Last word
Comes from Perry Gough, 37, from Bristol. Just after midnight, he crawls into his sleeping bag in a nook above a Bristol bowling alley. His evening had consisted of him grabbing a cup of soup from volunteers and then huddling down in the doorway of an RAF recruitment office. In the 14 years he has been homeless following a relationship breakdown Gough has been beaten up and burned.
Someone set my hands on fire – they thought it would be a laugh. I feel safe here though now.”
He reckons he will sleep until 8 or 9am. He will get up and wander around Bristol all day for warmth. Then it’s the soup kitchen, RAF recruitment office routine again.
“Same old, same old every day,” he said.
That’s just about it for tonight. Thank you for staying with us. If you’re homeless, I truly hope you find somewhere warm tonight and some toehold in a future that is safe and secure. It’s clear from what we’ve learned tonight that this is not a lifestyle choice, but something that happens to people, often the wretched result of a wicked combination of factors. And it may get worse before it gets better.
Government must do more. We must do more. But for now I’m going to leave the last word with a homeless man from Bristol. Good night
Tonight we met... Morag
Morag remembers the exact date she became homeless. “It was the 8th of May last year,” she says. She’s the youngest person I speak to at the end of the evening, and she’s only 17 years old.
I didn’t realise it at the time but I was suffering from bipolar disorder,” she says. “My step-dad is old, 71, and he likes things just so. He made it very clear that I couldn’t ever come back, but I still speak to my mum.”
She’s currently living in temporary accommodation in East Lothian, but for one night, after being chucked out of another hostel (which she describes as “worse than jail”), she was forced to sleep rough in a Tesco car park. She was only given two hours to leave, and shortly afterwards found herself living in an all-male B&B.
I was quite scared to begin with, but the men were actually really nice. I got on with them fine.”
In the current hostel Morag explains that she’s living with a convicted murderer, but that she’s happy with her situation and is hopeful that she will find a new home.
It’s just a bit horrible being homeless. I want my own house where I can do my own thing and handle my own washing.”
She turns 18 in September, when she’ll just have “one drink” because of her bipolar medication, and Shelter Scotland are currently handling her case. The hope is that with their help she will be placed in permanent accommodation where she can settle and get on with her life.
Before we wrap up, a couple of tweets.
Firstly, back to Josh Halliday in Birmingham, where it’s bedtime
And in Manchester, frustration at the lack of housing support for young people
So how do you get out? Once you’re on the streets how do you come back in from the cold?
David from Leeds was homeless, but isn’t any more. He tells us what helped him come through years of prison, drink and homelessness.
I was married. I lived with my wife and another alcoholic, Alf. She was his carer and I’d go down to the Crypt to pick him up. I was more of a house alcoholic – I managed it. My wife got cancer and I couldn’t cope with caring for her so I took the coward’s way out and left.
When I found out she died I drank more and more and ended up at the Crypt. I met my second wife there. We got married at 9am and she was on a bus by 2pm. She’d left me. All on the same day. I went to the solicitor to get a divorce. ‘Have you consummated your relationship?’ he asked. We hadn’t, but I’m still not sure if we’re married or not.
Since then I’ve basically been in and out of prison – drinking, prison, trying to stop but never succeeding. The alcohol always rears its ugly head.
The Crypt has given me so much support, much of which I don’t feel I deserve. I’ve been banned for life nine times, yet they still always let me come back. They’ve never forsaken me. No other agency would work with me, but they’ve never given up.
They’ve always given me support, especially Ian on the van. Now they give me a bit of routine and discipline. They’ve put up with me when I’ve been difficult and always done their best by me. They’ve helped me get my own house, I help out volunteering on the van and they’ve also helped me get a housing support worker. I’m 54 now, so this is my last chance. I’ve had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. I just hope that a year from now I will still be abstinent and hopefully have a job.
Updated
What next?
Where is the crisis headed next?
Helen Mathie, Head of Policy with Homeless Link, warns that rough sleeping will get worse when the next round of welfare reforms are introduced. She predicts there could be a lost of thousands of bed spaces and the closure of many homelessness services as a result.
She explains why here. It’s complicated but important.
In last year’s Spending Review the Government outlined plans to cap the amount of rent that can be charged in social housing to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates, the amount of housing benefit people receive in the private rented sector. LHA rates are generally much lower than social rents, and in particular are much lower than the rents for supported housing.
Supported housing is the term used to describe emergency and longer term housing for those with additional needs: many have poor mental health, may be recovering from substance use, or have previous contact with the prison system. This accommodation is a lifeline to not only improving their health and independence, offering support into employment, but also in preventing people otherwise ending up in expensive acute care, back in prison, or on the streets. Supported housing has been shown to save money to other areas of public spending, and make a huge difference to people’s lives.
The proposal to cap rental income at LHA rates threatens to shut thousands of these units for homeless people across England. The reason LHA is inadequate is that supported housing costs more to run than general needs or private sector housing: there are higher costs associated with a high turnover of tenants; for keeping properties safe and secure; and for adaptions which might be needed to accommodate those with complex health needs.
Based on evidence from Homeless Link and Sitra’s members across the country, we know that if they go ahead, the LHA caps would force many homelessness services to close their doors. Feedback from over 50 agencies providing over 10,000 bedspaces for homeless people in England, shows we are looking at an average projected loss of income of nearly £60m per year for these services alone, an average reduction of 62%. At a time when homelessness services are already struggling to meet demand, and numbers of rough sleeping are rising, we cannot afford to lose these critical services.
Moreover, taking into account all the other types of accommodation which would also be affected - refuges, drug rehabilitation, housing for ex-offenders, sheltered accommodation - the scale of the impact cannot be over-estimated.
Updated
Tonight we met... Emma
Until Emma found herself homeless and living in a shelter with 25 other adults, she had never so much as shared a communal living room with flatmates. The 37-year-old had only ever lived by herself or with a partner.
But then you split up with your partner, he owns the house, your daughter stays living with him, he remarries and I literally had to make myself homeless to get any help,” she said.
Emma says her relationship with her former partner had become “quite abusive”. She says she was financially dependent on him, quitting her job when she had her daughter, now seven, so when she left her partner, there was nothing to fall back onto.
Once she left him and became homeless, Emma was able to get into a hostel and she has been living in hostels for a bit over two years. To get a place in a hostel, at the advice of someone who knew the system well, she pretended to have been rough sleeping.
Thus I got into the system. I wouldn’t have lasted five seconds out there,” she says. “being in here’s certainly opened my eyes.”
Emma describes her experience in hostels as “quite brutal” and says she hasn’t always felt safe while there. She has a new partner who lives outside of the homelessness world and could move in with him, but after her experience with her ex-partner, wants to make sure she is independent before doing so.
Sometimes it’s like, please give me my normality back. A lot of people don’t know I live here. I used to host dinner parties. If I brought my friends here they’d think I’m off my fucking nut.”
She is now studying social work and hopes to be able to work in the industry in the future.
I want to be able to give something back. If I could help someone it would seem these last couple of years weren’t a waste.”
At the Harrogate homeless project hostel, camp beds have been made up on the floor of the meeting room, with three more people sleeping on sofas in the communal lounge. The hostel will be full tonight with five more rough sleepers who will come here as part of the ‘No second night out’ project, which has had more than 600 referrals in the three years it has been running in the town, giving people temporary emergency accommodation and support.
Demand has been so great the council has funded the building of a new wing for the hostel, to give proper beds for the temporary shelter.
