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View From The Street - 5,000+ Lives on UK streets · The Discussion Podcast

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This is the Late Late Lunch Show with Rod Maxwell. Supported by... That's for,
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you, Ty! Tower bed learning in nature's playground. On view from the street,
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myself and James were out talking about poverty, talking about homelessness
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and talking about living on the streets.
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And James is coming to me live from Altrincham now. James, how are you?
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I'm good, thanks, Rod. Just sitting in our seats from earlier for lunch.
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Yes, yeah, it was a bit of a flying lunch, wasn't it, really?
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But, James, there's not... It was a late, late lunch on the late,
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late lunch show. It really was a late, late lunch, I'll tell you.
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I think I sat down in my seat about a minute ago to the show.
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But we've tackled a lot of, I think, reasonably big topics in the past. but.
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I don't think anything comes as, I don't know, almost emotionally touching and
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as challenging a topic as the one we talked about today,
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talking about homelessness and talking about people on the streets.
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And also, I have to admit, a sense of frustration and helplessness.
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What do you think of this topic, James? I think it's a very complex topic.
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I think it's complicated, and I think it's one that people aren't very well
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informed of, because when we have asked some people, especially the young people,
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they weren't really sure what to say, didn't have much of an opinion.
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So I think it's something that people care about, that people definitely care
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about it, but I think that people aren't, they're probably the same as the politicians,
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in the sense that they don't have the right knowledge to deal with it.
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Yeah, do you think also there's a bit of social taboo around this?
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It's very easy to, number one, jump to conclusions, but at the same time, it's also easy...
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It can sometimes be difficult to find the right language for it and not be patronizing.
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Do you think there's an element of that?
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Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a bit like people think it is politics,
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so then they just start getting anxious and don't want to talk about it.
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And we know, even in the street, that when it's like a nice,
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fluffy topic, they want to talk about it.
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But then when it's something that is either controversial or something along
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these lines, they don't have as much of a willingness to come and stop and talk
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to us, which means I had to,
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stick my finger out and help you out because normally you sweep up all the vox
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pop, but I had to help out because these were talking up the crowd today.
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And part of that is people struggle to find the right language sometimes about it.
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Because the reason, I mean, the stat that we talked about today was that a recent
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poll said there were 5,000 people living in England alone who are living on the streets.
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They are homeless essentially it didn't go down to the break it didn't go into
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the breakdown of the different reasons for that there'll be but there'll be some people who,
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have you know are on the streets because of economic situations whether that
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could be addiction could be losing their job losing their home it could be that
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it could be to do with a marriage breakdown or relationship break down but it's,
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there's many reasons why somebody can end up finding that the streets are their homes and,
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at the same time there's people who,
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have become so used to it that any anything other than the streets feels alien
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to them so it seems like a really really difficult topic because there is no,
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there never is one simple solution there's never just one story there's so many stories and in fact.
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I bet you if you looked at the 5,000 people who apparently are on the streets
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and I'm sure it's more than that you could end up with 5,000 different stories you know but it's,
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It just seems like in today's society, this is a knot we haven't cracked.
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We seem to be struggling with it. Would you agree?
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There's plenty of views on it, but I don't think there's enough coherence to
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nail down proper strategy and proper solution.
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I think it's a bit wishy-washy. It's almost a bit like NHS waiting battles or
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NHS or the similar issues or social care. It's such a void, a black hole that
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people don't know what to do.
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I think that it should be very simple in the sense that you take away that whole
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people's free choices to be on the street because it's not obviously a nice
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thing for them to choose that.
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So therefore, if you're able to take that choice out of their hands,
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you say, if a lot of them are on alcohol or drugs, there should be a quick rapid
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intervention to get them off alcohol and drugs so that they're clean of that.
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And then you can help to house them, rehabilitate them and get them into work.
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So they need to have work and housing and then you tick those off and you go
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through a very structured approach.
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But there is no approach. But you make two interesting points there.
