THE HOMELESS CHILD

My name is Lisa and I have been on the streets since I was 14 years old, so it has been just over 5 years now. My father is Irish and when I was 14 he left me when I was at school; I came back home from school and there was a note on the door saying that he'd gone back to Ireland, and that was it. It was a council flat, and at 14 years of age I couldn't stay there on my own. My mother passed away when I was 12 . I have got one brother, aged 17, he's at college in Liverpool and I go up to see him occasionally when he's on leave, school holidays etc.

When I first came on to the streets it was extremely frightening, I was only 14, everybody else was a lot older than me, I didn't know anyone; I was just really scared. It took me, what .... 3 months to get used to it. Even now though, after 5 years, I still get frightened sometimes, like when I am on my own late at night. I have been a heroin addict, I've been a crack addict, I'm now clean off both of them. I started getting into solvents at one point, lighter gas and stuff, I'm clean off that. All I do now is just smoke Cannabis and that's just an occasional thing. Apart from that I've done really well.

I have been attacked and stuff on the streets, when I was younger, but that hasn't happened since I was 16; but people know now round here that I can look after myself, so nobody really starts at me anymore. It's a lot easier than it was, I mean I don't mind it now, it's not so bad. I am on a council waiting list, November I'll get my flat anyway.

When I first came to the streets, the first place I went to is where most people go, the Strand. I met a lot of the alcoholics and drug addicts. That's what got me into the drugs and stuff. Now I just keep away from them all. I mean, I have got drug addict friends, well acquaintances, they're not friends round here they're acquaintances. I have got a street brother, his name is Matt. A street brother is somebody that you look after and they look after you. You take care of each other on the streets. My street brother is 16 years old. He's great, I get along with him but sometimes he can be a bit of a pain, but we look after each other. If I've got a bit of money or something then I sort him out. He is on gear, but he tries to stay away from it.

This place changes all the time. What happens is that a lot of people come, they last 3, 4, 5 or 6 months and they go again because they can't handle it, because a lot of the people that are here now are just a total waste of time. I mean now, I don't even go to the Strand, I don't touch the Strand; now it's all new faces compared to when I first came down here, apart from a few of the alcoholics who have been there for 15-20 years. But at the Strand you get the soup runs etc. in the night time, from 9 o clock until 1 o clock in the morning you get about 4 or 5 soup runs going down there so you get well fed; but I'm not allowed to go there, I've got a court injunction against me entering the Strand, because I am a Martial Arts expert, and I kicked somebody into the throat and he went straight through Boots the Chemist's window. Now there isn't a Boots on the Strand, but they got a court injunction on me entering the strand - I went to prison for it.

The average day for me; I normally sleep in the daytime so I am awake of a night-time, because the West End is a really noisy place at night-time. It's quiet in the daytime and it's noisy at night time. You'd expect it to be the other way round, but it is really noisy at night, so I sleep all day and I'm awake all night ... apart from getting woken up this morning. A friend of mine woke me up.

I tend to go begging in the night-time. Begging used to be good, you used to able to make some decent money down here but now it's a waste of time because there are too many people doing it. People have heard about it and they've come down to London to try it out and this, that and the other, so now there are too many people doing it. It's pretty pointless doing it any more.

The thing that annoys me about street-life is there are too many idiots around here. They just muck everything up. There used to be places where you could go and get cakes and stuff, but then you had people coming along, getting other people to go in there and getting 4 or 5 for them. That just mucks everything up for everyone. You know you get people drinking in the wrong places, like Macdonald's on the Strand, no homeless people are allowed to go in it because too many were fighting and stuff in there, taking drugs in the toilets so no homeless people are allowed in it now. That's what its like round here now. Everyone just mucks it up.

Music, I love Hardcore me, I like Hardcore, Rave, Techno, House, Garage - that sort of thing - club music. My favourite group is the Prodigy. I have seen them at Wembley Arena and also at the Brixton Academy, they're excellent. They play the sort of music I really like, it's dance music. There are not many words in the songs, most rave music and stuff like that has no words in it really.

School was the best time of my life. I got expelled at 14, because when my mum died I was 12, I went a bit sort of mad, and I started bullying other kids in school, taking their dinner money off them, beating them up, waiting for them after school at the school gates and beating them up round the corner. I got caught smoking crack-cocaine in the toilet, that's why I got expelled, because I beat up 3 kids in the morning to get my money, because that's why I was doing it, to supply a crack-cocaine habit. So in the morning I beat up 3 kids on the way to school, just outside the school, so the teachers knew about it and then I went out at lunchtime and came back, and then I got caught smoking crack-cocaine, so I got expelled; but I had a good time in school anyway.

Being homeless depends on the person and on how you cope with it. Some people get on with it, some people don't. Some people can cope with it other's can't. I can cope with it. I get along with everybody, I talk to anyone, I don't mind but if they start taking liberties, then I don't talk to them, that's the end of it. I've had fights in the street, I've got a scar on my arm where I got stabbed through fighting in the street. I had a scaffolding bar across my kneecap, it shattered my kneecap. I've had quite a few bad fights here, but now people leave me alone, I cope with it. I have seen so many people come to the streets and end up dead. A few of my acquaintances, good acquaintances - close to friends, have killed themselves because they couldn't handle it - I've been tempted, I've got self-harm scars on my arms. I suffer from manic depression now because of everything I have been through on the streets, all the drugs and everything.

I had a flat before, in Peckham, on the North Peckham Estate. The North Peckham Estate is one of the worst estates in London, I got broken into 4 times in 6 months. So I went to the council and said "you can keep your flat!" I was fighting down there with all sorts of people constantly. They used to try and rob me and stuff but because of my training it didn't work. If I'd have been in the house when they burgled it they'd have regretted it really. I told the council to keep the flat because I don't want that hassle. So now, in November, I get a new flat.

I am the comedian on the street. I make everybody laugh. Last night, the football supporters for example; Sunderland lost yesterday, and the supporters were miserable and I still made the Sunderland supporters laugh. I could make people laugh 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I have been banned from a few places; I'm barred from St. Martins in the Fields, The Passage, I'm barred from Centrepoint as well, which mucks it up a bit. This is because I used to fight a lot.