So it seems David Cameron is to edit the next edition of the Big Issue.
This should come as a surprise to none. The Big Issue is perhaps one of the most conservative institutions working in homelessness in the UK. Its entrenched liberarianism is summed up exactly in its tagline, "Working Not Begging".
I'll level with yous. I've been both homeless and vulnerably housed for long periods of time, and in my mental health case work I've worked with a lot more people in the same situation. And nothing, but nothing, prepares you for how you are treated - spat at by passersby, beaten and repeatedly mugged by others, including other homeless people as desperate for the means to survive as you are, and repeatedly beaten, searched and mugged by police as well, who often deliberately won't arrest you for the devilry of depriving you of a bed. If you're found with drugs or alcohol on you, it's still unlikely you'll be arrested, just beaten and moved on, which means into the wet and cold from wherever you've been found. And they come back and check you aren't still there. And there's no need for them to kick softly. Nobody really notices when someone homeless dies. I was first kicked in the head by a policeman when I was six years old. This is the reality of homelessness.
And begging- begging is the single most humiliating thing you will ever do. You stink. Your hair is matted, your clothes soaked and muddy, your stuff is falling out of ripped tesco bags and you're in their way. You quite possibly don't have the strength to stand up, and you certainly don't have the mental strength to look them in the eye and not feel shame, right to your core. The can of Tennents Super - that's the only thing blocking out the cold and the inevitable sores - in your hand makes them shrink from you. And you know what they're thinking. They're thinking "Ugh." They're thinking "He's there because he's addicted to drugs. It's his own fault". They're thinking "If I give him money - I can see what will happen! It will be spent on beer!". Well, so what?
This is what John Bird sees. And what is his solution? I will make these people salesmen. They will sell products, products nobody wants, and to make things worse, I will make them pay for the privilege. That way, he thinks, these people won't be able to spend half the money they make. The more desperate their need one night, the less they'll make the next. It'll teach them.
It'll teach them the world fucking hates them.
Working not Begging? Only the sickest libertarian with a hatred for the homeless so blind that he refuses point-blank to understand how it happens could have come up with this foul slogan.
When I was first homeless in the sense of sleeping on the streets, I was looked after by a man called Alf. Alf had acid burns on his cheek and shoulder so deep that you could see open bone for a week before it healed over. He'd been given them because he got one of those "payday loans" from a pawnbrokers'. He'd missed a payment. Interest on those things is about 3000%, so what he missed quickly spiralled out of control. The pawnbrokers, a chain firm incidentally, called the bailiffs. They discovered Alf had nothing they could sell. He'd sold everything already just to make rent. So they called the 'boys', and Alf's debt got passed on to local organised crime. It went from £600 to £6000 that day, with a demand to pay it in a month. Alf was on benefits. He couldn't -didn't- do it. They threw acid over his face and set fire to his house. His landlord evicted him. Hello, homelessness.
Alf's story isn't remotely unique, and nor does it end there. Nearly 40,000 people die every year from the cold in the UK, and it claimed Alf, three years later. I was lucky enough to be adopted by a loving family. If I'd been older I'd likely have had the same fate.
It's none of your business what someone spends the money you give them on. You aren't 'keeping them in a cycle of dependency'. You aren't 'contributing to the drugs trade'. Yeah, lots of homeless people are addicted to drugs. Yeah, lots are to alcohol. Yeah, they spend money on it. But exactly what do you think you are doing denying them even the possibility of help? Do you think you control addiction by keeping someone in the rain, in the cold? Do you think you control addiction by giving a sarcastic sausage roll? Do you know why they're addicted? Has it occurred to you that all they want is to stop hurting and stop feeling? You really want to help? Give them money. Even just talk to them!
What fosters this kneejerk hatred of the homeless and their motives and deeds is exactly the Big Issue's rhetoric. "Why aren't they working?" "Why can't they get a job?" "Why can't they get off drugs and alcohol?" "Why don't they have any ambition?"... Why? Because being homeless destroys everything you have.
So let Cameron edit the Big Issue. And for goodness' sake, buy it. Even better, give them the money and tell them to keep the magazine, pride allowing. But don't be surprised. Cameron's natural home is this rightwing institution, fostering the hatred of the vulnerable and yet couching itself as an idea of help. And it's time we made it clear to the political class. Nobody deserves to be homeless, and there's no excuse for it.
This should come as a surprise to none. The Big Issue is perhaps one of the most conservative institutions working in homelessness in the UK. Its entrenched liberarianism is summed up exactly in its tagline, "Working Not Begging".
