IT was just about 11 o’clock on Tuesday morning when I passed by the five-in-a-row.

They were lying on the “beds” on Prince Street, just a few feet from the corner of Frederick Street.

The street dormitory, ironically, ran alongside the building which housed a souvenir shop; a regular stop for tourists in town.

The person lying closest to the camera was a woman.

Her right eye was swollen and runny.

She, more than the others, smelt of human filth.

Could she have been another HIV victim left to die on the streets, as many others before her?

Well, nobody obviously cares.

Instead, the average passer-by would cuss and complain -- as I heard a few say while I stopped to take the photos, instead of looking on them with compassion.

“They still sleeping at this hour of the morning!” one angry woman observed as she skirted by the dormitory, especially after getting a whiff of human filth that assaulted her nostrils.

But nobody would check that nights, for most vagrants on the streets, are a terrible time.

These folks usually stay awake at nights to protect themselves from rape, robbery and just being taken advantage of.

So they have to sleep during the day.

And when businesses are open and the alleys are busy they have no choice but to take a rest on the pavement until they get going again to scrounge around for food.

Or wait for the night time for their only meal when Alyson Hennessey and her sister, Roses, and some other good souls come around feeding them something.

None of these people are healthy simply for having to sleep on cardboard on the streets.

But people are not likely to extend care beyond handing out some food from a distance.

Are there people compassionate enough to want to physically treat with these folks?

Are there kind doctors who will form a group and work the streets and treat real diseases, rather than sit in their offices and make money from folks who visit them with colds and flu?

Can you imagine what it’s like for the street dwellers when it rains all night, non-stop, as it did last weekend?

Man, if you have a little leak in your roof you may go around the place grumbling.

Just think of the horrors of the street dwellers and consider yourself blessed.

Hopefully too, the leaders of this nation, will pull the veil from off their eyes and know that this is the reality which people saw on the streets visitors and locals and by which we assess the quality of living.

But, it is truly better for them to turn a blind eye to how the society is rotting at the core.
Somebody needs to throw off the jacket and tie or high heels and fancy dress and walk the streets as an ordinary citizen.

Hopefully, that will change their perspective.