“They must have made poor choices in their lives, and that’s why they’re in the situation they’re in now… Don’t give any of your money to a homeless person, they’ll just spend it on drugs or alcohol. People on welfare have it so good… I wish I could take advantage of the system like they do. Must be nice to sit around all day doing nothing and get paid by the government to do it.”
This quote, published by Brock Press, is part of an article describing the stigma and prejudice that comes from being homeless. According to End Homelessness, on any given night there are 564,708 homeless Americans sleeping on the street, in a shelter, or using a transitional housing program.
As Brock Press described, these homeless individuals often get a bad rap. But one homeless man in England is helping to change that stigma— one good deed at a time.
When Daisy Owens, a 20-year-old from England, lost her bag during a night out with friends, she didn’t have much hope that it would be returned to her.
At best, she figured people would ignore it; at worst, it would be pillaged for the items inside— her purse, cash, and her almost $400 iPhone.
What she did not expect, was that it would be found by a kindhearted homeless man named Paul Calderbank who would work tirelessly to return it to its rightful owner.
After finding the bag and purse, Paul roamed the streets for 2 full days, trying to find who the items belonged to.
He didn’t want police to see him because he knew they would assume he stole it. He also didn’t want to get his street friends involved, because they would attempt to convince him to steal the cash and sell the items.
In a note, which was uploaded to Daisy’s Facebook, Paul describes his motivations behind wanting to return the items. “I am an honest person now.”
“I want to locate the true owner and personally hand all her belongings back to her… To me, it feels so good to do the right thing.”
Paul planned to walk to the address written on the ID to return the bag to Daisy, but along the way, he decided to ask people who looked her age if they happened to know her.
By random luck, Paul ran into people who DID know Daisy. They messaged her on Facebook and arranged for the two to meet.
Daisy was shocked by Paul’s kindness, posting the story online and even starting a GoFundMe called “Get Paul a Home” for the homeless man.
On the GoFundMe page, she writes, “Please donate for some money towards Paul getting a deposit on a flat, some real food in his stomach and to help him get off the streets!”
Since creating the page, Daisy has surpassed her goal FOUR TIMES, having raised a total of £3,216 (the equivalent of approximately $4,200 USD) to date.
Considering their original goal was only £500, it’s a pretty amazing feat.
On the GoFundMe page, Daisy writes, “[Paul] is homeless and currently living in a hostel yet still didn’t take A PENNY out of [my purse].
There needs to be more people like this in the world. ❤️”
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