Paul Benson (not his real name) is spending his third night sleeping in the sofas on the lounge, having spent the past week sleeping in fields and park benches, and then in the church hall which opened as an emergency shelter on nights the temperature dropped below freezing.
I had everything and I lost everything. I had a business which meant I could buy Bentley’s and Rolls Royces, I thought nothing of buying my wife a £2,000 dress. And I lost it all. I would come out of fancy restaurants and pass by people on the street, and think they were bums. And now I’m one of them. I know what people think of me, because I used to think like that.”
After spending two nights sleeping rough, Benson said he eventually just flagged down a police car in desperation.
I was so ashamed, I didn’t speak to anyone at all about what was happening. You think you know what it means to be cold, but you don’t know what it’s like to be on a park bench at 2 in the morning, knowing you can’t get warm until 9. I couldn’t face another night of walking around in the cold. But they took me to the emergency shelter and I’d never seen anything like that before. I’ve never been around drugs, it was just horrendous. If I was 20 years younger, I might have seen the appeal of it, because I am suffering. But now I know it’s not going to solve my problem. It’s the hours that drag by, doing nothing, which is so hard. You get a meal at lunch time and you can’t go to the shelter until 8pm. You walk around for hours in the cold, nothing to do.”
Sam Lawson is only 23, one of the youngest in the hostel, but this is his second time he has been referred here as a long-term resident, having spent the past months homeless and sleeping on friends’ sofas.
It’s like being in a shared house. I like the rules and the order, it’s what I want at the moment. Eventually I want my own place, my own job, what everyone wants really but this place is what I want right now because it’s where I can get support, where people will fight for you to get housing.”
Born and bred in the town, Lawson has found it impossible to afford the high rents charged by the landlords after leaving home.
It’s so expensive but it’s home so what are you supposed to do? I tried leaving but I wanted to come back because it’s my home. Other than this place, there’s no help for you. It’s frowned upon to live here. But I grew up on a council estate in Bilton, not everyone here is upper class. Rents are about £90 a week in private housing, I get £60 a week, around that, in housing benefit. I shouldn’t have to leave my home town.”
The steep cost of living is a refrain staff here constantly from people who come to seek their help. Between April and September last year, more than a quarter of the Harrogate homeless project’s referrals came to them after being evicted from their homes, with landlords and letting agents increasingly reluctant to rent to people receiving benefits, especially if a once stable person has had a downward turn in circumstances, such as losing their job.
Because of the steep rents in the area, the project staff has found many people classified as ‘low needs’ who could live successful independent lives were becoming street homeless because of the obstructiveness of local landlords who would not let to people on benefits even for short periods.
Living with friends on their sofas had sent Lawson into a downward spiral, he said.
Just drinking, partying every night. I hit the bottom of the barrel,” he said. “The turning point was actually admitting I was struggling, just telling someone my mental health was not great. It was a shock to admit that. But here I can get my head together a bit. You make close friends, you feel like the others are watching out for you.”
Updated
There is not just a hyperactive revolving door between the streets and prison. There is a similar two-way valve between the streets and hospital, and very often just not enough of a system to cope with the in-out traffic.
Cat Whitehouse of the Pathway organisation said:
There is a dismal revolving door between the streets and hospital. When someone loses their home, their physical and mental health can rapidly deteriorate. Injury, illness and hospitalisation follow.
After treatment there is no rest for the homeless patient, s/he is unceremoniously discharged onto the street, stitches that need to be kept clean get dirty, people who need nursing care sleep on concrete.
Eventually the public stop passing by, realise someone has collapsed, and the person returns to hospital by ambulance; infected, malnourished and exhausted, to undergo further treatment and repeat the cycle again.
On separate patches yards from each other near Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre, brothers Skar Bantges, 28, and Juke Hyde, 38, sell drawings to make enough money for a B&B for the night. “Normally I get £20, £30 a day - because I’m not a raving smackhead I get in a B&B for £17 a night. Anything on top of that gets me my baccie or a bit of weed,” says Skar.
The brothers, from Bedfordshire, have been on the streets for over a year. They look out for each other, Skar says, taking it in shifts to sit and sell their artwork while the other gets a coffee and some warmth.
“There are some nice people and some people who look at us as if we’re shit. They’re one payday away from being like us,” says Juke.
How did he become homeless? “I used to build street racing cars but I had a mental breakdown. You’re working with quarter of a million pound cars and you don’t want to fuck them up,” he says.
Heroes of the night, part II
Since Streetlink began in December 2012, it has received 125,000 phone referrals from members of the public who have seen a rough sleeper and want to let authorities know their location, so that an outreach team can be sent to help them, Kate Lyons reports.
In the Streetlink offices in London, Matt Taylor, the team leader, Tom Freeman, referral line worker and volunteer Sally Williams are taking the late shift. They will answer phone calls and pass on web referrals to outreach teams around the city who will then visit rough sleepers and try and connect them with local services.
Since Taylor has joined Streetlink he has seen a dramatic increase in the number of referrals. In October 2015, his first month, they received a record number of web referrals - 2,500. This record was soon broken, in January as the weather turned bad, Streetlink received 6,500, that is 200-250 per day, all handled by three or four call operator, some of whom are volunteers, and outreach workers.
While we are talking a call comes in and Freeman picks up. It is a St Mungo’s volunteer at a shelter near Ealing, they have had to turn away a man who wanted accommodation for the night and now fear he will sleep the night in a nearby phone box. Freeman tries to find the location of the phone box on google maps and then is able to file a report with outreach workers who will visit him. They try to reach people within three working days.
Streetlink can be contacted on 0300 500 0914 or web referrals can be made at www.streetlink.org.uk
Some 300 miles to the north, Paul Stevenson works at Bethany House, an emergency, temporary resettlement unit in Edinburgh filled with people who have registered homeless with the council and are subsequently referred, writes Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff.
We have four beds for women, and 24 for men, which reflects national statistics on homelessness. The majority of homeless people are single men,” he says. “There are different levels of support within that, but everyone who lives in our residential care has a support plan.”
At present there is only one bed free at the hostel, which has had over a 90% occupancy rate since the start of 2016, and Paul is initially sceptical of Shelter Scotland’s figures which show homelessness as going down in the city.
What is worrying that we don’t have a rough sleeper count in Scotland,” he says, adding he believes there has been an increase in rough sleepers in the city.
As a Christian, Paul believes that it’s his duty to be helping the homeless. He converted age 21 and has been working in the sector ever since. Bethany House is part of Bethany Christian Trust, and all of the staff identify as being Christian.
My heart for the homeless goes back to my childhood and witnessing people in the rough. Things were at their worst during the 80s, and the bit in London where the IMAX cinema is now was an awful place, as well as around the back of the Savoy, where there was free parking.
Bethany House, an imposing building down by the Water of Leith (a small river which runs throughout some of the nicest parts of Edinburgh), used to be an old tea factory, “everyone of a certain age in Edinburgh will remember Melrose Tea Factory”, and is now split up into an array of flats that house four to five people at a time.
We encourage a sense of family,” Paul says. “People come to the house and say it’s happiest they’ve ever been.”
Finally, Michelle Langan belongs to a small voluntary team, Real love that’s been supporting street homeless in Liverpool for the last few months. The team go out every Thursday night:
Tonight was a little quieter than normal, but we still saw about 25 people. One lady with pneumonia, and another man who was discharged from hospital today who we were very worried about. We had a death a few weeks ago in the homeless community here, so it is a constant worry when rough sleepers get ill. All of them tonight were very grateful for hot food, soup and jacket potatoes.
