A homeless man has shared how he managed to keep his morale high despite losing his job and living on the streets.
Anthony Denton, 60, lost his job as a carer in Northwood, London, following a dispute with his employer in 2022. The devastating loss saw him suddenly spiral into an unaffordable living situation, with him unable to pay his rent.
The carer became homeless, but luckily received support from the Macari Centre in Stoke-on-Trent. He has been living there since 2022. Anthony has family back in London, but said life in the city includes “kids roaming about with zombie knives”.
He has since secured work and hopes to save enough money to rent his own place at some point. Speaking about the struggles he faced, Anthony said: “I moved to Stoke around four years ago. I was born in Jamaica, then moved to South London. I’ve lived in Brixton, Battersea, New Cross, you name it. But you didn’t get any nature there. Here you’re not too far from green, from water. Here I can go and walk down the canal. You can sit in the park and relax, nobody bothers you.
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Anthony Denton has lived at the Macari Centre for around 18 months
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Image:
Pete Stonier / Stoke Sentinel)
“When I got to Stoke, I lived in Shelton at first. The woman I was renting a room from was actually a housing officer, so she managed to sort me out with a bungalow in Northwood. I lived there until I lost my job. I ended up getting dismissed when the company thought I was doing work elsewhere. I was doing some work for another client, and they thought it was a conflict of interest. I couldn’t pay my rent after that. A month later, I had nowhere to go.”
Although Anthony was still in regular contact with his family in South London, he felt going back wasn’t an option, reports Stoke-On-Trent. He explained: “When I got kicked out, my family were telling me to go back down to London. But I only have a little bit of money, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive down there. If you haven’t got money, you can’t get a job. If you haven’t got a job, you can’t get money. I’ve still got family in London. When I go down to visit, you see all sorts. Gangs of kids roaming about with zombie knives, lots of horrible stuff. But you don’t get that in Stoke. It’s the right kind of people here.”
Since being taken in by the Macari Centre, Anthony has been able to secure new work and is now looking forward to a future enjoying Staffordshire’s greener pastures. He said: “Living here is a bloody godsend, to be honest. Some people complain about it, but I don’t what their issue is to be honest – they could have a lot worse, believe me. I want to move on eventually, of course, but it’s a nice life.
“Some of the families that I used to work for contacted the social services. Now I do a few calls a week. I’m a part-time personal assistant. I look after a young lad for one or two hours, about three times a week. I’m happy for it. It keeps me ticking over, gets me out and about. Then it lets me save to get my own place.
“I feel good about the future. If you don’t, you won’t have a good time, will you? Every year is better than last year. Even the year I got made homeless, it was still better than the year before. It was a new beginning. Next year, who knows where I’ll be? I’d like to rent a house in Barlaston by the canal or find myself a little narrowboat.”