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One point is often that the reason why somebody is on the streets is linked to a core, a root cause.
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And for some people that will be addiction.
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And therefore, unless you can
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solve the addiction, you won't solve their issue of being on the streets.
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They'll find themselves back on the streets. But at the same time,
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should society determine that everybody should live in a home or a house or whatever?
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You know, in a free society, can we dictate that everybody needs to basically
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have an abode? You know, I don't know the answer to that.
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I just think that if they're putting millions and millions and millions of 400
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million into this, then they must be able to get experts.
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There must be experts in this country. We obviously have a very skilled country,
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very skilled professionals.
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They must have very good skills to get people off addiction.
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And it should be in the country's interest to get people off addiction and help them.
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They actually owe that sort of duty of care to help their citizens and help
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people. At the same time, James, we heard stories today.
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And it'll come up in one of the Fox Pops. Really? It's not just addiction, is it?
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There's bureaucracy in the system. This is the Late Late Lunch Show with Rod
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Maxwell. Supported by...
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Where little explorers grow naturally. So, good morning, Rod. How are you doing?
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It is morning. Normally it's afternoon, but we started early today.
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How are you, James? Yes, I'm all right, thanks, Rod. We're starting,
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what, three minutes early?
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Well, yes, but we met at half the 11th, so that's still essentially the morning.
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Anyway, it's a gorgeous day here in Altria. It really is, isn't it,
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Rod? And when I was driving here, it was nice weather today,
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actually. I think we're spoiled for the weather today.
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We've been spoiled for the weather all summer, almost. But that links to the
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topic today on View from the Street. It does, Rod. It does.
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Because we're going to be talking about homelessness or people's rough sleeping.
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And you'll have seen that Andy Burnham has made a pledge that across the nation
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this Christmas that there'll be less people on the streets than normal.
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And he's increasing the funding of $442 million to tackle this issue.
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And apparently, James, there's nearly 5,000 people on average a night sleeping
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rough on the streets of England.
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So really the question is, is there anything that can be done?
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Because for some people it is lifestyle. for some people it is they fall into
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bad difficult ways it's not their choice but I'm really interested to find out what people.
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Here and ultimately think about it and i'm talking to some we're making a focus
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across the week on the show so we're talking to some charities on wednesday
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to find their perspective and how they help people but it's it's you know five
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thousand people is that a lot i think it is you know,
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it is i think it is as well we actually did this topic three years ago in season
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three so three summers ago we did it and we got some really good information
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i think we were going to spin it out into a second episode because there was
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a lot on it and you enjoyed doing that and i think the.
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You know, we, you know, during lockdown and COVID, we managed to sort this.
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We got people off the streets then, but we can do it in waves.
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We can do it when there's focus and Christmas is a focus. But to be honest with
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you, Christmas can't just be a one-off. It has to be tackled more long-term
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because it has an impact on all aspects of society.
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You know, not just the people sleeping rough, but for the communities as well.
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So, and for the health service, because they've got to look after them.
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So there's so many aspects, but really, you know, fundamental is how many is too many?
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You know, what is it? What is a, is there even a legitimate number?
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Even if you had 10 in the country sleeping rough, is that right? You know?
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Yeah. And they also need to find out whether Andy Burnham was successful in
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Manchester and whatever his strategy is nationally to copy what he did in Manchester.
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Is it possible to have a national focus?
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Yeah, that is true. And again, it's about the long term. You know,
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we've got fewer people on the streets of Greater Manchester today than we had
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before he started his focus, you know.
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But I'm really interested today to find out what people on Ultringham think,
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because, you know, there's quite a few people here that would never even consider
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the idea of rough sleeping. So are they the privileged few?
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Are they aware of the issue? Let's find out. Yeah, let's find out, Rob.
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So today on View from the Street, we're asking people about homelessness.
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5,000 people sleeping rough every night in England.
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Do you think there's inevitability about this? Or even if you had 100 people
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sleeping rough, it would be too many?