I was really angry at an ignorant couple who stopped and shouted at us when we stopped to give drinks and sandwiches to three men. ‘They’re all on benefits and you lot are feeding them, it’s a disgrace.’ This is the kind of attitude we are trying to change - the perception that all homeless are ‘on the make’ or ‘beggars’ - we are all just human after all!
Updated
Of the 26 people who live at the St Mungo’s shelter in west London, 11 are women.
“When you look at our women there’s a very high correlation between domestic violence and homelessness,” says Ophelia Kingshott, development and implementation manager at the shelter.
Lisa, 52, is one of these residents who has had a domestically violent partner - “I was beaten with baseball bats,” she says. But after long-term abuse, she was finally prompted to go to the police after she lost her dad.
He was my world and he is my world, so I just walked into a police station and then disappeared from the area.”
Lisa ended up homeless in an area of London she didn’t know with no support network. She stayed in a hostel for a while, but when that fell through ended up rough sleeping for six months, which she likens to an experience she had many years ago, before she became homeless.
One time I had an epileptic fit while riding my bike and I woke up in a park with my leggings removed and my shoes off and it was the most terrifying feeling in the world because I had absolutely no idea what had happened to me. That’s what it feels like to sleep on the streets.
Lisa said rough sleeping was particularly frightening for women and “the area is ripe with men with sexual deviance”. She was assaulted a few times, including being punched in the face by a group of men for stealing their sleeping spot and learnt to be canny to protect herself.
One of her favoured sleeping spots was on a set of steps which were quite public and well-lit by the glow of restaurant lights.
If you lie down to sleep you’re more vulnerable, so if you sit up, like you’re reading a book or waiting for the bus, its safer, you know what I mean?”
Another challenge was holding on to belongings, says Lisa, who said she would aim to keep a spare pair of clothing dry stashed somewhere secret where she could retrieve them later.
Those passersby who showed her kindness are still remembered, like the woman who was shopping with her children and when she saw Lisa sent her daughter back into the shop to buy her “everything - a sandwich, drink, crisps, dessert” and then when she was halfway down the street and saw another homeless person sent the child back into the shop to buy the same for them. But others were less kind, yelling at her and spitting at her, which she describes as “psychological trauma”.
Tonight we met... Trish, David and Radik
Radik, 38, seems to have his life sorted as much as a homeless person can do. Unlike many other people sleeping rough, he takes all of his worldly possessions around with him - on his bike and trailer.
I have a laptop, a tent because of the Scottish weather, a camping stove to make hot drinks, a sleeping bag, and a chair,” he says.
Radik also has a cork board which he sets up as a makeshift table. “I need a chopping board too,” he adds.
Originally from Poland, he discovered biking after losing his job two years ago. Since then he’s biked all over the country, down to Liverpool, to London and this year, after doing a tour of Scotland, he even wants to head down to Cornwall.
I sleep far away from the city centre so my things don’t get stolen, and I never stay too long in the same place,” he adds. “For now I am happy,” says Radik, “I don’t want to be homeless forever but I need to make the best out of my situation.”
Trish is sitting in the doorway of a typical tenement block in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, minutes from the Cowgate, an area which was once so busy with homeless people in the 1980s the Guardian’s photographer calls it the ‘the homeless high street’.
Her long brown hair is draped over her shoulder and she’s wrapped up in a warm, yellow knitted blanket. It’s past 9pm now and it’s getting colder.
I’ve only been back on the streets for a week,” she says. “I’m sleeping in a bin room behind this building, it stinks but it’s away from the elements.”
Trish first experienced homelessness after the death of her young son, and says that she doesn’t really have any other family to turn to. She’s saving money by begging and adds that while the council hasn’t done much to help her, Edinburgh police are excellent.
The church is a major help too,” she says. “It’s difficult being a woman out on the streets because I don’t like staying in the shelters or hostels. They’re filled with pissed blokes who try and touch you up. It’s safer to take care of yourself.”
Trish shows us round the back of the building where the bin room is. She’s right, it does smell, but the room is quite warm, dry and, I can imagine, a lot safer than some other places where she could spend the night.
Across the road from Trish is a man named David. Similarly, he also become homeless after the loss of a loved one.
My partner at the time, Dawn, she lost twins and I never really dealt with the emotional impact of it,” he says, shivering
He talks about his son, who’s 22 and whom he adores, and about how he sometimes comes to visit him. David, who usually sleeps in an alley near a club in the Cowgate, says that his son will come and tap him on the shoulder and ask him to come home with him.
He lives with his girlfriend and I don’t want to disturb their lives,” he says.
I’d love to get a house and a dog, a border collie. I wouldn’t have one out on the streets though, it’s far too cold. Dogs need to be warm, safe and dry,” he says.
Again, like many others have today, David brings up the problem with the definition of “intentionally homeless”.
I left accommodation and ran away to live in the hills for a few weeks because of mental health issues and couldn’t get rehoused because that’s how the council classified me,” he says.
That is just wrong.”
Updated
It is not just on the national level that homelessness and housing is a hot political potato. It will be a theme of the Bristol mayoral campaign this spring.
Bristol is governed at the moment by independent directly-elected mayor George Ferguson. His Labour rival, Marvin Rees, is intending to make housing the centrepiece of his campaign.
Rees said:
The people on the streets are the tip of the iceberg. There are the invisible homeless – people sofa-surfing or in very unstable accommodation. We dread to think what is really going on out there. It is a homelessness crisis. We need the city to prosper and flourish but you cannot do that while so many people are being left out of it.
The mayor has developed a reputation for getting things done, You’ve got to ask what has he got done. George is the mayor for fun. I’m all for fun. You’ve got to get the basics done. The fun is undermined if you’re having to step over a homeless person to get to the party.”
Here’s what Ferguson said on the issue recently:
Homelessness is growing across the UK as a result of a number of factors, and the high number of rough sleepers in Bristol has become one of our most pressing concerns.
People who are sleeping rough or ’sofa-surfing’ face daily problems that are difficult to understand for those with more comfortable lives.
We must all come together to tackle this growing challenge. There is help out there from a range of organisations, so if you know anyone you think is at risk, make sure they seek advice and support as soon as possible.
We have a duty to help all those struggling to keep a roof over their heads get their lives back on track, and I am grateful to our many partners in helping us to try and tackle this crisis.”
Out on the streets of Birmingham, a little ingenuity can make all the difference.
We make a den here every night. Can you feel it, feel how warm it is?
Updated
In praise of heroes of the night
Let’s take a quick moment to salute the heroes of the night, all the charities, volunteers, helpers and recovered homeless who give of their time to make a dismal situation not quite so dismal.
First stop, Birmingham, and the Choir With No Name again. Here, Josh Halliday speaks to Sally Debiage, who runs the show
They can come with a sad face and leave with a happy face. It’s pretty much guaranteed.
A hundred miles south, Steve Morris has been speaking to Jess Martin, a volunteer on the Bristol Soup Trust run.
Then there are charities like Nightstop which works with homeless people aged 16-25, placing the bereft with hosts who have spare space in their houses and flats.
Mohammed, 23, a refugee from Sudan, has been staying with husband and wife Mark and Kate and their lodger Rachel at their home in the Horfield area of Bristol. He does not have a key. One of them has to be there to welcome him in. They feed him and he sleeps in their simple, warm spare room.
Mohammed does not go into detail about why he left Sudan. “There is war in my country,” is his simple explanation. “This is the best country in the world for human rights.” He was a mechanic in Sudan and now plans to study English at college and get a job in a similar field. And he wants security. “I want a nice life, I want to feel safe.”
