Outside the New Bailey £12million NCP multi-storey car park, near the spot where homeless Daniel Smith was murdered a year ago, a remembrance service was held tonight for those who have lived on the streets of Salford and Manchester and died in the process.
As well as candles for Daniel, there were candles for Macca, a homeless man who died last week after suffering a heart attack; but with no phone, no home and nowhere to seek help.
Prayers were said, memories recounted and it was made clear that Daniel and others were `victims of our times'.
"Daniel won't be forgotten and neither will the other people who have died in Salford and Manchester" said Angela `Penny' Barratt of Salford and Manchester Street Support "It's an ongoing, really urgent situation. Children are coming on the streets, week in week out, and the numbers are growing to the point where you couldn't even do an official count.
"People have a duty of care to stop these kids dying on the streets" she added "The money that's being spent is clearly not working. They need to stop selling our land and forcing us out. We've got enough empty commercial buildings to solve homelessness altogether. Pendleton House in Salford could be turned into one bedroom flats for people but instead it's being sold."
Tonight's makeshift shrine to the departed homeless shone in the shadow of obscene wealth splurged by the financial muscle of Legal and General and Muse Developments, backed by Salford City Council obsequiousness.
Here in re-branded New Baileyland, new office blocks, hotels and unaffordable apartments are filling the freshly sterilized landscape. But screwed onto a wall is a plaque as a reminder of the `victims of our times'... `Daniel we will never forget you...'
* See also previous Salford Star article: Salford Homeless Man's Murder Highlights City Inequality - click here
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