Obituary – Barry Hunt
Flowers left for Barry Hunt on Mare Street
A floral tribute to Barry Hunt, a homeless man who died last month, was placed in the spot on Mare Street where he used to sit with his dog.
Barry, a resident of St Mungo’s hostel, which provides accommodation for homeless people, passed away on 10 April, aged 38.
Born on 15 July 1977, Barry was known to many around the Hackney Central area.
He would sit just north of St Thomas’s Square, greeting passersby, chatting with friends and gently quarrelling with his “best pal” – his dog Zara.
Details about Barry’s early life are thin on the ground, but warm words and tributes were easy to come by.
“Barry was very funny and likeable,” said Gary Bird, an outreach worker for homelessness charity Thames Reach.
“He was well known and had a lot of friends and people watching his back.”
When the pair first met in 2013, Barry was apparently wary of Mr Bird.
“He was very stubborn!” said Mr Bird.
“He chose not to talk to me at the time. He had been let down before. But I persevered and we built a relationship. He was a really intelligent guy.”
Barry told Mr Bird he had been living in rented accommodation. But when the landlord didn’t fix something, Barry took a stand and refused to pay his rent.
“Unfortunately it backfired and he was evicted. He always said if you had something to say then you should make a stand. He didn’t mince his words!”
Mr Bird believes Barry was not from London originally, but had made Hackney his home for “a good amount of years”.
“Barry always said things how he saw them. He had a great sense of humour. There were so many funny times!”
Barry and his dog were like a “married couple,” Mr Bird said. “He would talk to Zara like they were in a relationship. They were the best of pals!”
Barry liked to draw and would often draw Zara, using pens or whatever he could find.
Missed: flowers and notes in memory of Barry Hunt
But behind Barry’s “guarded” exterior and sometimes sharp tongue was “a gentleman”, according to Mr Bird.
Melissa Smith is a Hackney resident who knew Barry for almost three years. She remembers a man who was “never rude”.
“We talked to him all the time. He always used to talk to us,” she said.
Ms Smith last saw Barry about a week before he died. “He said he wasn’t feeling well. He felt rough. He said he couldn’t go to hospital with his dog. He thought they wouldn’t let his dog in.”
She didn’t believe it when she first found out Barry had left his spot on Mare Street forever. “I didn’t see him for a while. Then someone told me and I saw flowers there.”
‘Pleasant and gentle’
Rufaro Rambanapasi is the manager of St Mungo’s hostel on Mare Street, where Barry Hunt lived on and off for several years.
She said: “Barry will be missed very much. He was a very pleasant and gentle man who kept mostly to himself and his close companion, his dog Zara.
“Our clients and staff remember him as a man who never had a cross word with anyone and was very easy to talk with and as such was very popular with the local community on Mare Street.”
As far as those close to him know, Barry had no next of kin. The coroner therefore could not release details to them, but confirmed he did not die under suspicious circumstances. His friends believed he died of natural causes. His canine companion Zara has been fostered by All Dogs Matter.
The average life expectancy of someone who is homeless is 47, according to St Mungo’s.
The Hackney Citizen sought a picture of Barry, but none was forthcoming.
Rest in peace: tributes to Barry Hunt
RIP Barry
I think Barry also deserves his life to be included in the action narratives.
You say
(“) Ms Smith last saw Barry about a week before he died. “He said he wasn’t feeling well. He felt rough. He said he couldn’t go to hospital with his dog. He thought they wouldn’t let his dog in.”
That last sentence raises many questions, including this:
Does anyone responsible for “hospitals” policies want to
comment on that?
Incidentally, I wonder if either of the two Hackney MPs, Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier, had heard of Barry and if they had, what
step or steps each took to put his life in context.
I watched Diane Abbott make a spiel in the Lincoln’s Inn Fields iN March about the Cons’ policy of Social Cleansing.
The point that she left out was: what EXACTY was the Corbyn
Leadership of the Labour Party doing to STOP Social Cleansing?
Abbott told that gathering that Corbyn had had a slight injury.
But since recovering from that injury, he has not addressed the issue of Social Cleansing, of which local Council’s deliberately;y creating and maintaining HOMELESSNESS is a part of a “subtle” “fiscal” strategy.
That is one of the “tasks” “inner cities deprived” borough Councils use in their bids for central Government Funding!
This is a fact.
I told Tower Hamlets Councils to stop doing that, at a Meeting on Housing and the role of the Labour Party that I had helped organise in 1990-2000.
Tower Hamlets Council, like Hackney Council and Newham Council, has failed to tell the Truth about what role it has assigned to
Social Cleansing as an “earner” of central Govt funding.
Corbyn must stop “Labour” Councils doing this and Corbyn must go far farther than anything he has managed to utter about Social Cleansing and any other aspects of what he inadequately calls the “Housing Crisis”.
I gave Corbyn a full recognition in a broadcast programme I presented on a London radio outlet, for a piece that he had published on the “Housing Crisis” in the “Morning Star”.
I presented the KHOODEELAAR! Campaign programme on radio on the day that piece appeared and the very first item was a full credit for Corbyn which I broadcast as part of the Commentary that I had devised. That was in September 2012.
I later contacted Corbyn’s office in the House of Commons, to follow up on what else he had to say about the HOUSING CRISIS. I spoke to his aide and told him about the references I had made in a radio programme and more.
Did Corbyn come back?
No!
That is one the items of evidence that shows that Corbyn may have had a “large number of votes” but he may still struggle to work
out how he can spread the meaning of that large vote number!
Corbyn NEEDS to work with the Communities and recognise that campaigners and campaigns make the contributions that Society needs at all times.
Society NEEDS a campaigning culture now more than ever before.
Society generally and the Communities across East London DESERVE a far more comprehensive and real leadership from the Official opposition than we have got from the Labour Party for a very long time.
I do not confine it to Corbyn’s months only.
I am doing my bit to keep this narrative active and up front as far as I am able to.
I am presenting a short report on the satellite ChanneliEurope
(SKY Channel 833) next week, UPDATING on East London Councils’ role in maintaining the de facto Social Cleansing programme.
As part of the report I am also looking at the role of related Agencies including the publicly paid for outlets that are paid on the assumption that they are helping the “vulnerable”.
Anyone who may like to share their thoughts with viewers of that programme is welcome to send an email to
info@channelieurope.tv
1422 GMT London Tuesday 10 May 2016
Barry was a friend for a few years, as I’d come to know him while living nearby. This obituary is spot on, and it’s heart warming to see such lovely tributes to the man from others who knew him. I moved away from the borough last year but have often thought of him and hoped to be able to get back to see him soon. That it’ll never be makes me very sad. Society has failed Mr. Hunt and too many like him, but this is no time for politics, for tonight I am mourning the loss of a friend. When I clock off my shift at the pub tomorrow I’ll have a drink in his honour. My only concern is that I might not be able to drink enough to honour such a genuine human being.
Let his legacy be the simple reminder to us all to always look to the person beneath the surface, whatever the surface might look like.
Rest in peace Barry, and thank you.
ADDITIONAL:
I know that a couple of years ago a young graphic designer produced a simple booklet of photos and musings and poetry of Barry and reflecting his life. It was a very thoughtful, sensitive work which she sold copies of, giving all the proceeds to him. I was never able to get a copy myself but would love to if it were ever possible. I’d have no clue as to where to start looking (a quick Google just now came up blank), but she will also have photo’s to append to this piece. If you’re out there…