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See, I mean, that's the thing is you could always make shelters for people to
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sleep or make conditions that you think are going to be better for them.
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But people are always going to have the free will of choice of whether they
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want to sleep in these places or not.
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So I think at the end of the day, you're never really going to put a full stop to it.
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It's just going to be people's choice and and putting a number on it does 5
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000 shock you do you think that's a lot per night in england.
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I that i don't know i mean seeing how many we have around i think the numbers decreased over time,
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but then then when you think about it like 5 000 compared to the population
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doesn't sound a lot but then when you think about it it's so many people at
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the same time it's 5 000 lives isn't it exactly,
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yeah but it's it's do you think it's fair as the government puts it in focus
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and gets it into our consciousness,
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yeah i think i think that's fair i mean that there's there's a lot of priorities
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that that the government has and a lot of things that they want to cover but
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homelessness definitely should be,
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one of them but But like I say, it's hard to come to a term where you have like
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a final solution because yeah, at the end of the day, it's just people's choice.
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It's complicated, isn't it? Yeah, very.
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It is. Rightful thank you for stopping. The Late Late Lunch Show with Back to
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the Garden Child Care. Natural beginnings for bright futures.
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So, good afternoon, ladies. This is James Spence and Rob Maxwell for the show,
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Read from the Street on Radio Alty.
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And today we're asking about homelessness. And I just wanted to ask you what
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your opinion was on Andy Burnham's strategy to have the government try to have,
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more people off the streets. What's your opinion on this?
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Well, it should have more people off the streets. They did say that in Manchester,
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where they've got the arches, that was making like a pod for the homeless to
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go into and they'll have their own code.
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Has that taken place? I don't know.
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But also, it needs to not wait until Christmas time. Like they usually say,
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oh, we'll get them off the streets for Christmas time.
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I don't think that's right. Fair enough, there's some homeless that are quite
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happy to be on the streets, but the majority of them need to be somewhere safe,
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you know, and, you know, it needs to be somewhere safe.
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Do you think the focus on Christmas is a bit of tokenism? Because actually you
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can solve it for Christmas, maybe, but it's what you do the rest of the time. No, you've got to.
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It's not a one-off. No, it's not a one-off.
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They've got to do something about it. It's all talk, I'm sorry.
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Is all talk and is no action. There's a problem because people...
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Some people are working. They can't find a reasonable rent, can they?
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So some people are working and living in tents because they've got nowhere to
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live. Or they're living in the car. Or in the car.
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It's not fair, is it? Because they can't afford rent because the landlords,
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I mean, I know they can't shut them out now, but they're putting their rents up all the time.
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So there's more and more people with families, our people, that are being made homeless.
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And it's wrong yeah and it's it's not an easy,
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problem to fix is it because there are so many links to it aren't there yeah
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there are where do you put all the people I mean they've built those things
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under the arches in Manchester haven't they
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have they have they I don't know yeah they've actually done those yeah I think
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there are some I don't know if it was the council or it was a private,
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person that's done those because trying to help homeless people you know in
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like I thought you know in like The buildings in Manchester where there's nobody
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inside them They've got big buildings Why don't you use them.
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Those where they can go So good afternoon sir Today on View from the Street
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we're asking people About homelessness, people sleeping rough Apparently the
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latest statistics say 5,000 people in England alone Sleep rough
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every night And the government seems to be putting a focus on this What's your thoughts on,
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The size of the challenge And the reasons for it Well,
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my honest opinion, there's a lot of self-inflicted, there's self-inflicted,
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it's like the sleeping room, there are the drugs, alcohol,
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other things, what goes on in this world today.
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But there's a lot of young men come out of the forces and they've nowhere to go.
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And that's what they've got to keep their eye on, them men who come out of the
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forces and they've nowhere to go.
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Yeah. Because they get that disease. I can't remember what it's called.
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PTSD. Yeah, that's it.
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They get into a spiral. I've seen
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these homeless lads that come out of the forces and they've done a lot.
