The Government has made promises but everything takes time. It's early days yet and we don't know what they're going to do. I've been homeless three years, it's no worse or any better. I look after myself, I have to, we all have to on the streets. We look after ourselves and we look after each other. We have to come out here and do out work to survive, even if that is begging, we have to do it to survive, albeit selling the Big Issue, whatever.

When I first came out onto the streets three years ago I came out of a broken marriage. The people I have met over these last three years are now my family. We have to look after each other, no one else will. All these politicians want to do something but their hands are tied. Giving us a sandwich is not solving the problem. We are not going to go away because you give us a pound. I smoke, I drink, I take drugs... that's the life, because I am partying with friends. You need to do something to take to survive, you need a crutch. My crutch is a few beers every day.

I was in Edges Magazine about 18 months ago. I am still here in London and homeless. I continue to beg. It's alright giving us a flat, but we need more help. I wake up each morning early, go out and beg, "spare some change, spare some change, spare some change". This is how I start each day. I often get moved on by the Police, I get given abuse. It's out of order, I'm only out to earn a crust. I've tried selling the "Big Issue" but it doesn't work for me.

I've been in London about six years now, I came down here from Leeds, but I think I'll stop here forever. You get people offering you jobs but they're not the jobs you want to do. I sleep in doorways.

Because I'm under 25, even if I was to be offered a flat tomorrow I would have to go out an earn £250 a week because the Government is not willing to pay. And then there's the other situation if you're over 25 they won't let you into certain Day Centres. I don't understand why a man of 25 is allowed more money from the Government to pay for a flat and a man under 25 can't get this same amount. .

This is the problem I have with the politicians I've been in London for five years, since I was 17. I've been homeless for two and a half years. I've got lots of hobbies but you can't really do any hobbies when you're sleeping in a doorway. I believe in God, you need something to believe in.

The Prime Minister has breakfast with Michael Heseltine and other members of the Millennium Dome Commission at the Royal Festival Hall, whilst a few hundred yards away I spend time with a group of young homeless people who drink cans of beer which numbs the reality of their situation and blocks out the pain of their existence. For security reasons they have been moved on several times; " We will not go away even if you give us a œ1.00 or a sandwich, our problems are real and we are here to stay," still grieved at their treatment from the police, they want to voice their views to the Church through our publication - Edges. They leave an imprint on my mind of a vulnerable and exposed people who are trapped by the tragedy of homelessness and unemployment.

I am on my way to a meeting at the offices of the Bishop's Conference where I will sit round a table in a stuffy room discussing urban issues and the role of the Church. Yet I'm going to be late for the meeting; I bump into Paul who wrote an article for our magazine 18 months ago. He is still homeless and pumping his veins with heroin. I hardly recognise his face. He is pale, haggard and gaunt. Earlier on in the day he vomited blood. His dreary appearance exhibits his present situation, a menu of drugs and homelessness, still trapped in despair.

We venerate the Stations of the Cross not on walls of plaster in a Church of cement but in the mess of street life which is smeared with cries of the addict known as the junkie and the smackhead.