I'll level with yous. I've been both homeless and vulnerably housed for long periods of time, and in my mental health case work I've worked with a lot more people in the same situation. And nothing, but nothing, prepares you for how you are treated - spat at by passersby, beaten and repeatedly mugged by others, including other homeless people as desperate for the means to survive as you are, and repeatedly beaten, searched and mugged by police as well, who often deliberately won't arrest you for the devilry of depriving you of a bed. If you're found with drugs or alcohol on you, it's still unlikely you'll be arrested, just beaten and moved on, which means into the wet and cold from wherever you've been found. And they come back and check you aren't still there. And there's no need for them to kick softly. Nobody really notices when someone homeless dies. I was first kicked in the head by a policeman when I was six years old. This is the reality of homelessness.
And begging- begging is the single most humiliating thing you will ever do. You stink. Your hair is matted, your clothes soaked and muddy, your stuff is falling out of ripped tesco bags and you're in their way. You quite possibly don't have the strength to stand up, and you certainly don't have the mental strength to look them in the eye and not feel shame, right to your core. The can of Tennents Super - that's the only thing blocking out the cold and the inevitable sores - in your hand makes them shrink from you. And you know what they're thinking. They're thinking "Ugh." They're thinking "He's there because he's addicted to drugs. It's his own fault". They're thinking "If I give him money - I can see what will happen! It will be spent on beer!". Well, so what?
This is what John Bird sees. And what is his solution? I will make these people salesmen. They will sell products, products nobody wants, and to make things worse, I will make them pay for the privilege. That way, he thinks, these people won't be able to spend half the money they make. The more desperate their need one night, the less they'll make the next. It'll teach them.
It'll teach them the world fucking hates them.
Working not Begging? Only the sickest libertarian with a hatred for the homeless so blind that he refuses point-blank to understand how it happens could have come up with this foul slogan.
When I was first homeless in the sense of sleeping on the streets, I was looked after by a man called Alf. Alf had acid burns on his cheek and shoulder so deep that you could see open bone for a week before it healed over. He'd been given them because he got one of those "payday loans" from a pawnbrokers'. He'd missed a payment. Interest on those things is about 3000%, so what he missed quickly spiralled out of control. The pawnbrokers, a chain firm incidentally, called the bailiffs. They discovered Alf had nothing they could sell. He'd sold everything already just to make rent. So they called the 'boys', and Alf's debt got passed on to local organised crime. It went from £600 to £6000 that day, with a demand to pay it in a month. Alf was on benefits. He couldn't -didn't- do it. They threw acid over his face and set fire to his house. His landlord evicted him. Hello, homelessness.
Alf's story isn't remotely unique, and nor does it end there. Nearly 40,000 people die every year from the cold in the UK, and it claimed Alf, three years later. I was lucky enough to be adopted by a loving family. If I'd been older I'd likely have had the same fate.
It's none of your business what someone spends the money you give them on. You aren't 'keeping them in a cycle of dependency'. You aren't 'contributing to the drugs trade'. Yeah, lots of homeless people are addicted to drugs. Yeah, lots are to alcohol. Yeah, they spend money on it. But exactly what do you think you are doing denying them even the possibility of help? Do you think you control addiction by keeping someone in the rain, in the cold? Do you think you control addiction by giving a sarcastic sausage roll? Do you know why they're addicted? Has it occurred to you that all they want is to stop hurting and stop feeling? You really want to help? Give them money. Even just talk to them!
What fosters this kneejerk hatred of the homeless and their motives and deeds is exactly the Big Issue's rhetoric. "Why aren't they working?" "Why can't they get a job?" "Why can't they get off drugs and alcohol?" "Why don't they have any ambition?"... Why? Because being homeless destroys everything you have.
So let Cameron edit the Big Issue. And for goodness' sake, buy it. Even better, give them the money and tell them to keep the magazine, pride allowing. But don't be surprised. Cameron's natural home is this rightwing institution, fostering the hatred of the vulnerable and yet couching itself as an idea of help. And it's time we made it clear to the political class. Nobody deserves to be homeless, and there's no excuse for it.
I don't know if I can say anything useful here, but thank you for writing this. Make sure lots of people read it. I've only seen a very little bit of the reality of homelessness, and it's horrific- evidently so horrific it's easier to pretend it isn't real. There is no dignity in being homeless, so many people forget that homeless people are *people*. I don't know a lot about the Big Issue, and can't really have much of an opinion on it, but I'm disgusted at how the jackets now have a wine company's logo on the back, and I've never liked the fact that you have to buy your jacket before you've had a chance to make money from it.