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It's affected them being in Afghanistan, Iraq.
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I knew a lad who was in Iraq.
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He was driving an armored car back behind the one in front and 15 of his men got killed through.
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American aircraft firing at it. Yeah, friendly fire. Friendly fire, as you call.
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It affects these people in many different ways that's all I can say you know what it seems to me that,
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there might be 5,000 people sleeping rough every night but there could be 5,000
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different reasons 5,000 different stories there's not one size fits all is there?
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Because nobody can pinpoint it like I say a lot of them are self-inflicted that's
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their choice It's a choice.
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And the force is lots.
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Other reasons. Yeah. Mental reasons. Yeah. Good. Thank you for your view. Thank you.
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This is the Late Late Lunch Show with Rod Maxwell. Supported by...
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Childbed Learning in Nature's Playground. Can I ask you, when you hear the number
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5,000 a night in England alone, do you think that's a big number?
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Do they surprise you? Or do you think actually there might even be more than that?
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What's your reaction to 5,000? In the country, I bet there's more.
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In our country it's a total I bet there's more than that there's more,
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we're left we're put aside well I'm sorry and I don't want to offend anyone
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but you know they're coming in they're having hands out,
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and our people are having to justify why they should be getting the benefits,
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and to helping them I'm sorry it's a reasonable topic you think there should
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be more focus on it of course yeah more focus but something done about it we're all talking,
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but it's not He's not listening.
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So I think something's going on, personally. They've signed something.
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The government have signed something. The Home Office have signed something.
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Look how they're doing these £250,000 houses that they're giving them.
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Why aren't they helping the homeless? It's disgusting. Thank you.
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Thank you very much indeed. Thank you, guys.
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So good afternoon, sir. This is Jay Spencer and Rob Maxwell for the Late Late
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Lunch show, View from the Street on Radio Alty.
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And we're just asking today about homelessness, about Andy Burnham's agenda
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to improve the situation with homelessness.
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I just wanted to know what your opinion was on this topic.
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Well, I don't think they will change anything, to be honest with you.
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I mean, I've been homeless now for six, seven weeks. I've rang the council.
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I've gone through every avenue. I've tried everything.
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And there's just no help out there. There really isn't no help out there.
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Can I just say, because we walked up to you, and I wouldn't have thought for
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a minute until I saw your bags.
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What led you to essentially be homeless?
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I lost my partner, so it was a flat, but I couldn't take over to Tennessee,
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so they tried to find me somewhere. They put me in Newton Heath, which I don't even know.
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We shared a combination with six people, one kitchen and a little room each.
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And what they were doing, they're all on drugs. They get a lot.
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They get paid. They get everything. But they spend every penny on drugs.
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So you put your food in the fridge.
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They steal it through the night. They get up in the middle of the night. They pinch your milk.
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Any food you put in that fridge, they will eat. They'll steal it.
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So I can't live like that anymore and they wreck the place rather than wash
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panels and pots there's only one kitchen they'll throw them in a bin there's
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just no respect for anybody they go to Piccadilly shoplifting and the police were there,
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I bet twice a week looking for them because they've all been shoplifting it's
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horrendous and essentially you would rather be on your own on the streets here,
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I felt threatened because they put crack pipes on the table in the kitchen they
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spend every penny they've got on crack and she's frightening.
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And a focus on one time of the year christmas really does it's a bit tokenism
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do you think oh christmas is a horrible time for people i i've not had a nice
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christmas for a long time it's a loss i've lost my mother i've lost my partner
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and it's just a very lonely place and you don't reach out to help for your family
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because you're embarrassed so,
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they're all busy they've got children they've got lives so you don't want you
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don't want my other people you try and do it on your own but I told you I rang
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the council and and what you have to do you get the homeless people come out,
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the homeless who are supposed to help you they have to prove you're sleeping rough,
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they come and look for you they see you're sleeping rough and then they said
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to me the council rang me up the next day and they said right ask me low I must
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have been on phone three quarters of an hour
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then they said right well you've got a meeting on the 21st of September I said
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a phone meeting said well what am I supposed to do till then we'll carry on
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doing and what you're doing.
