Begin Again with Davina McCall - Begin Again Moments: The Reality of Homelessness

Episode Date: April 26, 2026

“We have more communication today than ever before, but also more loneliness. You never know what’s going on for someone else” In this moving Moments episode, Rob Parsons shares the extraordinary story of Ronnie, a vulnerable man he had known since childhood, who arrived on his doorstep just before Christmas with all his belongings in a black plastic bag and a frozen chicken in his hand. With two simple words, “come in”, Rob and his wife Diane changed the course of Ronnie’s life. What began as one meal became a lifelong relationship, revealing the profound impact that safety, dignity, and human connection can have on someone who has been failed by the care system and left without a place to belong. Rob reflects on what Ronnie’s story taught him about homelessness, childhood trauma, neurodivergence, loneliness, and the systems that so often leave vulnerable people behind. He explores why relationships, not just services or structures, are essential in helping people rebuild their lives. Later in the episode, Simon Squibb shares his own deeply personal experience of being made homeless at 15, just after his father died. Thrown suddenly into the real world, Simon recalls how the people society often overlooks became the kindest and most generous, offering him food, blankets, and guidance when he needed it most. Together, Rob and Simon’s stories challenge the way we see homelessness, reminding us that anyone’s life can change in an instant, and that even the smallest act of kindness can restore someone’s sense of hope, dignity, and belonging. The full episodes are available now, wherever you get your podcasts or you can watch on YouTube: Rob Parsons: https://youtu.be/wlpcFnOPH2k Simon Squibb: https://youtu.be/5GEQE8ztdf4 Sponsored by: Saily - Download from the app store and use code DAVINA at the checkout for 15% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.

Wayfair, every style, every home. When we were kids, some of the kids in my street went to a little church of Sunday school. And one day, Miss Williams's a Sunday school teacher, said, next week there's a new boy coming and you better be kind to him. He doesn't have a mom and dad like you, lives in something called a care home. and we're going to pick him up from the care home and bring him to Sunday school.

And when Ronnie arrived, he's a couple of years older than us and he was unusual. First thing he did was hide Miss Williams' handbag. Second thing he did was put my friend Cecil in a headlock. He was a bit unusual. And then when he was 11, he disappeared. We didn't see him for five years. When I was researching my book,

I discovered he'd been sent to a home 200 miles away that the report described as, disgracefully, for subnormal boys. He was there for five years. And eventually that school was closed down because the carers had sexually abused the kids and they were imprisoned. But Ronnie comes back at 16 and occasionally he would drop into a youth club I ran. And then you wouldn't see him again. But now it's two days for Christmas and he's on my front door.

He's found out where I live. And he's got all his worldly possessions in a black plastic bag. And how old was he at this point? 2930. Wow, so a fully grown man. Oh yeah, a fully grown man. And how long was it since you'd seen him? Probably, well, I used to see him around the best.

You'd see him around, you know? So I'd probably seen him perhaps six months before or a year before. It might have been a little sooner. But you'd see him around and he'd be occasionally drop into the youth club where we were. But he was always distant and always different. But now he turned up at one of my kids' youth club's homes the night before. And his father, the kid's father said, there's a tramp at the door.

And the boy came down and told Ronnie to come up to me. And he was there. And in his other hand, he had a frozen chicken. I said, Ronnie, what's with a chicken? He said, somebody gave it to me of Christmas. A frozen chicken. And then I said two words. And I've often thought about doing that.

I said, come in. But those two words changed all our lives. And I, yeah. And he did. Diane made him a meal. And so it started with a meal. Started with a meal. As the meal was finishing, Diane ushered me into another room.

We hadn't been married long. We didn't have kids then. So wait, how long had you been married? Oh, four years, three years. So that's really not a very long time at all. You've got no kids. No, we've got no kids. And you invite this man in for dinner.

And then she ushers you into the kitchen and she says what? What are we going to do? And I said, what you mean? What are we going to do? We said, this Christmas. He's got nowhere to stay. She'd look, I'll clear the guest room out, asking him if you'd like to stay with us tonight. And I went back in, and I think by then we'd move Ronnie into another room and settled them in front of Coronation Street.

And he hated taking his eyes off the rover's return. Because I said, Ronnie, and he turned around eventually. And I said, would you like to stay with us tonight? And Ronnie Lopkitt said, fine. And he did stay that night and the next night. and over Christmas and he never lived and so when

just I know that like Ronnie you'd known him for a very long time and he'd been a bit awkward and he was a bit difficult but now we know he was neurodivergent and had struggled a bit with communicating with people

so you you invited him in but was he like easy to talk to was he easy to get on? No, he was agony, Devina. We were around the dinner table and we were having a meal with him, and it was like dragging out syllable after syllable. And so I would say to him, well, Dan said him,

where you could sleep in tonight, Ronnie? And he'd say, nowhere tonight. Well, where do you normally sleep? Well, here and there. And it was agony drawing every little, every little thing out. And before he went to bed, Diane said to him, Would you like a shower before you go? No, thanks.

and she looked to me for support and I shrugged my shoulders and he went up to bed and I think you know the thing is I suppose with someone like him if the story about the care home

was true and that he'd potentially been a victim of abuse there you know something like a shower could be terrifying you know like yeah all of that

he was living on the streets or not having anywhere no fixed abode you'd be in constant danger you'd be on high alert all the time Do you know DeVina you're absolutely right and I've never thought about that the show I think

Oh really? No you're right, of course you're right that that that that that must have been part of it mustn't it and he was always saying phrases like have I done a bad thing or have I offended you?

