CON TENTS <featuring>

The Truth About

Living on the Streets!

Indepth Stories of homeless

peoples real life experiences

CON TENTS

IV

The Stats!Real figures exposing the truth!

III

IVStats, Stats & MORE Stats.

Astonishing Revalations!

Real Stories.True Stories, in which the homeless

experienceeverday.

VII

Streets XI

<featuring>

Homeless on..Homeless on.. The first of a chain of magazines, in which investigates peoples views

on different aspects of Birmingham.This issue focuses on the Homeless. We gather their views on the public.

And then even it up, by interviewing the public on the homeless.

CONTENTS

I - II Interview on Birmingham City Council

IIIHomeless Statistics

IV Suicide Statistics

V - VI Stories on Students

VII - VIIIDrug Statistics IX - X - XI - XII

Interview on Birmingham’s Police

CONTENTS

All views and opinions are on behalf of interviewed homeless communities. -not on behalf of the editors-

After interviewing several home-less people on the streets of Birming-

ham, ‘Just saying...’ has dis-covered the opinions or harsh truth about the relationship between Birmingham’s rough sleepers and Birmingham City Council... When asked, one homeless person said when we asked them about BCC... “If your a single man, you stand no chance with getting housed by the council, I’ve been on the waiting list for four years and there is still no sign of me being housed in the near future...” The Just saying... team also noticed a reoccurring com-ment from the rough sleep-ers about how they feel that

foreigners, specifically Asians, are given more support and opportunities’ than them when they are British Citi-zens. Due to this there seems to be a lot of hostility between the homeless and the Asian community, and a lot of as-saults on homeless people are from foreigners or drunks at night time.

Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

My name is Jack, I’m a homeless man from Birmingham, I’ve been rough sleeping for over

2 years. I have had a very hard time whilst I’ve been homeless and gone through a lot of heartache and pain both physically and men-tally, I’ve been ignored and shoved away but there was one occasion that still makes me avoid certain groups of people. It started as I was walking through Victoria square to find somewhere

to sit down, I had been walking all day so I needed a rest, when I ar-rived in Victoria square there was a large group, of what seemed like students smoking and drinking, I thought I was in luck needed a cig and thought they may have some spare change so I asked them for a cigarette and any spare change. But as they noticed me and kept quite whilst looking at me, which was very intimidating, five of them were suddenly extremely rude and started saying some horrible things to me, a small weedy boy

Birmingham’sStudents

Birmingham’sStudents

shouted at me and said “why don’t you just go on back to the floor where you live, and stop bothering us were students we don’t have any money.”

Feeling uncomfortable and wor-ried I was going to get beaten up I started to leave, its too much effort for one cigarette, no one would act like that and then lend one out and spare there change. As I turned around I got hit in the back of the head with what I thought was a stone. Angry, I turned around wondering why someone would do that but as I turned around I no-ticed it was an egg, they then threw more at me hitting me in the face and all over my hair, upset I asked them why they would do such a thing but they replied by swearing at me, I consider that as inhuman so I just turned around and walked away with eggs flying past me and hitting my back. The behav-ior of these students is disrespect-ful they should be taught a good les-son or two. If they only knew what I have to put up with

in my life maybe they would have been more respectful and under-standing.

Now for the rest of that day I had to be covered in eggs which as eve-ryone knows, go very smelly after a while and stick to everything, it was extremely uncomfortable and being homeless means there’s nowhere for me to wash so I had to find a water fountain or something. So I went to the Aston campus to use the fountain there to wash off the egg, a big hassle to say I only wanted a cigarette.

When I was washing my face in the water, another small group of students walked past and started laughing at me and taking photo-graphs on there phones, so again I had to leave and find somewhere else to sit down.

My opinion on stu-dents is “there rude and need to grow up”

Q: How often do you have run -ins with the police?

A: I’ve been living on the streets for 20 years now, when i first became homeless, i thought the world was against

me, and commit-ted petty crimes on a daily basis. I was arrested multiple times a week, and thought spend-ing the night in

the cells was an im-provement of nearly freezing to death on the streets.