ReplyDeleteThink it all comes down whether one sees homelessness as a failing of an individual or as a failing of society. It's quite clear that many think it's a failing of an individual, not recognising that housing is a basic human right and that it is quite easy to find oneself out on the street (The increase in homeless individuals & families since the economic meltdown began shows that).
ReplyDeleteFind that as such shocking.
Excellent piece.
ReplyDeleteRe. people being sanctimonious pricks and whining that money they donate might be spent on booze/fags/drugs: so fucking what? What exactly is the person going to do with it, save it up to buy a house?! (Quite aside from the added judgement, lack of basic empathy etc.)
As an aside, AFAIK, there's a scheme somewhere in the US where people most at need receive govt support as vouchers rather than money precisely to stop them from spending it on 'bad' things, which I think is disgusting. Can't remember details, I'm afraid.
Sorry abt doing this as Anon, Wordpress is sodding me around.
@NellRawlison,via Twitter
This has just reminded me of a recent encounter with a homeless guy. He was asking people sat outside pub for fags, and mostly got told to sod off. I bought him a pack. We talked for a while, he kept thanking me & my boyfriend, clearly hadn't had a proper.conversation in ages. Pub guy told him to leave, and was most displeased when I said he's my guest and staying. Big hugs at the end (and tears from me).
ReplyDeletePeople.
@NellRawlison, via Twitter
I don't have a lot of spare money to give to the homeless, but when I do give I make damn sure that it's going to be spent on drugs etc. I know full well that if I ever end up on the street that's exactly what I will want instead of ridiculous paternalist charities.
ReplyDeleteWell I don't have the same experience with homelessness that you do, but I do know people whose lives have been changed massively by selling the Big Issue for the better. It certainly isn't trying to teach people that the world hates them! No-one forces homeless people to sell the BI but it DOES change some people's lives for the better, and for that I don't think people should give it credit, even if it does so in a way that isn't in line with your personal political principles, i.e. in a way which is fundamentally 'libertarian'.
ReplyDeleteI think you're being a bit harsh about the "Working not Begging" slogan. I suspect it is not aimed at teaching the actual Big Issue vendors anything, but rather, it is aimed at the people they are trying to sell the magazine to. It might be a distinction that you find offensive, and I can understand why (it always makes me uncomfortable too) but it is there for good reasons, not to denigrate beggars as you seem to think. The BI has clarified many times that they don't mean any slight on or disrespect to people who do beg, just that they are responding to people who shout things like "get a job!" at their vendors: these people ARE working, and it's important to them that people understand that.
I agree with everything you say about giving money to be spent on drugs/alcohol etc. People get extremely sanctimonious about not giving anything to a homeless person because they din't want their money to be spent on booze or drugs then go right off to the pub to spend it all on booze themselves. On the other hand if a friend of mine asked me to give them some money, I would ask what they wanted it for. If they wanted it to buy food that week because they were broke, I'd give it to them, if they wanted it to buy some drugs, I wouldn't, and people make a decision as to whether to give to a homeless person in the same way. You can say that it's not their business all you want, but no-one is obligated to give ANY money, and it is up to them to decide how to decide whether to give you their money or not.
And yes people should talk more to the homeless. I always hear good things said about the Big Issue personally, maybe I am talking to the wrong homeless people! But am struggling to see quite how these levels of hatred and anger are justified towards an organisation and founder with genuinely decent intentions and achievements.
My ex-girlfriend told me once, after I gave money to someone who asked for it, that I needed to "get better" at turning such people down. No fucking chance.
ReplyDeleteHi Kit, thought this was an excellent post - and it inspired me to dig out some interview notes from 2002 and write my own blog post on the Big Issue, at http://leap-lrc.blogspot.com/2011/07/big-issue-big-society-and-social.html if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteDear God!
ReplyDeleteThe patronising shit of the comfortably off is beyond belief. Having been homeless myself, I agree with you. The fear, no the terror of facing homelessness as never left me for a day of my adult life. I don't think it ever will, despite my story of homelessness being far less brutal than yours.
If those deliberately self-deluded fuckwits that run the Big Issue and run this country ever come near me, I'll shove my PhD up their fucking arses. That's about as good a use for it as any to be found in this miserble country, run on fantasies about as useful as a horoscope was to Eisnstein.
Every homeless person is homeless through choice. Not their choice, the choice of our governments. It is a weapon of terror inflicted on people in this country every day.
Hi Kit, this is an amazing text. Very enlightening the way you used your own experience to reveal what is behind the curtains of homelessness. I agree 100% with you and think the carelessness with the issue is evident not only in the state's policies but also in the attitudes of civil society in general. I am glad to know you have found a loving family that supported you and contributed to your development. You're a talented writer and a very thoughtful student. All the best.
ReplyDelete