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It's shocking. This is the Late Late Lunch Show with Rod Maxwell. Supported by...
19:35
Where little explorers grow naturally. So good afternoon guys.
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On a few from the street today we're asking about homelessness and latest stats
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suggest around 5,000 people in England alone sleep rough every night.
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Now what do you think of this as a topic?
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Do you think this is a topic that's worth a lot of focus from the government, from the PM?
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Yeah definitely because at the moment I'm up in Sheffield so in Sheffield a
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lot of the chairs over there where the public is they all have prickles and
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they're made to be extremely uncomfortable so that the homeless people can't go on them.
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So I think it would be very beneficial
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if they change that to make it more welcoming for those who struggle.
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And on the topic of why people end up on the streets, do you think it's always
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self-inflicted? Do you think people fall on hard times?
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But do you think it's just too difficult sometimes to get out of that?
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What's your thoughts? Do you have much empathy, if you like,
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for people who are on the streets? Well, yeah, of course, because you never
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know what situation they've been in in their life.
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So you don't know if it's something that was self-inflicted from their own,
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something that they brought upon themselves, or if it was just a struggle that
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was out of their hands. So either way, I think everybody should have the same
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empathy, whatever their circumstance is.
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So do you think it's worth the government having a renewed focus on this?
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So at the moment, Andy Burnham wants to solve it for Christmas,
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but should we actually be trying to solve it all year round?
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Well, yeah, definitely. But I think it's better to focus on it until Christmas
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because the winter's coming and people are definitely going to struggle harder
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now since the weather getting colder.
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So do you think by focusing on Christmas, it raises people's awareness of it,
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it gives it focus, and then you can maybe move on and do something more after that?
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It's because a tighter schedule would make it so people focus more on it and,
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definitely advertising the issue would help raise awareness.
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Okay, thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
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And i mean what do you think would help there's got to be property somewhere
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for people to well they put people in hotels don't they,
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and i'm not racist by any way shape i mean but if they can put foreigners in
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hotels why can't they do that with us why can't they put us there must be somewhere
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they can put us but they're quite happy to see you on the streets but they won't
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look like these other people who've never paid taxes insurance,
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but they put them in hotels but their own they can't they can't put you anywhere
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temporary can't they just put you in a hotel somewhere i don't expect miracles
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and and from what you said shared accommodation doesn't really work because
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you don't know who you're going to be sharing with i tell you something shared accommodation.
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The six i was the sixth person in there and the other five people were all wrong
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people and i told you whatever you could not put anything in because you couldn't
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put salt and pepper you couldn't put a cup of soup they'll just steal it,
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because they will not spend money on anything and then what they decided to do the,
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the the change the tenancy agreement it was all it was 600 pound a month with
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gas and electric included and then what did they change the tenancy said it
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was a new firm it wasn't the same people
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then they said you've got to pay your own gas and electric but not individual
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room it was just for that building so you would tell me how am i going to pay
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for gas and electricity how do i get money off people who spend every penny
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on drugs there's no gas electricity
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i can't live like that no more i'm not doing it well here and best of luck to
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you thank you very much thank you thank you,
22:57
so good afternoon man this is jay spencer and rob maxwell for view from the
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street on radio alty and we just wanted to ask you about homelessness and I
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just wanted to know from you, what do you think of Andy Burnham's pledge to
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try and end homelessness?
23:08
I think it's honorable, but I don't know if it will be, yeah, realistic. Because?
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It's just a very big issue with lots of different layers to it, really.
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And there's so many issues with welfare anyway, regardless. Like,
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how can you prioritize...
