Paul Is Homeless Sleeping Rough in London

paul we're here in london you're sleeping rough yes tell me about it um well um about sort of um nine years ago um i used to have a job as a winter cleaner and things went a bit pear-shaped for me um i started hitting the drink big time and i started fluctuation with you know different people and keeping in their sofas and their couches and going back to flats and did that for two or three years couchsurfing yeah yeah that kind of stuff yep had a great time never any trouble people really apprec

iated my time i must admit like i am here with you now um good luck story short i met a few outreach people they put me into hostels didn't work out back on the streets um it's all right the streets are okay at the end of it all but um i guess things have changed now things are not the same as it was 20 years ago even going back 40 years ago not that i was out in the streets i never was but um that's why i hit the streets now i'm hoping to get recuperated and getting into my own apartments where

i can socialize with people interact have nice food nice clothes uh yes no no why didn't you stay in the hostel uh for various different reasons a lot of them are outside of london and they're at reach to travel in at night and anytime i tried to go back there was never any vacancies so i bought a seating bag for myself as you can see and i go off well that's how i knew you're sleeping rough that's why you're carrying a sleeper that's what i'm sleeping off i've been like this now for four month

s now where where did you sleep last night last night i stepped over the place called um do you know where grover's garden is is grosvenor's gardens well where are you going to sleep tonight tonight i it could be a different spot it depends who i meet depends how much i make if i make quite a lot of money then i can hide my seating bag in the bushes and i can get into a hostel where it's only eight pounds for the night so you know a downtown hostel here i know i know a downtown hostel here we ca

n walk in the door pay the eight quid go to your room off with your clothes into bed and get a good night's rest yeah because it's raining because it's raining you don't want to you don't want to stay home you're in the rain it's very it's very very shivery at night and um it's it's it's basically it's hard that's the way i would look at it it's hard what what's a day like homeless what's the date what are you what's the day like take me through your day uh okay i wake up in the morning early ab

out sort of like um i'd wake up about sort of ten to seven ish i get up on my sleeping bag i'd be a bit sort of shiverish um i'd look around me to make sure things all rise i go to these places like pratt you've got these restaurants across the road we get a cup of coffee for 99 pence and i caught my money i made the night before it might be 50 quid it might be 40 quid it might be a score as you call it over here in england mark a score is 20 pounds okay i don't know where to call it you're in y

our apartment you just you just you taught me something didn't i score 20 pounds that's right correct that's the one thing yeah 20 pounds that's the one and that gets you through the day and that gets me kind of true to date light and then i'm basically i'm a hunter at night that's really it i am a hunter at night i've always loved the night work uh it's very um hard to describe it this there's more to go through people there's much more people out there from five in the evening and i'm out at s

ix every night and i'm doing my rounds and i can come up with something like whoa and come up with 80 pounds in one night if it's a good night and that's just speaking to people even even though that's a good night and that's a couple of scores i guess you'd say right yeah that's a couple scores oh but this is no way to live no it's nowhere to live because you see i don't know if you know if you get things free listen carefully if you get things free you're going to squander it free you're going

to go for a few beers hide your sleeping bag get took into a pub for the night and your money is gone why because it's free if no um there's no four corners that's going to squeeze you in and say hey paul you did well tonight now you got 80 quid you got a couple of scores a couple of tenors couple of fivers you got about 30 pounding change and your and your lighter why not just get the head down now and you have your scores in the morning but when you get something free it's very difficult to b

ut why do you keep on doing it why you've been out here four months because you get into a buzz you get into a great buzz with life and a great um circulation of people so what does it take to get you off the streets what's it take to get you off this as in money-wise or no just opportunity housing what um how do we end rough sleeping and the opportunity to it would be not quite housing but um um some form of thing called first housing where you've got people who put you from one civic to the ne

xt and you can get housed and that would be the end of the street um formula as a so-called um but you see when you're in london as you say downtown hostel you go to likes of california new york city you go around to different parts of new york city it's always a constant homeless it's the thing in london it's it's it's it's called a deep thing for homeless people to be homeless it circulates society it makes society work it plays the game with the homes the homeless plays the game with the work

ing people it makes the working people um better respected to see a homeless man like me coming up and going excuse me sir anybody change for a beer or a cup of tea or i need a chance to get a hostile tonight you see one coming from i see but i don't agree with you no i do it see because it breaks my heart and when i see it i think it's a social crisis and then we gotta end this we gotta get you off the streets yeah you shouldn't be sleeping out in the rain here tonight i know but um one sense o

f it is a thing called easy money it's called easy reach money yeah yeah and if you give somebody the opportunity anybody yeah male or female to go out like i'm doing tonight again on the streets uh it's easy reach i've just made money tonight even before i met you it's called easy money so to end the homeless crisis the social of it is not going to be easy no no because you can and i agree with thank you very much if that's mark you agree with something um so basically in a nutshell that is the

problem with society you got complacent yes got complacent yeah and if you had three wishes what would they be for my life yes three wishes for you wow for anybody three wishes three wishes hey three wishes well um what why the first one would be i government and outreach people should come out and develop much more secure accommodation that's number one wish number two which is to get the homes off the streets and number three is to break which i'm going to quote again is to break down the bar

riers and to break down the barriers for people like myself that wants to go out and get two or three hours a day walk or even eight hours a day without me having to go to the pubs and squander me money so you would work you would go for an honest day of living yeah honestly i have been out to do honest days as i was thinking you're talking about easy money living out here in the rain and homeless it's not easy it's not easy money anyways i i really enjoyed talking to you paul thank you very muc

h you have a good night thank you very much indeed i will do my very best as i always try and do i always quickly if i may say i always try and keep the peace i don't escalate things in life i just go out if you call it begging if you call it pagan if you call whatever you call it i just go out get me a bit of money and then i get into me shelter at night and that's me dog bomb well you'll be safe tonight thanks very much mark [Music] you