Nightstop’s motto is: “A community response to a community problem.” Mohammed arrives at Mark and Kate’s house and is chivied into taking his coat off and making himself at home.
Mark said:
You do it because it needs doing. The need is there, we have a spare room so why not?”
It isn’t always easy.
You don’t get many compliments in this job,” laughs Liz Hancock, manager of the Harrogate Homeless Project. “But everything it throws at you, you have to handle with good will and humour, even when it’s really, really sad.”
In the decade that has passed since Hancock swapped her corporate job (and salary) to work for Harrogate Homeless project, she had noticed the homeless population getting younger.
There’s a lot of youth homelessness, people in their early twenties who have left because of bad family circumstances and have been sofa surfing. And the drugs are changing too, before the main problems were heroin and alcohol. Legal highs are bigger problem now.”
There’s always people who really get under your skin who you worry about, you hope they’re doing well, you root for them because you know they really want to turn it around. This job is never just about finding people housing. They may have health problems, emotional issues, addiction, family and relationship breakdown. Housing is just one part of it.”
When people complain that Britain is broken, and that everything is rubbish, remember people like these, and others mentioned earlier in the blog. Let’s join them, and make a difference.
Updated
Another woman who became homeless after problems with her partner is Hannah. She was the grateful recipient of a plastic cup of vegetable soup and some sandwiches from the good people of the Bristol Soup Trust at Redcliffe bridge. Late as it was, she still did not know where she was going to sleep. The shelter she usually uses closes on a Thursday night so her options were limited.
“I feel let down,” she said. “There are so many empty buildings in this city. Why can’t they open them up so that everyone can get a bed. There should be a place for everyone to stay.”
Yes, indeed Hannah. As we’ve been saying, there are more than 600,000 empty buildings in England alone.
Hannah had a hug with Patrick, 67, a veteran of the homelessness scene in Bristol – and a poet. He has seen huge changes since he became homeless on 14 February 2003.
There was a time when I knew 80% of the people on the streets. Now I probably only know 10%. The scene has changed – there are more people from Eastern Europe, more refugees.
Patrick has a roof over his head for the moment – a place in north Somerset but is still so impoverished he comes into the city for food and drink.
Bristol is popular with homeless people because they can get plenty to eat and drink. I once worked out there were 70 places where you could get free food in the city.
Tonight we met... Terry Stott
“Some people call me the intellectual,” laughed Terry Stott, as he finished his evening meal at the Harrogate Springboard centre at the Wesley chapel. The 56-year-old recently spent his first night at the theatre, watching a play at the Harrogate Theatre about homelessness called Parallel, having met the cast before opening night.
I write poetry, I read so many books, I write songs, I go to Knaresborough to play guitar in the studio when I can. I want to learn about theatre, art, poetry and culture. I want to know about the renaissance. But, to be honest, at the moment, my circumstances are really dire.
Stott came out of prison six weeks ago.
I served three years after a five year sentence,” he said. “I was doing methadone, heroin, crack cocaine, you name it. I was eight stone and nearly dead. I’ve spent 30 years of my life in prison. But this time I got fit and strong, and I was clean and fresh. I wanted to start again. And then you come out, and I spent my first two nights in the emergency shelter, with people who are falling about drunk. And it was sheer hell.
Stott has come for hot food before setting out to sleep on the streets.
I could stay with friends but they will be using. I really, really don’t want to be around them but it’s hard. This is the reality though.
The town has changed in the years Stott has been spending on the street.
There’s so many more people. It’s like the programmes about the Night of the Living Dead. If you’re looking, you’ll see the same people, 20 or 30, just walking around like zombies, walking because there’s nowhere to go. It could be homelessness, it could be drugs, it could be depression. I suffer from anxiety myself. And it’s so sad because this is a beautiful town, with the gardens and the architecture and the tea rooms. Why doesn’t society care? I would love there to just be some recognition.
Homelessness and rough sleeping are principally male preserves, but growing numbers of women are being affected.
Katharine Sacks-Jones, director of the Agenda alliance for women and girls at risk Director, wrote to us:
One thing that’s often missed in the conversation about homelessness and rough sleeping is women’s homelessness, and its links with childhood and adulthood abuse. Research by Agenda shows that one in five women who have experienced extensive physical and sexual violence as both a child and an adult have been homeless at some point in their lives.
For these women, mixed-gender hostels or day centres can be hugely intimidating and sometimes unsafe. Women who rough sleep are more likely to hide themselves away or stay on the move, on busses for example, because of concerns for their safety. Many get involved in prostitution, or enter into violent and unwanted sexual relationships simply to get a roof over their heads.
At the St Mungo’s homeless project in west London, one homeless woman, Anna, proudly opens the doors of the oven to show parsnips, carrots, potatoes and “something for vegetarians” roasting. Two chickens are resting on the counter, though one St Mungo’s staff comes running out later to ask where the third bird is.
“It flew out the window!” says Anna, laughing.
It turns up in a cupboard later, though even after it reappears staff are still unsure how or why it ended up there.
Anna came to London in 2003 to learn English. The Ethiopian-Italian became pregnant and had a daughter, whom she raised as a single mother for nine years. She got involved in crime and was sent to prison.
While I was in prison I lost my house, my daughter went into foster care. I’ve been homeless for two years.”
Anna considers herself lucky. She has never slept rough. The day she was released from prison and tried to get in contact with her daughter, a social worker told her that due to her homelessness her daughter couldn’t be released to her custody.
So I said, OK you’ve got to help, tell me what to do.
The social worker put her in touch with St Mungo’s and she has lived in their accommodation. The St Mungo’s accommodation has 27 rooms, 26 of which are currently occupied by medium to long-term clients, men and women. The youngest current resident is 24, the oldest is 57 and residents can stay for up to four years.
The shelter is specifically designed for those with complex needs, mostly substance abuse, but it also caters to people with mental health issues and criminal histories.
Since she’s been out of prison and homeless, Anna is deemed unfit to have custody of her daughter who is now 11 and in foster care. Anna is allowed to see her daughter four times a year.
She’s big now. I was a single mother for eight years, but now I’m homeless, I don’t have a flat, I’m not a good mum, in the eyes of the social worker. I’m fighting every day with the social worker, she’s the reason I can’t see her.”
Anna spends every day volunteering to help others around the shelter, cooking meals - like the roast chicken - and applying for jobs. Anna says she would take “a job, any job - to look after disabled people, old people, mad people, painting and decorating, cooking, cleaning” - but because of her criminal record, finding work is difficult.
Updated
We’ve been hearing from readers who’ve been sharing their stories about supporting homeless people.
Fran Hughes has told us there just aren’t enough shelters for young homeless people she works with in Bristol:
One of the toughest parts of my work with young homeless people is spending a day or often several days desperately trying to help them find a bed somewhere, anywhere that is relatively safe and warm and away from the harsh winter weather and then having to give them a sleeping bag and personal safety advice in the knowledge they will be sleeping rough. There are not enough beds let alone warm comfortable homes for those that find themselves on the street.
For the last three years Mark Bryant and his wife have been involved with Nightstop, a scheme in the north east that provides young homeless people with an emergency bed for the night.
What I love about it, is that it is so simple. We simply offer a bed and a meal. I know it is only temporary but it buys time for somebody. In the NE Nightstop is run by DePaul and they are amazing in the way they work to find permanent accommodation for people. Inevitably I think that we are the main beneficiaries as we meet people who we would otherwise never meet and that enriches our lives.” Read more ...
