|
EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 16 |
December 1998 |
| HOMELESS ON THE STREETS OF LONDON THIS CHRISTMAS |
| Our Magazine gives London's Homeless a Platform to speak out. |
 My
name is Carl, I've been homeless on and off for four years now. I'm
from Nottingham and I am twenty years of age. I first became
homeless when my dad kicked me out at the age of sixteen. He just
couldn't handle it any more, I was doing quite a few drugs and he
couldn't afford to keep my drug habit, so he moved me out. My father
got me on drugs, he didn't know it but I used to nick his weed. I
used to just nick his drugs of his plants when I was a kid in
school; I used to share it with my mates in school. When I was
thirteen years of age I started taking speed, and for seven years I
was doing that. It just started as a weekend thing with my mates at school, just doing a bit of speed now and again, but after a while it just becomes a bit of addiction, not a physical thing, just in my head that I want it, I need it and I loved it. So I was doing it for about seven years and after about four and a half years I started injecting. Now I'm clean of it, I haven't had any speed for a while. I got clean just by a self-detox - I just did it myself. For the self-detox I just disappeared for a while. I stayed in, didn't see any of my mates I was in a circle with and just got drunk everyday instead - so that's how I got off the drugs. It took a couple of months to do the detox because it's a mental addiction, not physical, it's all in your head, and it's hard. The situation with drugs is I just like doing them. Wherever you go in the country, there's always a circle of people doing drugs. You can go anywhere, it doesn't matter. I came to London about two weeks ago this Thursday. I had to leave Nottingham through a few problems --drug related, owing money but that's all sorted now cos I've gone! My hobbies are table tennis, basketball, football, I used to do a lot of swimming but not now! I like going to the cinema and music; I like Reggie music and stuff, drum and base. I just like having a laugh with people. I'm an easy-going person. In the future, I don't know, I want to get into a hostel so I can get in somewhere, probably go to college, become a millionaire by the age of 30! You never know! But, I like computers, so I'll probably go along that line and hope that there's a job in it somewhere in the future. My family, now that's a good story. My mum booted me out when I was eight years old, my mum and dad divorced when I was five, originally. I lived with my dad for a while, a couple of years, moved in with my mum and then she booted me out, I didn't get along with her husband. I moved in with my dad when she booted me out at eight and lived with him and visited my mum now and then. Now I don't speak to them at all. My school life was weird because I was moving about from school to school, I couldn't make friends because every time I made friends I moved on, so it was just a hard life really. I was using Heroin, not all the time, just on and off when I was doing the speed for the comedowns. Since I've been in London I haven't used any gear at all; I just keep myself to myself. I don't have any religious beliefs, but I don't prejudice people who do - it's everyone to their own so if your religious, then you're religious, if you're not, then you're not - everyone to their own. At the moment I'm staying outside "Lillywhites" in Piccadilly in the doorway there but "London Connection" and "New Horizons" are trying to sort out accommodation for me - I go there every day for showers and stuff and try and sort out my housing. My thoughts about Christmas - it's mainly for kids, it's too publicised. Shops go stupid and start putting Christmas Sales on in August - it's too much of a publicity thing - it's all about making money, not about the giving nowadays. I'll probably get drunk - I'll get the money by begging - that's how I get most of my money. I get my giro fortnightly and that's about it. I'd like to wish all the readers of this, who love my story, a Happy Christmas. Last Christmas I was inside, I got locked up on November 26th and came out on February 27th - I was inside for getting caught! I was inside for burglary - which I have packed up - I don't do any crime anymore. Last Christmas it was depressing. In prison we only got - turkey slices for Christmas dinner, the stuffing you could throw at the wall. It was just mad. You weren't even allowed out of your cell on Christmas Day. I ain't doing it again. |
 My
name is Lorraine, I am 20 years of age and I'm from Dublin. I've
been in London three years. I came over with a friend of mine on the
boat. I left Dublin just for a change. I'd been in "care"
in Dublin and I'd just finished my A-levels over there and I didn't
feel there was anything there for me. I got five passes in my
A-levels but it was the Irish equivalent called a leaving
certificate. Over the last three years life has been up and down. I've lived in hostels and I even had my own flat for a while, but things just go wrong and you've just got to try and make them better again. At the moment I'm just down again; I lost my flat and I'm back on the streets and now I've just got to try and sort something else out. It's Winter now so I'm trying to sort something out fast. Dublin is a different type of place, you don't get many people sleeping on the streets, but I lived in hostels over there from when I was fifteen. Being in "care" over in Dublin, I found it was a really nice atmosphere, they looked after you really well, and it was just like one big home. You were given key-workers, the key-worker I was given I am still actually in touch with, she's just like a second mother, they are really nice and they try to help you and it is really because of them that I stayed in school and got as far as I did. When I left care they put me into a flat with another girl and this other girl turned out to be a Heroin addict, and at that time we really did not mix, she was