And always phrases like that would come out. So he goes to, he goes, he's in the room next to us and then and I'm in bed. And Diane says to me as we're going to sleep. What if he does something? I said, what did you have in mind? If it don't be funny, we hardly know him. I said, what do you want me to do? She put a chair into the door.

So I go downstairs, I come up with his done and she had to stick this chair in the door and I'm dying's practically asleep by then but you know de vina and i don't understand this that chair won under the door for long the previous evenings ronnie there was never the slightest hint of fear of ronnie not with our kids not with anybody else he was the loveliest man but i mean even when i when i first read your story the idea of taking uh even though you did know him a bit basically a stranger. You don't know him very well into your home. And I can understand why Diane would do that.

It's a very brave thing. Of course. But then he stayed. I mean, I think what you've done with what I guess like psychologists would call a social experiment is unpicked or created like a blueprint of how to kind of fix society. By just taking in one person for that amount of time, you have learned what is wrong with the whole of society and how we can build a more loving, inclusive place for people. It's like, what, I mean, what would you say

are maybe the top learnings that you've had that can really change someone's life that any of us can do? Well, of course, I'm no expert on homelessness as such or that, but something's going on. 25% of people who are homeless have got a background in care. Yes, I mean, I teach creative writing in a prison, 25% of roughly the same proportion of adult men, have got a background in care. So although social workers and others do incredible jobs, something is going on. And a report came out some time ago of what?

could be changed. And it said, what is needed is not just systems, but relationships. Relationships. So more and more now, local authorities are trying to put kids in care. There's something called supported lodgings where a child will go and perhaps live with a family or organizations such as safe families or home for good with fostering. The truth is, it's relationships. Yes.

We all need relationships. We need that more than breath almost. So if we can give that, that changes everything. And even when we're buying a copy of big issue, not just to buy it, but to actually look in somebody's eye and ask a few questions and a little bit of dignity. You know, I was on a subway in New York many years ago, and a guy came on pitching for money, and we all had our heads down reading, and a woman gave him a dollar bill.

And then just before it came to the next station, and he moved towards the doors, and he turned round, and he said, in a very clear voice, he's a young guy, and his features were pinched with the cold, and he said, lazy gentlemen, I haven't always been like this, and you should all know that anything can happen to anybody. And now, when he's gone, there's a silence in the carriage, because we know a philosopher's been on the train, and he's right.

Yes. We spoke to one of the guys in our homeless center the other day. He's homeless man. He said, I lost my family and my kids in a house fire. And I never, I never got over. I never, none of us know. And the really scary thing is we think we're a million miles away from that kind of life. But not necessarily.

Not necessarily. We need each other. And that's the tragedy today is we have more communication than ever digitally, but more loneliness. And so there'll be people in our street who, look, I don't recommend what we did, but we can take a bunch of flowers around and we can say how you're doing. The tiniest thing can make a difference.

Do you know what an ESIM is? Be honest. It does the same job as a physical SIM, but it's built into your phone digitally. And Saley, whose sponsors begin again, is an ESIM app that I love because it gives you a safe, secure, internet data connection overseas

without having to pay expensive roaming fees. It's available in over 200 destinations and it comes with built-in cybersecurity. But the best part is that it lets you change your online location to home while you're away. If you've been watching a show, for example, then you go on holiday and suddenly you can't access it anymore.

Well, with Saley, you can. Give it a try. Download Saly in the app store or by scanning the QR code that's on your screen right now. now. And for a cheeky 15% off your first purchase, you can use the code Devina at checkout. That's Devina for 15% off. My mum also kicked me out at 15 years old just after my father had died. And so that was also a crazy moment. I mean, she literally put your stuff on the street.

Yeah, well, no, she'd even give me my stuff. She just told me to get out. So I literally grabbed a bag and threw some stuff in it and she said, get out of my house, screaming at me. I'm going to call the police. Get out of my house. You never went back. Never went back. Wow. 15. Yep. And even now when I think about it now, I feel a bit sad about it because it's, it's, I went from having a father and a mother and I've got three brothers. We're all together in a house. And then suddenly I'm on my own out in the real world. And I think the thing that really hit me was just how unprepared I was for the real world, even though the eight-year-old experience, that wasn't my daily experience. That was just a one-off experience when I was younger. Actually at 15 years old, looking like an adult. So you don't look, I didn't look 15. I didn't look 15. I was, I looked, I was a rugby player. I looked like a grown-up, you know, most people thought I was 18, 19, 20. So, you know, 15 years old out in the street.

Yeah, but I mean, the other side of it is the world I learned, suddenly throwing out into the real world, like, I have a lot of empathy for the homeless, because I was actually homeless in total for eight weeks. But the homeless people were the kindest people ever to me. Most people's experience with homeless people in this country are like someone begging you for money. I had a completely different experience.

They gave me their half a sandwich they had left. They gave me the blanket that they couldn't really justify. They needed it for themselves to me. They told me how to survive in the streets, you know, like the people that I thought were the almost society's abnormal, you know, weirdos were the kindest people. And so, and then I, when I. Kinder than your mother.

Kinder than my mother in that moment. Yeah.