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The biggest welfare issue at the minute like you hear about what's happening
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in brick lane with like the new data center being built and like how housing's
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an issue like i just don't know how it's,
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how it's ever going to be i don't know solved do you think that maybe there's
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the the choice element to it do you think that it's it's impossible or do you think that it's,
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between no with homelessness do you think it's impossible to solve do you think
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it's something that you can't resolve,
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i mean i don't want to sound negative i hope there is 100 i want there to be
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positiveness around it and like i want there to be a solution to it but i don't
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think it's going to be happen within like 12 months or anything like i think
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it's something you have to commit to from a societal point of view and yeah.
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It just has to be number one priority it's gonna take time and yeah a lot of
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people getting involved to support it,
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do you think that he did well in manchester because in manchester he says that
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he did one better night a better night strategy and he did take people off the
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streets of manchester even though i actually spoke to him at the mayor of manchester
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questions do you not have a task force to try and get people off the street and he says oh we do
24:28
but then you still see a lot of homelessness i think it's gotten worse,
24:32
we live in nancotes and near new islington tram stop now there's like a,
24:37
it's like a bit of a tent village going on there and it's awful like you go
24:42
near general store in nancotes and it's always someone i ask them for help it's
24:46
just i don't think it's gotten better,
24:49
so you think there's the i found the right word and a degree of inevitability about it,
24:54
yeah i'd say so like,
24:56
i i don't think i've seen any improvement in manchester per se than if you go
25:00
to london like leeds manchester they're all quite similar and it's quite upsetting but,
25:06
there's only so much you can do as like it's like the general public to tackle
25:10
it yeah the last question is do you think unlike his predecessors andy burnham
25:15
could be successful yeah.
25:17
Yeah, I like him so far. Are you talking about him in general?
25:20
No, about homelessness. Do
25:21
you think he might be able to do something that other people haven't done?
25:24
Yeah, I think he sees it more of a priority than others have seen it.
25:28
So I believe he'll make an impact. I just don't know how big that will be.
25:33
Okay, good afternoon, Sammy. This is James and Rod, from View From The Street
25:36
on Radio World. I just want to ask you about the topic of homelessness.
25:38
So I think you were just talking about Andy Burnham just now,
25:40
where he's saying that he can resolve it all. But do you think he can?
25:44
I think you can have a good crack at it. But I think there's a great many people,
25:50
who are actually begging on the streets when they do actually have accommodation.
25:56
So even if he sorts out the homelessness, there'll still be beggars.
26:00
And there's just far too many beggars now. I was in Glasgow recently and they were just everywhere.
26:07
And of course, it's not just Glasgow, it's anywhere and everywhere.
26:11
And even smart towns like Lancaster and all the tents and doorways.
26:16
So it is, I mean, it's not going to become like the third world, for heaven's sake.
26:22
I've got every faith in Andy Burnham. I've met him, a right gentleman, you know.
26:27
I met him on the city homecoming and he took time. Just on his own,
26:31
he took time and spoke to me.
26:33
And I think he's certainly the man to deal with these problems.
26:37
And he's younger than me as well, you know, but very clever man very very clever,
26:41
he went to Cambridge so do you think that he's he's qualified enough.
26:45
To handle this I didn't even know he went to Cambridge I just thought he was
26:49
naturally read English literature I think I didn't even know that I just thought
26:53
he was naturally clever you know,
26:56
I mean, look, a friend of mine, he got offered a place at Glasgow Academy,
27:01
a fee-paying school, only he didn't have to pay. They just wanted his brains in there.
27:07
But he said no, and his parents said no, so he got offered it,
27:11
and he didn't jump into the chance.
27:13
So, good afternoon. Today on Views in the Street on Radio Alty,
27:16
we're asking people about the topic of homelessness. 5,000 people sleep rough
27:20
every night on the streets of England alone.
27:22
The government's got some renewed focus on this and possibly around Christmas,
27:26
but also what we're asking is Christmas enough, really?
27:31
What do you think about the topic? Is it too many? Is it too complicated? Is it worth tackling?
27:37
It is worth tackling. I think it's disgusting. Our homeless should take priority
27:41
of all these other people that are coming in, getting everything first.
