Community rallying to find Organic Jim, 'long term Edinburgh street homeless man'

Green Councillor, Gavin Corbett put out a call this morning on social media asking if anyone had seen ‘Organic Jim’ recently amid concerns for his welfare.

Organic Jim

Mr Corbett said: "Many people in south west Edinburgh know Organic Jim as he makes his way around parks and local streets. Residents and readers provide him with hot food, washing and other help when he asks, although he is very independent too.”

Mr Corbett posted on Twitter and Facebook at around 8am today saying that he hadn’t seen Organic Jim in over a week and was growing concerned as this was unusual.

He continued: "Over the last week his stuff has been sitting untouched in Harrison Park getting very wet, which made me worried about his welfare. I've been in touch with Streetwork which does outreach work with street homeless people like Jim and I've also asked on social media if people have seen him recently.”

Mr Corbett described Jim as ‘mostly genial but also very, very talkative’ as he spoke of his relief after several people responded to his calls on both Twitter and Facebook saying they had seen him recently.

One person commented on Facebook: “I saw him on Bruntsfield Gardens, within the last week, talking to some people. I saw him from my window, so couldn't tell much about how he seemed, but it was definitely him. I see him around Bruntsfield a lot. Thanks for looking out for him!”

A response on Twitter read: “I saw him yesterday morning in Merchiston, he was on good form. We had a chat about seaweed.”

Another comment on Twitter didn’t have any information on his whereabouts but echoed the community support by saying: “Glad to hear he is ok from comments. Thanks for keeping an eye out for him”.

While Mr Corbett isn’t sure what his full name is, he said Organic Jim earned his nickname thanks to his diet preferences which can be ‘very fastidious’.

Mr Corbett added: "Thankfully he does appear to be around as usual. As winter looms it's all the more important that kindness and support is there."

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