The director of the Simon Community, Jamie Nalton has got in touch. The charity has been working with London’s street homeless for more than 50 years. This is what he has to say about current situation:
The numbers we are supporting on the streets is steadily increasing month to month. It’s also worth noting that over 20 London boroughs have Church shelters running through the cold months, many people using this service will return to the streets once the season is over.” Read more ...
You can share your experiences by clicking on the ‘Contribute’ button on this article.
Tonight we met... Stephen
Stephen is another ex-army man in precarious circumstances. He has been sleeping rough in Balerno, just outside Edinburgh, for some weeks. He describes an almost picturesque scene — his spot in a wooded forest, a secluded area underneath evergreen foliage where he sets up his £3 windbreaker each night.
It’s nice, it’s quiet, it’s a way out of everywhere,” he says, explaining why he often chooses to sleep rough. “It’s a hidey-hole off a path. But the other night I lost my bus-pass so I can’t get out there at the moment.”
Stephen is another user of Streetwork’s storage facilities, and has been registered as homeless to Edinburgh Council since 2012 when his wife kicked him out of their home in Devon. He was in the army for 18 years until he was medically discharged due to his mental health issues, including self harm and alcohol abuse.
My wife hasn’t spoken to me since we split up,” he says. “My behaviour, my drinking, it became worse. I became argumentative, abusive - not physically but certainly verbally - and she just, quite rightly, had enough. She went to the police and got me physically removed.”
Stephen visits Streetwork and his community psychiatric nurse often, and is eloquent, polite, smiley even. It’s hard to imagine him being abusive to anyone. But his difficulties reared their head when he was put into permanent accommodation just under a year ago. Sadly, it didn’t work out.
I got my own flat on June the 27th last year until November. I couldn’t cope. The only person I spoke to on a regular basis was the guy at the corner shop who sold me my little bottles of vodka,” he says.
Stephen prefers his life on the streets in many ways.
On the streets I’m still quite lonely but there’s always someone to talk to,” he says.
He spends a lot of time at local libraries. He recommends the final book in the Disc-world series by Terry Prachett.
He is one of the many people Streetwork identifies as needing some sort of supported accommodation, rather than being dumped in isolated flats on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Sadly, there’s not much of it on offer in the heavily owner-occupied city, which is clearly struggling to look after its homeless citizens.
Of course, rough sleepers are just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more find themselves one step away from the streets, still homeless but nudged around by authorities from pillar to temporary post.
For many of it may be hard to imagine how this happens. But we’re probably all of us just two or maybe three really bad strokes of luck away from destitution.
Former soldier David Watts told me his story, which again emphasises that homelessness can be as much about bureaucratic bungling, bewildering benefits and bad timing as about anything self-inflicted.
In December 2015 my contract came to an end and I decided to become self employed. I am a qualified sports therapist studying to obtain my personal trainer qualification. I set up my own business in January.
On 4th January 2016 I attended the Margate Gateway Services Centre to ask for help in paying my rent. I was told I couldn’t apply for housing benefit and had to apply for universal credit on line.
I applied on line and was informed that I would be contacted to attend an appointment.
I hadn’t heard anything from for a week so I phoned the help line to which the recorded message tells you if this is a new claim it will take 5 weeks to be processed.
Watts had heard nothing by the end of January, so he spent 2 hours trying to get someone on the phone only to be told there had been an error with his application. He needed to start again.
I phoned them again the following day and eventually spoke to someone and made the application over the phone. Halfway through the application he informed me that as a student and as a self employed person I was not eligible to claim universal credits and had to claim JSA (job seeker’s allowance) and this had to be made online.
I went online to make the application for JSA and on answering the qualifying questions I was informed I was not eligible to claim JSA and that I had to claim Universal credits.
I phoned Job Centre Plus and made an appointment to speak to someone about what I could and couldn’t claim.
I attended the appointment the following week only to be told that because I earned more than £102 a week I wasn’t eligible for income related JSA and that as I was self employed I wasn’t eligible for Universal Credit and that I needed to attend the Gateway Service Centre in Margate to make a claim for housing benefit.
After two months of Kafkaesque toing and froing, Watts was back where he started. Only by now he was nine weeks in arrears.
My landlord had been understanding but now I’ve been told it will take up to two more weeks for the claim to be processed - and there is no guarantee it will be backdated. By then I will be 11 weeks in arrears.
I informed the housing office that I am already 9 weeks behind and now facing the real possibility of being evicted in two weeks due to non payment of rent. I was told if I was made homeless, as a fit healthy male I am not a priority and that if I were made homeless I would just have to deal with it as there was no help available to me. Council housing teams no longer deem homelessness for males who are fit and healthy and able to work as a vulnerability.
So... having joined the army at the age of 16 and 9 months, served 8 years for my country, having worked every day of my life and paid taxes and contributed to the economy, having decided to build my own business and help others get fit to return to employment, I asked for help as I was starting out and needed to pay my rent... only to be given the wrong information action resulting in at present 9 weeks rent arrears, facing the prospect of homelessness and being told by the local council (due to government legislation) basically.... tough, you will just have to deal with it.
Watts is by no means the old army veteran we have been in touch with today...
Updated
Tonight we met... Bill West and Lee Foxall
I’ve been speaking to Bill West, 57, and Lee Foxall, 48, both living in hostels after finding themselves on the streets in recent years. Both men had long careers looking after others - Bill as a operating theatre technician in the NHS and Lee as a support worker - until they suffered devastating breakdowns following family bereavements.
They’re bristle at media portrayals of homelessness - drug-addled, drink-addicted beggars, they say - and add that they are proof that anyone can become destitute.
West says:
We get people with autism, strokes, their parents or partners died, peopel who’ve had learning dififculties, so it’s not like what TV says, pretending it’s all drink and drugs. It’s not like that.
Updated
Given the level of anger and accusation below the line, it is only fair to invite the government to respond to allegations that austerity and indifference lie behind this latest crisis.
Marcus Jones is the homelessness minister. He said:
People who find themselves homeless are some of the most vulnerable in our society and it is essential that they get the support they need.
During the last Parliament invested over £500 million to prevent households becoming homeless and we made significant progress so rough sleepers can get back on their feet.
However we remain clear that one person without a home is one too many, which why we have increased central funding for homelessness programmes and protected the homelessness prevention fund that goes to Local Authorities.
Homelessness is more than just a housing issue. Factors such as relationship breakdown, mental health, addictions and employment can all play a part. So we are working across government to consider how to improve services as well as developing a £5 million social impact bond to help the most entrenched rough sleepers move off the streets.
I have seen for myself the fantastic work that outreach teams do to support people off the streets and into independence and rough sleeping projects like No Second Night Out help to ensure that more rough sleepers are found and helped quickly.
If you see anyone sleeping rough, I’d urge you to use the free StreetLink app and website to make sure they get the warmth and support they need.”
Alas, we were not able to follow up and ask why the money has made such little apparent difference. Perhaps parliament will get some answers when the Communities and Local Government Committee considers homelessness at a hearing on Monday.
Just as worrying: refuse collection companies are reporting a rise in the number of people sleeping in bins.
The waste management firm Biffa provides a clear insight into the growing problem. Its staff discovered 31 people sleeping in bins in 2014. This rose to 93 in 2015 and then for the current financial year the figure has risen even further – to 175.
Industrial waste bins are clearly incredibly dangerous place to sleep. Across the UK, eleven people have been killed in the past five years because of sleeping in bins, according to the company.
Tim Standring, Biffa’s health and safety spokesman, says:
“The more homeless people we get, the more people need to find shelter in waste containers. It is a growing problem for the UK not just our company.” Staff check every bin now before emptying it into their disposal vans.
