Homelessness in the UK…?

One of the culture shocks I experienced when I arrived in the United Kingdom is seeing homeless people sleeping on the streets; people who had no place to live, people who slept on the bare floor and depend on the generosity of others to feed. People who looked as though they had lost not only material things but also hope!

WHO IS A HOMELESS PERSON?

A Homeless person (also known as a Rough-sleeper) can be seen to be someone who for one reason or the other have lost his/her place of comfort, e.g their family, rooms, or personal space, etc; due to addictions issues, relationship breakdown, mental health breakdown other reasons.

One of my first experiences witnessed this young woman on a train. It was on my way to Brighton from London bridge. I noticed she was sitting quietly at one corner of the train, and after a minute she walked up to me from the back of the train and dropped a pack of tissue and a piece of paper on the chair opposite me. The paper reads:

“Sorry for the inconvenience, I have no job and help. I have a 1yr old child and I’m asking for help to pay for rent and feeding…” with a few spelling errors (see image below), but I got the message. She did the same for everyone traveling on the train, and after dropping the paper, she returned to each seat to pick up the coins many dropped off for her.

Photos were taken on 9th Nov 2020

Note written by a young homeless lady on a train

I really wanted to ask her a few questions about her situation but the timing wasn’t right.

Homeless people in a “developed country”? I asked myself. I found this very intriguing and decided to take up research on “homelessness in the Uk”, as part of my Master’s degree project, and I made my first short documentary film titled “Home in Distress”. The research was a multimedia project comprising a podcast, documentary film, still photographs, all embedded in a website.

My film was an expository documentary which I happen to also be featured in as an actor. The film began with an opening statement which was indeed a fact:

“I USED TO THINK THAT EVERYONE OVERSEAS HAD EVERYTHING THEY WANTED UNTIL I CAME HERE”!

Author interviewing a homeless man @Brighton, UK

The film also features two “rough sleepers” who shared a really touchy story about their homelessness. I came across one homeless man who told me how he lost his entire family in a car accident and also lost his job at the same time. Another lady shared with me how she was sexually abused by her father at a very young age and then ended up with a partner who lured her into alcoholism and drugs. Also, in London, I notice that there’s a high number of homeless veterans, soldiers who went to war and fought for the country but do not have access to rehabilitation and support. I featured one soldier in my short documentary film and according to him, he’s been homeless since 1998. And I couldn’t help but wonder why there was little or no support for someone like him.

Author interviewing a homeless man @Tower Bridge, London

These are very tough situations for people to get through. And it helps to be kind to these people when you come across them.

As of December 2021, England Shelter records that 274,000 people are homeless in England, with thousands more at risk of homelessness. Doing this project gave me an insight into some of the reasons behind homelessness, especially in a developed country. I suppose seeing homeless people in a city like London appeared shocking to me because these stories are barely portrayed in the media. This goes a long way to tell you that there might be more to what you see on the news, TV, and other forms of media, as I highlighted in this article.

Being a victim of the single-story the least I expected to see in a developed nation such as the UK is people begging on the streets, as there are barely stories of “poverty” in the so-called developed nations. This is one of the “dangers of a single story” as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would describe it.

Author filming a homeless man in Brighton

Things like homelessness and poverty are often painted by the media as being only associated with Africa or the “Third World”. That poverty is a thing apart, a thing for Black and Brown people, and that it always had an “abject” quality to it. Today, I know how wrong my assumption was.

Rough-sleeper lying on the floor @Stratford, London

Rough-sleepers mattress @Stratford, London

This make-believe has not only created stereotypes but has negatively shaped how Westerners perceive people from the Third World.

And this, I believe, can only be corrected by storytelling and saying things as they truly are. A certain fact to consider in changing the narrative is WHO tells WHAT story!? This role the media has a large chunk to play.

In my podcast I interviewed the Manager of one of the Homelessness charities in Brighton, who shared some of the reasons behind homelessness which include: addictions issues, relationship breakdown, mental health breakdown, etc; but we’re left with the question: can homelessness be completely solved?

Homeless man @London Bridge

This is one of the reasons why I chose to volunteer for Crisis, a homelessness charity that not only caters to homeless people by providing them with accommodation but also rehabilitates and employs them as part of their workforce.

I know what it feels like to be out in the cold; the type of cold that can make you numb and freeze your soul if you’re out for too long, and seeing these rough sleepers living not just one day, but every day of their lives, day and night, in the cold, made me want to be part of bringing a solution to their situation.

These homeless people have got families like you and I, some are educated like you and I, and are normal people like you and I. And as I said in my documentary film, the only difference between you and them is the roof above your head.

So when next you see a homeless person, be kind!

Author with coursemates interviewing a homeless lady, Tower Hill, London

In the course of my volunteering I have had the opportunity to build relationships with previously homeless people, and their stories and experiences are some of the most amazing ones I’ve heard. Their experience enables them to live one day at a time, and knowing how anxious i can get about things, this idea has helped shape my life positively and made me become less worried about things.

By volunteering at Crisis’s Charity Shop I am able to raise funds and engage with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. And I believe that by doing this I’m also contributing my quota to ending homelessness!

My time with Crisis is one of my 2021 highlights.

Here’s a video summarizing my year with Crisis, 2021.

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