‘You don’t think the bubble will burst’: The carpenter rough sleeping on trains | UK News
The hours after midnight allow Daniel Wren the chance to drift off to sleep while the trains are empty.
He can nap for 45 minutes from Croydon to London Bridge, then back, 45 minutes more sleep, then repeat.
From 1am to 5am – which he calls the “zombie hours” – Daniel naps and swaps trains, trams and buses until, as the public returns, he becomes a commuter on his way to work.
Daniel Wren, a 56-year-old carpenter, navigates homelessness by sleeping on trains during “zombie hours” from 1am to 5am, reflecting the growing issue of rough sleeping among older adults.
Despite working hard throughout his life, Wren’s financial struggles intensified after personal hardships, underscoring concerns about the older demographic’s vulnerability to homelessness in the current housing crisis.
A study indicates that one in five older low-income earners fear homelessness in retirement, challenging the previously held belief that this generation was secure from such risks.
