice, she is introduced in the book as a romantic interest and further reinforces the theme of the book,
Shelter - callous, insane, trained to kill, intelligent, organized, ironic name, crazy for organization
Vincent - selfish, mean,
Toya - didn't care about Link, meets Link and ignores him, her dad looking for her,

Conflicts:
1) Link's dad ran off with a receptionist and it mucked up his school life for a bit.
2) Vincent is a mean and selfish person and he changed Link's mom completely.
3) Carole left and that made Link's life with Vincent unbearable.
4) Forced to move on the streets.
5) Accommodation became a problem, he didn't have a place to sleep in.
6) Hunger became a problem, he didn't have enough food and water.
7) Another dosser stole his watch and threatened him.
8) Getting a job was really difficult because he was a homeless.
9) Ginger was lost and he didn't have another friend until Gail.
10) Almost died in the clash with Shelter.

Conflicts always have a resolution.

Plot 101:
Ordinary world,
Disruption,
Rising action,
Climax,
Denumon, - the uniting of the events

Conflicts:
Man vs man - dad kicks link out of the house, moves to Carole's house
Man vs himself - deciding what the right thing to do is, moves on the streets
Man vs society - he is in conflict with the shame of people knowing him, moves to London
Man vs himself - he is ashamed, moves to London
Man vs society - he couldn't get a job, fail
Man vs man - he has to pay in advance, end up on the streets
Man vs society - hops the turner to go to the toilet
Man vs man - watch gets stolen
 - meeting the mentor, ginger
Man vs man - captain hook
Man vs man - link and shelter hunting each other
New ordinary world established - resolution

Mentor - someone who shows the way
Foil - character who goes through the same things as the protagonist but makes different choices

Stone Cold, the book written by Robert Swindells has multiple genres, it is realist fiction because it is giving an example of homelessness which happens in real life, everyday to human beings, who sleep and live on the streets, surrounded by sometimes cold weather, sometimes immense heat. Also, the book has a bit of mystery in it, starting from the point where Ginger was gone, and Link has to find him, together with Gail. They had to find Shelters house, because he was the suspect and in the end they solve the problem and find Ginger, unfortunately dead.

Link - "I decided to move on" he was thinking of others and caring about them
        - he didn't know how to live on the streets properly, naive
        - spent money unnecessarily, naive
        - got kicked out of the rented house, couldn't argue/kind of not smart
        - he bought Ginger fags, he cares about others
        - he fell in love with Gail, he needed affection because he was lonely
        - he got ignored by Toya, he feels lonely
        - he went in Shelter's house, trusting
        - he doesn't know how to survive on the streets, unexperienced
        -  didn't want to hurt anyone, benign

Shelter - kills homeless people, callous
             - doesn't care about other people, callous
             - arranged the dead people in order, organized
             - came from the army, trained to kill
             - he killed cold blooded, insane
             - planned every kill, intelligent
             - Shelter, ironic name
             - he dressed up each dead person, crazy for organization
             - he lied about killing people when they interviewed him, manipulative
             - killed dossiers, he hated disorder

Gail - friends with Link, kind
        - buys Link food, caring
        - shares the money with Link, caring
        - feels sorry for Link and takes care of him, benign
        - wasting money on phone calls, unexperienced
        - she lied about being homeless, not trust worthy
        - she always had good intentions, kind
        - didn't want to hurt anyone, benign
        - thinking about others, thoughtful
        - supported link, supportive

Cold and afraid, on the streets.
In Stone Cold, Link has many attributes, and one of the most important ones is that he is a growing character even though his life gets worse and worse by day. Everyday he is learning new things about how to survive in the streets and what to do in different situations from his mentor, Ginger. He is also improving his relationships with Ginger and Gail as they spend more time together and get to know each other better. It seems like Link is full of negative attributes but he in fact has lots of positives ones as well.