Meet the couple who gave away their two houses to help people in homelessness: ‘It’s satisfying’

A Swansea couple have said they hope their “unusual” donation of giving two houses to a homelessness charity will make “people think”.

Chris and Valerie Norris have given two four-bedroom properties to The Wallich so they can house people caught up in Wales’ housing crisis.

The pair decided to make the gesture after meeting on a dating website nine years ago.

They initially leased the homes to the charity before deciding to hand them over to The Wallich, who will use them as part of their Alternative to Bed and Breakfast Accommodation (ABBA) scheme.

Valerie, 71, a retired materials engineer and novelist, told the Big Issue she hoped others would follow herself and retired philosophy professor and poet Chris in offering up homes to people who need them. The idea to use their homes to fight homelessness has already had a “phenomenal” impact, the couple said.

“Just a few months ago, the leases came up for renewal and we thought: ‘What are we messing about for? When we die we’re going to leave these houses to them in our will so why not just give them to them now?’” said Valerie.

“It doesn’t have to be a gesture as big as this but we, and The Wallich, are hoping that it will stimulate people to think along those lines. We’ve had people stopping us in the street saying: ‘Oh yeah, I saw you.’ We’ve both had people that we haven’t spoken to for years who have come out of the woodwork. It’s making people think.”

The couple have a strong and passionate track record of encouraging social good.

Chris has a long history of supporting causes, notably singing and raising money with socialist choir Côr Cochion, hosting an asylum seeker and supporting English teaching.

Valerie has been an active volunteer with Cruse Bereavement Support for 21 years and currently works on the helpline.

The pair, who describe themselves as ‘financially comfortable’ rather than wealthy, turned their attention to the housing crisis after moving in together and realising they no longer needed their previous homes.

Like the rest of the UK, Wales has seen the number of people experiencing homelessness increase in recent years. One in every 215 households in the country live in temporary accommodation, including 3,000 children.

The Wallich said that there is a shortage of properties for temporary accommodation across Wales.

That’s why the charity launched the ABBA scheme to house people in emergency need in Swansea, allowing residents to stay for a short time before being moved into more permanent accommodation.

Mike Bobbett, a director at the homelessness charity, said, “A donation of one house for people supported by The Wallich is huge – a donation of two houses is extraordinary. Valerie and Chris are brilliant. They care about people, and they are shining examples of the kindness of people in the world. We’re overwhelmed by their generosity.

“With more than 11,000 people living in temporary accommodation in Wales, and few places to move people into long term, meeting the community’s basic needs is becoming more challenging. We will continue to work with the local authority, agencies in Swansea and people on the streets to make sure this resource is fully utilised.

“Valerie and Chris are shining examples of the good in people and we hope their donation will inspire to use what they have to end homelessness in Wales.”

Chris told the Big Issue that knowing the houses are going to a good cause was “satisfying” while giving the charity the freedom to use them as they saw fit was a necessary step.

“When we went to the solicitors to make all this legal and contractually all right and proper, he said, ‘It’s very unusual this, you know? It’s very difficult in a way.’ The whole business world is not geared up for this, it’s transactional,” he said.

He added: “It’s satisfying. Actually handing the houses over to them means they can make plans for accommodating as many people as possible. They can rejig the rooms to all kinds of fairly extensive external stuff, which they might have needed to go through the motions of asking our approval before, which would not have been needed actually. But it is far better for them to have a free hand in developing them as they wish.”

Former academic Chris told the Big Issue he has been published in a number of 40 academic books as well as poetry collections and lots of poems in journals.

When approached by the Big Issue to tell his story, he revealed that he had been working on a poem about homelessness. Read it below.

“I got the idea from personal experience. I did pass someone when I only had a card with me,” the poet said about his inspiration. “I was thinking that he was going to be thinking: ‘That’s what they all say nowadays’ and some people are using it as an excuse, no doubt. I felt acutely awkward so I thought I’d write about it.”

‘Sorry Mate, all Plastic Nowadays’ by Chris Norris

1

‘I passed him just an hour ago.

He seemed to hear me, lift his head . . .

“No cash, just use a card”,

I said: “Makes bad times worse for you, I know”.

I kept it up, my steady tread,

Lest my erratic pace should sow

The seed of doubt, or maybe show

Foot-dragging qualms I’d gladly shed.

Yet as I walked I felt it grow, 

Another doubt that had me dread

Going back that way, the way I’d fled,

For fear he’d still be lying so,

Roused briefly from his cardboard bed,

By me, the passerby he’d throw

One last reproach before my slow

Returning footsteps found him dead.’

2

Don’t get me wrong about that guy,

Yes, that one, just ahead of you,

And striding off like one who’d do

His best to dodge my evil eye.

The card-trick – even if it’s true

They’re cashless, coinless, wouldn’t lie,

Still it’s the walk you know them by,

The quick-slow gait, the steps askew.

They can’t conceal it though they try,

The thing that hits each time anew

And has them fear my eyes pursue

Each tiniest motion gone awry.

He’ll come back soon, again go through

The rigmarole, then see if I,

Poor soul, had picked this time to die

And really twist the conscience-screw.

3

‘Thought I’d go home another way,

But then thought: why now flee the scene

As if, guilt-racked, I might come clean

With some fake fess-up words to say,

Some self-indictment: how I’d been

Plain lying earlier that day

And pulled the plastic trick lest they,

Samaritans, should think me mean.

So steep, the price I had me pay

In torments self-devised though keen,

While strollers from the cash-machine

Kept wallets shut and qualms at bay.

It’s market-forces intervene

To send the kindliest thoughts astray,

Distort our lives, and leave us prey

To ingrown guilt or brute routine.

They’ll dust it down, some old cliché

From Samuel Smiles, and walk serene

As he lies there behind a screen

Of self-told alibis that play 

No role but one contrived between

Those walkers-by who thus betray,

Like me, his crying need and play

Mind-games from some junk pop-psych magazine.

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