bringing all her friends in and literally they robbed all my clothes and everything I owned and I couldn't stay there anymore and there was nothing I had to do but just leave. It has been hard in London but sometimes it's good, and you just get used to it. I wake up in the morning and go to a day centre "London Connection". On Tuesday's I go to "Clash", another day centre open on Tuesday where they allow me to bring my dog with me, and they give you food and wash your clothes and everything. In the evening we just beg for food and then at night-time we go to Charring Cross Underground to sleep. I'd like to settle down and go to college and then get a good job. I met my Brad in a day centre about two years ago and we just clicked and we've been together ever since. I had an accident about a year ago, it put me in a wheelchair, someone pushed me and I crushed my kneecap. Brad was really good, he pushed me around and dressed me and he really helps me. Ben is our dog, we got Ben about eight months ago from a friend and we called him "Ben" because of the Michael Jackson song - he's going to be a good friend, and we have just had him ever since. I have one sister and two brothers. My little brother is eight and he lives with my mum and dad, my sister is a baby girl, about six months old, and I don't hear much about my other older brother because he went off to Wales and the family have nothing to do with him now. When I was about fifteen years old, my mum got ill with a brain haemorrhage and she just changed. It wasn't easy to live with, so we all left home because we couldn't handle living there. I was fifteen when I went into care. In a way I do believe there is a God somewhere, but I don't think about it a lot, it's just that I was brought up going to Church and I'd always known that there was God there. I went to a Roman Catholic school, and its always been in my life. I've never been to Church here on the streets. I went to Church when my uncle died about two years ago. I never pray. My worst experience was crushing my kneecap and ending up in hospital and not being able to do anything. Some man pushed me on to the road, for no reason |
 I
was born and bred in London and I'm twenty-three. I became homeless
when I was thirteen because my father, he was an alcoholic, and he
used to beat me and my mother up, so I beat him up one day with a
lump of wood and he threw me out of the house. I came onto the
streets of London I'd say at about fourteen. Because I was young, I
had to dodge the police, and it was a hard couple of years until I
turned sixteen, but I made it. Since then I've just been sleeping
rough, in hostels and whatnot and just generally getting by and
surviving until a place comes up for me. It was hard dodging the
police. I got hold of someone's name who was actually in prison and
he was seventeen and I managed to get his name and date of birth off
to a tee and I just used to use that. I got found out once, but by
that time I was already sixteen so it didn't matter. It was just
generally making sure that I didn't get into any trouble so the
police would have cause to look at me. I looked old enough; I didn't
look young, so it was just keeping my head down and try not to draw
attention to myself. In the last nine years, since I was fourteen, life's been a mixture of good, bad and ugly. I've had some good times, met some nice people and I've had some difficult times where I've had injuries, I've been cut, I've been hurt, I nearly died. Sometimes it can be good and sometimes it can be bad. I'd say the worst experience was when I got a depressed fracture of the skull. I was down Leicester Square drinking and that, I got drunk, started fighting and ended up hitting my head off a kerb stone and I fractured my skull. I got taken to hospital and they wanted to keep me there for a week but I've never been too keen on hospitals and so I departed. I wasn't too good I kept getting dizzy spells and blurred vision for about six months, and I had a sense of just not being all there, I was just empty. I had a fit in my mate's bedroom, I kept head butting the floor, and even now, if I get a knock on the head I get all wobbly in my legs, my knees go from beneath me and the doctors said if I get another bang on the head I could die. The best thing that's happened to me in the last nine years has been meeting my girlfriend, Lorraine. I met her a couple of years ago in a day centre and she means the world to me. I've got a better outlook on life, it's nice to have someone there to talk to, she's also my best friend as well as my lover. It's just good to have someone there all the time, if I'm down she picks me up, if I don't like myself at the time because of something she'll tell me that I'm wonderful, she's just pucker - I don't know what I'd do without her. Over the last nine years I've also travelled, I've done a lot of travelling around England, I've been to France, it's good when you travel, its also expensive. You've got to make money before you go, plus you've got to work while your doing it, but it is good fun, you meet new people. I spent ten days in Nice, the South of France, one of the most expensive places to go - that was nice. I survive mainly on begging, basically that's my only income, unless I do a bit of work for a friend, that's my only income. Before I met my girlfriend I used to be a Heroin addict and that was a really low point in my life because every day you need to go out and make money. You'll do anything for the money to get your drugs because if you don't you know your going to be doubled up and in pain and sick. I got off it of my own accord because I looked in the mirror one day and didn't recognise the person that was looking back at me. I was all gaunt and I was skinny and dirty and I just made a decision to get off the drugs and luckily , I've been off them for about two and a half years. We are looking to get a flat together, and as soon as we do that, we can look at working and becoming productive members of society again. |