27:45
Our veterans should be a priority.
27:47
There shouldn't be any British homeless on the streets at all.
27:51
And I do believe they should be given the priority of everything.
27:55
It is worth a tackle, and I 100% back it.
27:59
How would they like it, all these politicians, if they were homeless?
28:02
Let's reverse the role round.
28:04
They become homeless, and yet, let's let, like, for example,
28:09
no offence, let the immigrants go and live in 10 Downing Street or 10 North,
28:13
whatever he's called at Andy Burnham.
28:15
Let's reverse the roles to them coming on the streets for a night.
28:18
And the whole topic of living on the streets, do you think we're embarrassed
28:23
as a nation about the topic or there's too much stigma and we're not very good
28:27
at talking about it? I think there's a lot of anger.
28:29
I think it's not about being embarrassed. I think there's a lot of anger of
28:33
watching hours and watching hours die on the streets from it.
28:38
And they've done nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong. And they also blame
28:42
the councils for not giving a direct approach on it. Not tackling it.
28:47
Enough to help them okay thank you very much for you thank you thank you.
28:53
Anything you want to add, Rod? I mean, Sammy, do you think for some people,
29:00
sleeping on the streets is their choice?
29:03
Oh, most certainly. Most certainly.
29:06
It's drugs and lifestyle.
29:09
I mean, you can be sitting at home comfortably, listening to the clock ticking.
29:15
Whereas if you're out on the streets, you're meeting people,
29:17
you're talking to people.
29:19
It's a way of life. It's like a job. and I know a lot of people well put it this way,
29:25
most of them have actually got a place to live there's not very many who are
29:30
really although there are some who are really homeless.
29:36
And really you can your nose tells you the proper ones from the imposters you
29:42
can actually smell a homeless person from 50 yards,
29:46
I know that sounds a bit cheeky or nasty but it's the truth you know,
29:50
you can smell a homeless person so anyone who doesn't smell like that will look like myself I'm just,
29:58
I'm not homeless but I've got no family I've got nobody, I've got nothing,
30:03
I've got no work I've got no wonder to the world,
30:07
and my universal credit doesn't get me what I get for a month would maybe keep
30:11
me going for a week so really I need this as a lifeline a wonder to the world,
30:17
and to get some food and some money, you know can't live on universal credit,
30:22
but even if I had money I would still need something you need a reason,
30:27
you need purpose you know, really I need a job and,
30:31
Sammy do people confuse you or thinking that you're homeless just because you're
30:36
on the street aye aye, that's the assumption oh that homeless person,
30:42
I know the person you mean but they're not actually homeless I mean there's
30:46
a couple who have been doing it for a long time,
30:49
The gentleman from the council actually got him a place at the same time as
30:53
me. And they just kept on begging and that, you know.
31:00
And it's lucrative. If you're a female and you've got blonde hair,
31:03
you can make a lot of money.
31:05
Whereas a big lad like me, you know, they say, Oh, look at that big,
31:08
lazy-ass guy there. They don't like you. That Glasgow smile is not worth the fiver, hey?
31:14
I look too well-fed, too well-nourished. but if I wasn't like this you know
31:20
if I wasn't doing this then I wouldn't look so well you know what I mean?
31:24
Sammy good to see you good to see you guys how do you think today's episode went?
31:31
Well as usual the people in Ultringham are generally talkative there was a number
31:34
of people who felt too uncomfortable with the whole topic you know in some ways,
31:39
we got a variety of views we had some very personal experiences you know and,
31:46
it just goes to show that First of all, it's more prevalent than we think.
31:49
The whole issue of homelessness.
31:51
I think it's highly political as well, as we heard as well.
31:55
And there's empathy, but there's also a real confusion as to what you do about it.
32:03
But I think generally people thought, well, Christmas is not enough.
32:08
You could solve it in lockdown.
32:09
You threw money at it in lockdown in a way.
32:13
But it's a tough subject.
32:16
I'm not That's convinced, though, that people see it being a major priority, if I'm honest.
