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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| August 24, 2004 |
Dover, England – Meeting Londonís Homeless |
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| London's busy streets |
Traveling past the cattle pastures and rolling hills of Kent, roughly 25 Peace Boat participants made
their way from Dover to London to examine a problem invisible to most of the picturesque countryside
- homelessness. By contrast, in London today there are around 500 people sleeping rough or on the
streets each night, with thousands more living in hostels, squats, churches, and other temporary housing.
Mental illness (approx. 40% of all homeless), drug (50%) and alcohol abuse (60%), as well as a lack
of family support play a large roll in the homeless population. Mike Seal, a former heroine addict
who has subsequently been working with homeless as a street worker and a lecturer for 15 years, accompanied
Peace Boat to London to provide insight on the issue. To illustrate the seriousness of the homeless
problem Mike pointed out that homeless people are 8 times more likely to be physically harmed, five
times more likely to be raped, and currently have an average life expectancy of 42 years old. |
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| Mike Seal discussing homelessness at NGO: Thames Reach Bondway |
Mike pointed out that defining homelessness is complex. To many the number of people sleeping on the
streets in London per night may sound manageable; yet, to social organizations and outreach workers,
homelessness also includes people living in temporary accommodations. This number is up by about 100,000,
and "in the UK there are around 2 million people living in inadequate housing," said Mike.
According to the Crisis organization, much of this group can be defined as "hidden homeless" of
which they believe there are around 380,000. The hidden homeless consist of people trapped in circumstances
that leave them excluded from mainstream society, unable to participate in the community in which
they live. Mike explained that comprising the largest percentage of this hidden homeless population
are asylum seekers who have been refused refugee status who "become forced to live 'underground'." |
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| Tony, standing in front of St. Martins in the fields church, historic for aiding
homeless |
Moving into downtown London, Mike took Peace Boat participants to meet Tony Doubsin, formerly homeless
for 30 years, who now works with homeless people as a senior researcher studying street culture. On
top of building relationships on the street, Tony works on three levels: in the voluntary sector,
with local authority, and with government. Since leaving the streets a little over five years ago
he has personally interviewed over 2500 people living on the streets, and has organized teams of outreach
workers who together have interviewed over 6000. Tony says his approach is "to meet to talk with
people on their own turf." Explaining that he finds fault with many of the current approaches
of outreach workers he said, "you can't give someone on the street a card and say, lets meet
later. What you need to establish is trust. Once you've established trust with the person, then they
can move on [off the street] if they wish." |
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| Michael selling copy of Big Issue to Peace Boat participants |
Leading us through the areas of central London and the Strand, we followed Tony to many of his former
sleeping grounds. Saying hello to some of his friends Tony introduced the group to Michael, a homeless
man now selling copies of Big Issue to make a living. Established in 1991, Big Issue allows the vulnerably
housed a chance to make an income, and recognizes that being housed is only the first step to getting
off the street. Currently in training to sell Big Issue in London, Michael has previously sold the
magazine in Liverpool, Manchester, and others areas. Eager to introduce the group to his 12-year-old
dog Charlie, he said, "for the job you need to have the right attitude. You have to be friendly,
but not too friendly." |
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| Tony shows Peace Boat participant location of the old "cardboard city" |
Retracing more of Tony's past experiences Peace Boat walked by the former Lincoln Inn Fields; formerly
the largest homeless cardboard community in London, destroyed to make way for an Imax theater in 2003. "All
this used to be open, one of my bashes used to be just over there," explained Tony, who said
he remains psychologically scarred from some of the violence he witnessed while on the streets. This
violence even included a murder, but Tony says this is what drives him to fight injustices. "I
won't hold back if I see injustices - I just want people to open their eyes." |
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| Helen Leech discusses Crisis Skylight |
Peace Boat then traveled to the Skylight Café - a new café staffed
by homeless people working with Crisis Skylight, a flagship program started by the long established
NGO Crisis. After sitting down to lunch and conversing with staff, a member of Crisis Skylight,
Helen Leech, explained the background of the 18-month-old "spiritual development" branch
of the organization. The organization now holds daily classes for over 100 people a day, runs seven
days a week, and provides over 50 activities ranging from computer training courses, bicycle repair,
performing arts, creative writing or "just about anything imaginable." This leads to
training, education and self-sufficiency. "Were about engaging homeless people, to add purpose
to their life, beat boredom, build motivation, and make them self motivated."
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| Peace Boat sits down at Skylight Café |
After leaving Crisis Skylight Peace Boat walked through the Brick Lane district, an area historically
friendly to newly migrated refugee populations, to the Thames Reach Bondway; a charity dedicated to
ending street homelessness. John Ames of the organization explained that the work they do starts on
the street but the next stage is re-housing and adjustment. Ames explained that they work on building
confidence and education skills, noting that, "for people on the street for 25 years it takes
time to adjust to living back inside." Peace Boat then met with Justine, of Cardboard Citizens,
a theater company that works with homeless people to create interactive theater performances. The
idea behind Cardboard Citizens is to engage people on issues of homelessness by developing plays based
on real experiences. To end the day, Peace Boat participants discussed of many remaining questions
on homeless issues; leaving London with a much wider view of the problems that exist on city's streets. |
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