Stranger in the house

One night last week, we had a visit from a stranger He was a bloke around 60 years old, very scruffy and smelly and just walked into the house, totally confused and incoherent - quite unnerving really. It turned out he was homeless and looking for Emmaüs, the charity who look after homeless people. They're about 5 miles from here. The following morning, I heard on the radio that two homeless people had been found dead in the street from the cold in La Rochelle. Apparently, there's a freephone number that you can ring to get help for these people and they are entitled to a bed for the night and a meal, but many of them refuse to accept help and can't be forced. Makes you grateful (or even slightly ashamed) for your warm, cosy, too big, centrally heated house.