Q: What kind of crimes did

you commit?

A: Im not proud of admitting it, but robbery from shops was the most comman, it began with food and drink then grew to clothes etc.

Q: How did the police treat you when they found out?

A: Back in the early nighties they were particually heavey handed, i would often get hit and dragged around. I was repeatedly hit with battons and sometimes kicked and punched.

Q: Do these heavey handed

Birmingham Police

Birmingham Police

Eeveryone recognises the difficulty when living on the streets, and many people hear stories and myths on the extent the homeless go too, to survive. However many people believe, specifically the police, these are illegal

ways. And in the past vile stories have come out, on how they have treated the homeless in inhumane ways. This is the main reason “Just Saying” thought it was important to get the truth from a homeless person of 20 years, who has been forced to see and experience the heavy handed techniques in the early 90’s

and thankfully the reduction in tension which exist today.

techniques still exist?

A: NO! Definatly not. However i dont commit these silly crimes anymore, i have only good words to say about the police. If we show respect to them, they will show respect back.

Q: What would you say has changed, since the violence you experienced to now?

A: They realised giving us our space is important. We are very protective over the little property we have. They give us boundaries, and we appreci-ate this. We show them respect back for doing so.

Q: Not just concerning your-selves, but how well of a job do you feel the police on the streets of Birming-ham do?

A: They are slowly regaining control, after the riots back in the summer, which i saw first hand. There was almost an atmos-phere from criminals that the police couldnt hurt them. The fear the police held was completely stripped away. However now, they are coming down tough, and teaching these people a lesson. They need to domi-

nate the streets once again.

Q: As you are aware, budget cuts are hitting the police force, how do you feel this would affect the Birmingham police?

A: Im completely against cut-ting funding for the front line. They are understaffed as it is, and this will only make it worse. Birmingham is a big city, which needs alot of polic-ing. There are alot of gangs and trouble which the police manage to handle and keep quiet. If street coppers are cut, the rise in trouble will be enor-mus. The summer riots will be taking place every week.

Birmingham Police

Birmingham Police

Streets

The Big Issue-Birmingham-

The Big Issue-Birmingham-

The team from ‘Just Saying…’ recently conducted an interview with current magazine used to help the homeless regain a

sense of responsibility and belonging in society, ‘The Big Issue’. The Big Issue has been running for twenty years now and is around to help homeless people earn a legitimate income.‘Just Saying…’ is focused on the homeless society in Birming-ham so the team took it upon themselves to interview the Big Issue point for Birmingham which also happens to be the base for the whole of the West Midlands, this is what they discov-ered…

Q: How often do you produce a magazine?

A: A magazine is produced every Monday ready for all of our vendors to go out and sell.

Q: Do new vendors have to undergo any training?

A: They have to complete four sales training modules before they can start selling The Big Issue.

Q: What is the set up for new Vendors, where do they start?

A: We provide them with 5 free magazines to get them start-

ed; from then onwards they then buy a magazine from us for a pound and re-sell them on the streets for two pound so they make a profit.

Q: What is the most common reason for people, particu-larly in Birmingham, for being homeless?

A: The most common factor for the West Midlands is that a lot of the homeless males are in fact ex-forces, mainly from the Falklands War as when they returned from War there wasn’t enough support or funding to help them adjust to normal civilisation again. A lot

of them came back from the Falklands with mental health issues which stops them from getting a normal job so they end up on the streets. Q: Do you offer any other sup-port for the vendors when they come to you other than offering them the means of a legitimate income?

A: Yes, we provide one to one counselling which helps to address the issues that lead to them becoming homeless to start with and help them take control of their lives again. Q: What kind of relation-ship do you make with the vendors when they work for you?

A: Obviously you become close to them as they have to feel they can open up you and feel safe in your com-pany, however, the relation-ship has to always remain professional and under no circumstances should they be allowed to know your number or where you live

etc. “Homeless because their addicted to drugs?.. Or addicted to drugs because their homeless?”

