EDGES MAGAZINE Issue

October 1998

My name is Craig and I am 18. I've got one brother and one sister, but my mum couldn't cope with me and I was sent into care when I was nine. I found being in care very difficult, I didn't get on with the people who were looking after me - it isn't the same as your mum and dad. The people that look after you push you around "do this, do that", it's not on. There were lots of family problems and my mum just couldn't cope. Looking back I now find it very difficult to talk about it.

I started to get involved in crime at the age of 16 and 17, there was nothing else to do and it just seemed a way of passing time. I became homeless at 18 because I lost my flat. I lost it through rent arrears and I couldn't get on with my neighbours. I used to play my music too loud and they started to complain; the Housing Association put me out. Soon after that I found myself inside. I didn't like prison at all, it was horrible. When I came out of prison I found myself on the streets and ever since I've been trying to find hostels, but there are no vacancies. I try and sleep most of the day and at night-time do a beg, although these days you don't seem to earn much begging, its rubbish at the moment, there are now too many beggars here at the West End. A lot of the homeless take drugs and people know that and they think that all of us are taking drugs so they don't give us much money. However, since being here on the streets I have met a few friends but not many.

One of the reasons it is difficult to get into hostels now is because many people come down from the countryside, it's a buzz living in London. They come for a kind of holiday and the real homeless find it very difficult to get hostel places because they're all full.