As Covid-19 takes a scythe to our communities, and the lockdown (vital though it is) threatens our society, it is time to change the way we think about street living.
The Big Issue was founded in 1991 in London’s West End to provide “a hand up, not a handout” to the homeless (How we made the Big Issue magazine, 7 April). Nearly 30 years later, for the first time in our history, Big Issue vendors have had to stop selling on the streets of Britain. The 70,000-strong readership that Big Issue vendors have come to rely on socially and financially has evaporated, and with it, their income.
The good news? We’re fighting back. Our weekly magazine can be delivered to your door via a subscription, and you can also buy the magazine in select Co-op, Sainsbury’s and McColl’s stores – or via the new Big Issue app. Head to bigissue.com for full details.
Please help us support Big Issue vendors in these testing times. And once this crisis is over, let’s ensure rough sleepers aren’t turfed back on to the streets. We need a watershed in how we treat the homeless so they have the strongest chance of flourishing in a post-pandemic world.
John Bird
Founder and editor-in-chief, the Big Issue
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