Another waste management company, Veolia, has been working with homelessness charities to try to educate people about the potentially fatal consequences of sleeping in dustbins.
Here’s an interesting/worrying sign in a car park in Bristol. “Rough sleeping, begging and other anti-social behaviour, crime and disorder will not be tolerated in this car park. Anyone found engaged in these activities will be banned from the premises. If such bans are ignored Bristol city council will seek enforcement by way of a court order, breach of which could lead to a custodial sentence.”
Thanks to reader John who flagged this one up to us. He said rough sleeping was being “punished”. The notice does go on to offer advice to homeless people but the bottom line is that it does seem to be potentially criminalising rough sleepers. I’ve asked Bristol city council to comment.
Tonight we met... Michal
Michal is an example of an east European who hasn’t always found it easy in the UK - but doesn’t want to give up.
“Today I’m going to find a job,” says Michal optimistically, a service user at Streetwork in Edinburgh.
Michal is one of a number of migrants who have found themselves homeless in the city. Since 2004 and the expansion of the EU, staff members tell me they’ve seen an increase in migrants presenting themselves at the centre, often because they don’t have a support network or any family in the UK.
Staff laugh as they tell me about their troubles with spelling Eastern European surnames, and one of the receptionists, who is a native Polish speaker, is constantly in demand.
My partner still lives in Poland,” says Michal, who became homeless shortly after moving back to the UK a month ago and losing his job. “She’s waiting for me. I’m too embarrassed to call her and tell her I have no money. I was so unlucky, just before I lost my job I sent all of my savings back home.”
Having worked in Dundee four years ago, Michal only returned to the UK because he struggled to find employment at home. He’s adamant that he doesn’t want to “stay here and claim benefits”, but says that he was forced into accessing Streetwork’s services or else he could have found himself sleeping rough.
Streetwork have been helping Michal with his CV, and he nervously shows me a copy of it, wondering if it looks professional enough.
Yesterday I spoke to many people and there’s a lot of jobs going, but they want to see my CV, so today I’ve prepared it,” he says. “The ideal job would be in construction or on a farm out in the countryside.”
However, Michal studied history in Poland and has a passion for the Middle Ages.
There’s no Polish schools here, and my English isn’t good enough to teach British people but I liked learning about the bloody battles and I like video games of battles too - some men never grow up!”
The migrant factor
There’s been plenty below the line tonight to suggest that people think a key cause of this homeless spike is immigration, so let’s focus on that for a few minutes.
The truth, as ever, is far more nuanced, as the Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman reports:
There’s a lot of confusion about whether the sharp rise in rough sleeping is the result of migration to the UK or not – and partly this is because the official figures don’t tell us. Many charities are seeing a steep rise in UK rough sleepers, as well as recording higher numbers from outside the country, but it is hard to do a reliable breakdown of what proportion of rough sleepers are from the UK and how many are from elsewhere, because outside London there are no government statistics.
In London there is a detailed annual survey, the Chain reports [http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports] reveal that 43% of recorded rough sleepers in 2014-15 were from the UK, while 35% were from Central and Eastern European countries. After the UK, Romania was the next most frequently recorded country of origin, with 18.7%, of the total, followed by Poland, at 9.6%. But it’s more complicated than that, because these figures may overstate the non-UK population, since most migrant rough sleepers aren’t eligible for help with housing or hostels (they aren’t eligible for housing benefit) so they are likely to be on the streets for longer than UK nationals, who can in theory be helped into emergency accommodation.
A lot of Romanian rough sleepers in the capital are working, but too poor to afford rent, according to the annual Crisis Homelessness Monitor report [http://www.crisis.org.uk/pages/homelessnessmonitor.html]. Outreach workers in London describe meeting Romanian rough sleepers who are working for agencies sub-contracted to provide refuse collection and street cleaning services for London councils – cleaning the streets that they are sleeping on. Others are working as cheap day labourers for builders, for as little as £15 a day, and sleeping rough at night because renting is unaffordable.
There is funding to help European rough sleepers return home.
If it is clear that work is not realistic for a number of reasons (support needs around mental health, substance misuse or simply lack of language, skills and social skills) we will always try to help people make the big decision to reconnect to their home countries,” Eammon Egerton, an outreach worker with St Mungo’s, explains.
Updated
The Homeless World Cup is set to be held in Glasgow in July of this year, and yesterday trials were announced for the team which will take place in later this month and into April.
The annual football tournament sees more than 70 countries taking part and is one of the few football competitions where Scotland excel - winning the cup both in 2007 and 2011.
However, David Duke, who heads up the Scottish team as part of his organisation, Street Soccer, says that what’s more important to him is the work he and his fellow staff members and volunteers do every day.
We’ve got 30 programmes a week and we’re servicing over 100 players,” says David, “We work with people affected by poverty and often homelessness. It’s super diverse, from 16-year-old girls to 68 year old men from Latvia!”
I’ve met David, and Ally Dawson - a former Rangers player who works for Street Soccer in Glasgow and will be coaching the Homeless Scotland team this year - at Leith Community Centre, at one of their drop-in sessions. David has been playing a match with some of the boys (and one girl) who have turned up.
We have drop in events like this one which anyone can come down to. Once they’re engaged with it, they have personal development training, and they can progress to being volunteers.
I set it up in 2009 and because I’d experienced homelessness in my early 20s. It was after my Dad passed away and I had cut myself off from friends and family. I actually played at the Homeless World Cup,” David says.
Our aim is to inspire change, promote change and let the people who play be in control of it.”
Ally and David take me through to where a match is being played in the main hall at the centre. “Should have brought your trainers,” Ally says, his eyes immediately swivelling to watch the game.
Check out Street Soccer Scotland on Twitter: @streetsoccerSCO
Updated
Tonight we met... Ray Braithwaite
Ray Braithwaite has dropped by for some hot food with his girlfriend. The 40-year-old has been in Harrogate for 22 years, moving here from Grimsby.
The port town which has any drug you could want to lay your hands on,” he said. Braitwaite was in care by the time he was eight, and spent his first night out on the streets aged 13.
I started taking drugs when I was 12, and I was 33 when I decided I needed to sort my life out. I’d seen it all by that point. Now on the streets I’m seeing the generation below me. The sons of the people I knew, I don’t want to see that. I want to help them, I just wish there was something I could do.”
His former partner died six years ago, a woman Braithwaite credits with showing him there was more to life than cycles of drugs and prison sentences.
She was the breath of fresh air I needed. I didn’t know how to ask for help until I met her.
Recently local residents had complained about anti-social behaviour, and Braithwaite said he had taken himself along to the local town meeting to put across the perspective of the homeless.
It took me a long time to get to speak, but they finally saw me with my hand up and I spoke. And they had to acknowledge they don’t know it’s just homeless people urinating in public or causing the trouble. People are blinkered sometimes, they look through you and think you’re a bum.
A quick word on international comparisons. Of course, this is not a British disease. Guardian data journalist Pamela Duncan reports that France has a comparable problem - around 81,000 homeless and just under 8,000 rough sleepers.
She has also drawn our attention to this ready reckoner, but I can’t really vouch for its accuracy. In any case, rough sleeping data for Europe has been transformed beyond all recognition by the migrant crisis so that official figures will be fairly meaningless. Still...
Further afield, US figures show that as a whole homelessness has been falling since 2007. But not in California, where more than 20% of the nations homeless population lives.
According to this latest report from our own west coast reporter Julia Wong, in California, 63.7% of the homeless population lacks shelter.