The Big Issue-Birmingham-

The Big Issue-Birmingham-

“Without the Big Issue, i’m not sure if i would be dead or alive!

Without the Big Issue, i’m not sure if i would be dead or alive! “

Please take a moment, to view our ident.

“If they told me it was Monday today, i wouldn’t believe them.”

BirminghamPolice

BirminghamPolice

The Police patrolling the streets of Bir-mingham have the very sensitive job

of dealing with the growing numbers of homeless peo-ple livi ng on the streets of the city. According to a mixture of fact and myth, the atmos-phere and violence between the police was outragously high! Nowadays however ‘Just Saying’ can reveal police proudly claim they take a very much more cautious and gentle approach when dealing with problems within the homeless com-munity. Allowing the homeless their own space and free-dom, they say it’s a key area when trying to resolves ten-sions within the two camps.However even when trying

their best to mend broken relationship. A PCSO which ‘Just Saying’ spoken too, claim thePolice still lack any trust with the homeless, further adding;

“They are difficult people with complex livies, who struggle to survive. They can grow agressive eas-ily, therefore we know who we can talk to, and who to avoid. They are liars, who live a difficult life.They can get very aggressive and diffi-cult, we all know which ones we can talk too or avoid.”

Students -Real Stories-

Students -Real Stories-

Students -Real Stories-

Students -Real Stories-

Q: Do you find homelessness a big issue in Birmingham? A: It is an issue we are trying to target; there are undoubt-edly numerous rough sleepers on the streets of Birmingham; however it is impossible for us to help every single one. It is an issue in the sense that it is intimidating for the public, especially at night time, which is why we encourage homeless people to become Big Issue vendors as this gives them a purpose and a identification so they don’t look as intimi-

dating to passer bys- after all we don’t want to scare people away from Birmingham. Q: Do you try to help all home-less people? A: It is impossible to help all of them; we prioritise the most vulnerable such as youths, women and women with chil-dren. Single men are in unfor-tunate circumstances if they are homeless as they are not first on our list to help, there-fore getting them out of home-lessness is very difficult.

Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

When ‘Just Saying…’ took on the topic of homelessness in Birmingham City we

felt strongly that we should look at both sides of the topic, the homeless’ perspec-

tive and the publics twist on it too…

Therefore the Birmingham City Council seemed like the best place to start as the council is a homeless

person is their first point of call when they initially become homeless. So what is the council’s opinion on the homeless people of Birmingham, ‘Just Saying…’

finds out…? When speaking to the chairman of BCC we asked the

following questions…

Q: Are you aware the majority of homeless people the maga-zine have spoken to in Bir-mingham don’t feel supported by you as a council at all? A: I am aware they don’t have a very high view of the Bir-mingham City Council, we

just don’t have the time and money spare to invest in all of them which I would imagine doesn’t go down well.

CON TENTS <featuring>

The Truth About

Living on the Streets!

Indepth Intervew withBirmingham’s

very own

Big Issue department

CON TENTS

IV

The Stats!Real figures exposing the truth!

III

Two Sides too a story!The Police have their say on the homeless.

The Truth About Living on the Streets!

Indepth Intervew withBirmingham’s

very own

Big Issue department

XIVXXVI

Overcowding? Budget Cuts?Council puts the record straight?

XXIII

<featuring>

The Public on. The first of a chain of magazines, in which investigates peoples views

on different aspects of Birmingham.This issue focuses on the Homeless. We gather their views on the public.

And then even it up, by interviewing the public on the homeless.

CONTENTS

XIII - XIV - XV - XVI Interview with the Big Issue

XVII - XVIIIIdent

XIX - XXPolice Opinions

XXI - XXII Statistics

XXIII - XXIII Students Stories

XXIV - XXVIllustrative Interpretations

XXVI - XXVII Council Fight Back

CONTENTS

All views and opinions are on behalf of interviewed members of the public. -not on behalf of the editors-

The Public on.

XXIII