A HOMELESS Christchurch man returned to his meagre belongings to find someone had deliberately urinated over them.

The man, who does not want to be named, returned to his sleeping bag and clothing in the doorway of ShoeZone on Friday to discover them covered in urine say local homeless volunteers.

Zoe Haine, who helps run Christchurch Soup Kitchen and who knows the homeless man said: "It's not an exaggeration to say he was devastated. He thinks it was someone who may have been in a pub and feels it must have been deliberate as it's obvious what the possessions were and that they belonged to someone."

She said the homeless man had often slept in more hidden places for fear of attacks and was now considering retreating into a less visible position.

"It seems to have been someone who's not in that situation who thought nothing of what they were doing and I think that's a really sad attitude," said Zoe. "I know not everyone agrees with people street sleeping and some people think they should be moved on but is this the sort of thing that we want to see? Is this how we want to show our children how to behave? It is so upsetting to see."

She said it was not an isolated incident and that rough sleepers had even been attacked because: "A minority in the community seems to think they are fair game."

Whilst the man's possessions have now been replaced by well-wishers, the attitude of the person who damaged them has been slammed on social media as 'shameful' and 'humiliating'.

However, Zoe stressed that most people were supportive of the soup kitchen's aims. "We know that people who do things like this are in a minority and we are always being offered help," said Zoe.

She said the Christchurch Soup Kitchen offered a 'wash and swap' service for homeless people's sleeping bags and they were always keen to receive gifts of new sleeping bags, plus one-person tents and smaller men's clothing. "For understandable reasons most of the people we help are small and often underweight," she said. "We are always on the lookout for new or nearly-new small-waisted trousers or smaller shirts, T-shirts and coats," she said.

*More information on how to donate

https://csk4thecommunity.wixsite.com/soupkitchen