“We lost five people recently,” says Andrew Faris, the founder of Rhythms of Life, the cafe for homeless people in Hackney.
“Nicky’s gone, Shaun’s gone, Michael’s gone...” he says. The men were sleeping rough on the streets of London and were lost to starvation or hypothermia. Shaun, who had been sleeping rough in Ridley Market, was only 23 when he died.
Another person who was part of their community, Rosa, also 23, who had been sleeping behind the Palace Theatre, died on Valentine’s Day. Despite repeated calls to the coroner’s office, Faris still doesn’t know how she died - they won’t release that information because he is not a relative.
Rosa became homeless after fleeing from Leeds, where she lived with her mother and stepfather. Her stepfather abused her, she told Faris, and when she told her mother about the abuse, her mother kicked her out of the house.
“We got her details, we passed them on to the authorities, we rang Streetlink, but they didn’t get there in time,” says Faris. “You know the way the rules are they have to see you sleeping rough for several night before you count as ‘homeless’, so they must’ve seen her night one, night two, but by night five it was too late.”
Updated
Homelessness isn’t just confined to inner cities and down-at-heel parts of the country.
The picturesque North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate was named the happiest place to live in Britain in 2015, with its award-winning floral displays, Georgian architecture and the delicate pastries in Betty’s tea room all playing a part, as well as low crime and affluent residents.
But homelessness is prevalent, and rising in line with the national picture, caused by a lack of affordable housing in an area where property is often more expensive than other parts of the county.
In the early evening at the Springboard centre, 20 people are eating hot spicy meatballs and pasta off paper plates. Church groups take it in turns to buy and prepare the meal in the kitchen, but tonight a group of friends, led by colleagues Emma Hodgson and Wendy Hartley, are at the stove, stirring rice pudding.
“It’s a way to give something back, every 14 weeks or so, which doesn’t break the bank,” Hartley said. “In a town like this, I don’t think people really see it, they don’t realise something like this can go on.”
Updated
Streetwork’s Crisis Centre in Edinburgh is a hidden little place, down near the Cowgate in the centre of town, but earlier this morning there was a queue outside the building. Their services - which include hot showers, washing machines, locker rooms and tasty pastries provided by the Manna House Bakery on Easter Road - are in demand.
“We’re especially busy earlier on because we fill in the gap after homeless people get kicked out of shelters - which are often churches in Edinburgh,” says Mike Bell, project manager at the centre. “There were probably about 15 people waiting this morning to have access to storage, shower, and link up with practitioners.”
There are conflicting opinions regarding figures on homelessness in Edinburgh. Shelter Scotland state that overall the number of people presenting as homeless to the council has reduced by 15% over the last five years, but they believe this to be due to a “renewed preventative approach rather than a change in the underlying drivers of homelessness”.
Their latest figures, from 2014-15, show that less than 3% of people are now classed as rough sleepers, but there are currently Shelter posters up at Streetwork which claim the amount of rough sleepers in Edinburgh is increasing. Staff on the ground say the number of people they have encountered has been stable, if not rising, for many years.
This will give you a good idea of the scale of the problem,” says Bell, taking me through to their storage room. “These are purely for people who are street-based. One person, one compartment. It’s not a lot of space to have your whole world in.”
The room is dark and stuffed to the rafters. Each compartment is packed with a different arrangement of clothes, suitcases and sleeping bags.
Updated
Still in the capital, Rhythms of Life community cafe in Hackney serves hot meals to homeless and disadvantaged people three nights a week, and lunch on Fridays. It’s one of many charities aiming to help the homeless of London. On any given night in autumn 2015, the last period for which figures are available, there were about 940 rough sleepers in the capital, which accounted for 26% of the total number across the country. The number of rough sleepers in London has increased 27% in the last year alone.
Tonight, about 20 people have turned up to Rhythms for Life for chicken, pumpkin, beans, and broccolli.
“Organic broccolli,” says founder Andrew Faris, who slept rough himself for a period. “It got delivered yesterday.”
Not everyone who comes to Rhythms of Life is homeless, but for many the cafe plays a crucial role in keeping their heads above water, when every pound is counted and an emergency or - and this thought strikes terror into some at the cafe - benefit sanctions, could spell disaster for them.
Sergio, 44, is not homeless. He lives in a council flat, but struggles to find work because he cannot read or write well. About five years ago he was homeless for a year. “Sometimes when it was cold I would ride the bus all night, there and back, there and back. Many times someone would say to me, ‘sorry sir you can’t stay, this is not a hotel. But it gets very cold in this country,” says Sergio, who is originally from Bogota, Colombia.
Sergio has been coming to Rhythms of Life for about a year and comes along every day it is open, partly for the company - “I like the people, they’re very friendly, very helpful” - and partly because he receives “healthy meals”, which help keep him going.
Michael, another regular cuts in to complain about how close to the line many people who visit the cafe are living.
“If I didn’t have this place, I wouldn’t get nothing to eat. Or I would be getting up to badness out there to get food,” he says.
Indeed, music as therapy is a big part of the homelessness scene. Guardian contributor Naomi Larsson writes about a London programme that, like many of its participants, faces an uncertain future.
Homeless people have been writing and recording songs in a London studio for seven years, having a safe space for creative self-expression. These songwriting workshops are run by company Lupus Albus using the recording studio in the basement of St Mungo’s Broadway hostel in Endell street. With close guidance from a tutor, the clients create and record a song, and come away with a CD of their own music.
But these workshops are now under threat of closure. Since St Mungo’s and Broadway merged in 2014 the charity has had to make cuts to services – songwriting workshops are no longer a priority.
Natalie Pilato from Lupus Albus believes creativity is “fundamental for someone to have a sense of self-worth and understand where they fit in society”.
“It’s important to commit to something, especially for homeless people who are used to having disrupted lives,” she says.
In the morning clients discuss themes for songs with the tutor and musicians who work in the nearby Denmark Street music shops, before recording in the studio.
Deborah has been coming to the workshops for two years. She is homeless, and lives here in the Endell Street hostel. “Coming to this project makes me feel a lot better in myself. It makes my day a happy day.”
Another regular client John writes a song about his anxieties. He worries about the future of these workshops. “Only in the last year have I really made progress in my recovery, and these workshops are a huge part of that.”
Tonight we met... the Choir with no name
In Birmingham, around 30 people are huddled in Carrs Lane Church, in the city centre. The two things they all have in common? They’ve currently homeless or have spent time on the streets - and they love belting out a good song.
They’re The Choir With No Name, a choir for homeless people that started in Birmingham five years ago after being founded in London in 2009. For some, it’s a lifeline - somewhere to socialise, sing and escape whatever misery they’re currently going through.
And there’s more where that came from. Here they do a Bowie tribute...
...while here they sing Lost and Found, a song they wrote about homelessness
Updated
Amelia Gentleman, who wrote a moving piece about homelessness this week, has been asking Sarah Macfadyen, policy manager with homelessness charity Crisis, for the reasons behind this new spike.
1) What has caused this sharp rise in rough sleeping?
More and more households are struggling to pay their rent in an increasingly insecure market – the loss of a private tenancy is now the number one cause of homelessness in England. Meanwhile cuts to housing benefit and local authority homelessness services and the implementation of benefits sanctions have left the safety net in tatters.
2) Is Crisis depressed to see this problem re-emerge, only a few years after a period of optimism about reductions in rough sleeping?
The rise in rough sleeping is devastating- the realities of life on the streets are truly horrific: the average age of death of a homeless people is just 47, which is 30 years lower than the general population, while people who sleep rough are far more likely to be dependent on drugs or alcohol or to suffer from mental illness than the general population. Physical health conditions are common, particularly respiratory problems.
