If only it was possible for them to have a time-out from the daily struggle for survival on the streets, especially if there was no cost to them in any way and no time limit on how long they took to get back on their feet.

I began to sketch out a very rough (and uninformed, I have to say) set of ideas about how one might go about building a community for such individuals.

The basic unit would be somewhere for an individual to rest, recuperate, receive full medical attention (mental as well as physical health care), without feeling every minute that it would be taken away from them.

In time, as they progress (which could take weeks, months, even years) each individual would graduate from relative isolation to a gentle integration into a larger community.  Each individual would have to prove themselves fit to enter the next stage before progressing, both to protect them and to protect those with whom they would be interacting.

The last stage would be one in which they are fully rehabilitated, ready to go back into the wider world (or to stay within the support community, assisting those who come after them).

The location for such a community would not only have to be far from any connurbation but also distributed in such a way that it would take more than a day's walk to get from one subcommunity to another (so that the risk of infiltration would be minimized).

It would cost considerably too, although if individuals chose upon graduation to stay and help the community that might help to defray some of the running costs - it would after all be very people intensive.

I thought of "The Haven" as a suitable name for the community, and later wondered if the materials might prove suitable as the basis for a story.

I don't have a detailed structure yet, apart from that for The Haven itself, but I'm sure inspiration will come to me shortly.

If I'm *really* lucky, the capability to make the concept a reality will occur at some point, too.