REHABILITATING THE TRAMP.

Shannon News, 8 April 1924, Page 2

REHABILITATING THE TRAMP.

FREE MEADS AND BATHROOMS.

As an experiment in social welfare the Metropolitan Asylums Board has established a hostel for the rehabilitation of tramps. The hostel, off Gray’s Inn Road, is like a free boardingjiojusc where guests are entertained for a week or so, and provided Avilh facilities for obtaining employment. 4 : There is accommodation for about a hundred men, each of Avhom is provided Avith a little sleeping cabin Which is furnished comfortably, even to a spring bed with good quality sheets and an attractive bed-spread.. In the dining hall the guests gather three times a day for meals at tables, each of Avhich has accommodation for a party of eight or nine, Avhile in the day room ncAvspapers are provided so that the men may keep in touch with advertisements. The hostel has bathrooms, Avith hot aud cold Avater.and a special ablution room Avith basins similarly equipped. N Should a man be taken ill he receives medical attendance and is removed to hospital. The guests’ day commences at 7 a.m. in winter. Then comes a meat bmik. fast, with a pint of cocoa. Dinner at one o’clock consists of eight ounces of freshly-cooked meat, with vegetables and practically unlimited bread. For tea, there is pint of tea, bread, margarine, and cheese. The only restriction on liberty is that men must be in bed by 11 p.m. and smoking is not permitted in their rooms, Avhich'they clean themselves.

The guests are selected by the ward superintendents from men who pass through the casual wards of the board. In this way some hundreds of ‘casuals’ have been given a chance to rehabilitate themselves. One who, having passed through the hostel, supplied the foregoing particulars, writes: “I can never be to.o grateful to the Asylums Board and its officers! for giving me another chance to become a decent member of society. My strength was built up by generous feeding, and now I am in work again.”