Homeless people are over nine times more likely to commit suicide than the general population, deaths as a result of infections are twice as likely and they are 13 times more likely to be a victim of violence.
3) Who is to blame?
We know that the economic downturn and the long term housing shortage has played a role, but what our research clearly shows is that political choices have a huge impact on homelessness. Recent research by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation showed that benefit cuts are taking a dreadful toll on people’s lives, with rising numbers facing the loss of their home at a time when councils are being forced to cut services.
4) What should the government do?
The Government has made positive steps towards tackling homelessness in recent months, but the latest rise in rough sleeping is a stark and sobering reminder of how much needs to be done.
We urgently need a change in the law so that all homeless people can get the help they need. The shocking truth is that even in the 21st century, homeless people who ask their councils for help are being turned away to sleep on the streets. We also need to see funding protected and, critically, a wide-ranging reform of private renting
5) How can people help when they see people sleeping rough?
The best thing to do is to call Streetlink on 0300 500 0914, which helps connect rough sleepers to outreach services in their area. You can also donate to a local homelessness charity or volunteer.
Tonight we met... Adekola Adepoju
Growing up in Nigeria, Adekola Adepoju – or Kola to his mates – appeared destined for greatness. He was top of his class in almost every subject, representing his school in everything from debating to dance (he does a mean robot).
But then, on 29 December 2003, everything changed. And it changed dramatically. Then 20 years old, Kola was driving to the beach with a friend when their car smashed into roadworks, sending it spinning through the air. His right femur was broken; his right ankle obliterated. The injuries to his head were grave: large scars are still visible on the base and right-side of his skull, where his hair cannot grow back.
The accident left him in intensive care for three months. When he was released, he could not walk or recognise his own mother. Once the poster boy of his school, Kola had to relearn his ABCs.
I believe there will always be challenges but I don’t let the negative thoughts weigh me down,” he says in the homeless drop-in centre, Sifa Fireside, in Birmingham. “I keep focusing on the positives. I know I don’t pay for the air that I breathe through my nose so I thank god for that. I always think: today will be hard but tomorrow will be better.”
Kola, now 32, has been homeless in Birmingham for four years. He came to Britain in 2009 to study at Anglia Ruskin university in Cambridge on a scholarship paid for by his secondary school in Nigeria, so proud are they of his intellect.
The Anglia Ruskin degree didn’t work out – all the classes were full – so he moved to Dudley to start a course at Computeach, the IT training provider, while working nights at McDonalds. Then, one night after work, he returned to his rented flat to find the locks had been changed. He had been evicted without notice. The landlord, he says, gave him no explanation.
“That’s what rendered me homeless,” he says. “I had my laptops. I couldn’t carry all my luggage. That’s when I went to Birmingham and went to sleep in the park in Selly Oak.”
He would eat from a dustbin behind McDonalds until staff realised what he was doing, installed CCTV cameras and then called the police who, he says, arrested him on the spot. For three years after that Kola slept on the first-floor of a multi-storey car park. He would be woken every night by other homeless men drinking, shouting, having sex on the level above. He was robbed twice by a group of rough sleepers.
“There was five or six people – I could not beat five or six people. They beat me and removed by laptop, another took my phone, then they were gone”.
Only in recent months, after he walked through the doors at the Birmingham-based charity Sifa Fireside, has Kola been able to find a hostel. He has no recourse to public funds – nor does he want to claim benefits – so most places won’t put a roof over his head. He has a job interview lined up in the next few weeks so soon he hopes he will be able to pay his way.
Everything Kola has faced would be enough to finish most people off. But he remains positive. He doesn’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. He reads chess books and is almost surgically attached to his headphones. He’s not on benefits and is saddened by other rough sleepers who spend their handout on drink or drugs.
“You can only go up or go down. David Cameron does not have three heads – he has one head just like me. It’s because of the decisions he took that got him where he is today. We determine our outcome by ourselves every second, of every hour, of every day.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people sleeping rough in Bristol. Ninety seven were recorded in the latest street count – the highest number outside London. In 2013 and 2014 the figure was 41; between 2010 and 2012 it was just eight or nine.
The actual figure will be more than 97 – sofa surfers are not included and the counting team does not go into unsafe buildings and squats.
In addition there has been a doubling in the last three years of the number of households who present to the city council as homeless or at risk of being homeless. This totals around 5,000 now.
The city council pays for between 300 and 400 “bed and breakfast” places (the correct term is “nightly purchased accommodation”) every day. It also purchases 1,100 units for people who are being helped out of homelessness and into longer-term accommodation.
Why is there such a problem in Bristol? The bottom line is that the amount of permanent, affordable accommodation his shrinking.
Firstly, the availability of social housing. Three or four years ago 3,000 homes became available every year – ie new ones were built or people moved out. That figure will fall to below 2,000 this year. New social housing is not being built and people already in social housing are staying put.
And in the private sector rents have gone sky high. Mainly because Bristol is booming, more people with money are moving in and landlords are putting up rents.
It used to be that the biggest reasons for homelessness were young people being kicked out of home or people fleeing domestic violence. Those still significant but are being outstripped by people losing private sector tenancies.
Updated
If you’ve experienced homelessness, or work with homeless people, we’d like to hear from you. You can share your stories with us by clicking on the ‘Contribute’ button on this article. We’ll include as many as we can in the live blog.
Otherwise, stay with us as we take a quick tour of the country and find out who our correspondents have been meeting.
First things first: the numbers. Counting the homeless is not straightforward. There seem to be at least three different measures. Firstly, rough sleepers. This number is a snapshot of people sleeping on the streets on any given night. It was recorded at 3,569 in England in 2015 - double what it was in 2010.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg, as the Guardian’s social policy editor Patrick Butler explained earlier this week. Beyond that, there are thousands more - 54,000 households at the last count - of people who have been granted assistance from local authorities to address their housing needs. Many (5,910) live in B&Bs while they await more permanent solutions. Others sit it out in mobile homes, lodgings, and other improvised solutions.
But of course not everyone is accepted under these “statutory homeless” arrangements. The Crisis charity reported that a total of 275,000 people needed help last year to address some aspect of housing insecurity.
Perhaps the most striking figure of all is not about homelessness at all. At the latest count there are 610,000 empty properties in England.
Introduction
Good evening. Welcome to this rolling report about homelessness and rough sleeping.
We thought scenes like these were on the way out, after the good years of the 1990s and 2000s, when homelessness felt like it was becoming a thing of the past.
Not so. This outward visible sign of our inability to look after the most vulnerable in society is back and spreading. Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and of course London - nowhere it seems is immune. And not just the big metropolises either. Our inbox has been inundated in the last 24 hours by people from Swindon, Canterbury, Cambridge, Brighton, Bristol, Nottingham, Oxford... This graph might explain why:
In short, it’s a bleak picture out there. So for the next six hours or so, we’ll be reporting from around the country on the homeless. Who are they? Do they all sleep rough? How many? Why? And, as ever, what is to be done? We’ll be hearing from people with no roof over their heads tonight, from others who rebuilt their lives after homelessness - and from the inspiring people who quietly work to help both.
Do get in touch with our team, who are: Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) in Birmingham, Charlie Cuff (@CharlieBCuff) in Edinburgh, Steve Morris (@stevenmorris20) in Bristol, Jessica Elgot (@JessicaElgot) in Harrogate and Kate Lyons (@MsKateLyons) in London. I’m Mark Rice-Oxley (@markriceoxley69) at the controls.