32:25
But yeah, I think the views here in the High Street and Aldrigan probably are
32:29
quite representative of the views in the country.
32:32
Yeah, and are you concerned about, do you think it's a bit radical,
32:35
the view where they've connected immigration with this, where they think that
32:38
the hotels that have migrants, they're trying to say that that should be for
32:41
homelessness? What's your view on them?
32:44
I can see why people draw conclusions on that because, you know,
32:48
the government has spent money housing people who are either illegal or illegal migrants.
32:55
I can see that, but then we don't know how much money is being spent on trying to fight homelessness.
33:02
I think Burnham's got something like 400 million.
33:06
That to me feels that it's a big sum of money, but at the same time it's probably not enough.
33:13
But it's complex because everybody's stories and reasons for being on the street
33:18
can be different and normally if you've got to fix something you've got to go
33:22
for the root cause and the root causes will be different as well.
33:25
I thought interestingly hearing from a guy who was going to be put into shared accommodation,
33:30
and saying well I was going to be surrounded with people who are high on drugs
33:34
and there's no way I would do that and therefore being on the streets was a
33:37
better option I absolutely have empathy with that, and I can see why he would
33:42
choose the streets over other options.
33:44
Oh, bless him. And he's looking over at us now, and yeah, my heart goes out to him.
33:48
And are there any charities that are trying to help with this situation?
33:52
Where are they standing in all of this?
33:54
Well, we're going to be talking to one of the charities this week,
33:56
Life Share, on the Wednesday show, and I'm going to talk to them about what
33:59
are they doing and what other charities are doing. And there is a lot of effort
34:04
on this, I think. Maybe they can help. Oh, maybe they can.
34:08
Maybe they can't, but you know, it's complex. It's very complex.
34:12
I think it's deserving of national focus because I think, you know,
34:18
Yeah, I think it's impossible to turn around and say, what number is right?
34:23
You know, 5,000, what number do you target? You know, should you go for zero?
34:29
Do you go for zero policy?
34:32
I really don't know. It's a complicated topic, which is why when we did it three
34:35
years ago, you said you wanted to have a second episode on it.
34:37
And even today, I got the sense that you want to do another episode on it because,
34:41
it's a complicated topic and people aren't very informed about it.
34:44
Yeah, and I don't feel like I'm knowledgeable enough about it,
34:49
but it's a frustrating topic. It's complicated at the same time.
34:55
But at least talking about it today, at least maybe it's raised the awareness
35:00
a little bit more. I think they need a hero like you, Rod, to sort this out. I'm no hero, John.
35:05
I mean, sorry, James. No way at all. I think we just need a determination.
35:10
We need we need a joined up plan and we need to target this i think if you put
35:15
a few tweets out there and tag down the burn a minute or type the labor party
35:19
hopefully someone will see the tweet well,
35:22
i i should say i i think the key the key thing is that we we take moralistic and and,
35:28
you know we take a joined up approach this is not party political this is this
35:32
is about what we as a nation are comfortable with well i still go back to what
35:37
i said in i think it was december,
35:40
was it 20 December 23 or December 24 I said to Andy Burnham I think it should
35:45
be mandatory to have a task force on the street and the task force have to take people off the street.
35:50
I think there will always be somebody who chooses not to.
35:55
I think maybe to prevent crime and drugs, we should say, oh, no, we have to.
36:00
Yeah, but also we need to not make assumptions that just because somebody's
36:05
on the street means that they're more likely to turn to crime or drugs.
36:09
I'm not saying that. But I think from a moralistic point. Protect them from
36:14
that. Yeah, protect them.
36:15
Protect them. But, you know, we talked to a gentleman today.
36:18
He's got skills. He's got skills. Very good skills.
36:21
It could be. More skills than us. Yeah.
36:24
Yeah. But, you know, he could be contributing positively to the economy and
36:30
therefore having a better life.
36:33
And he just needs a break. He needs somewhere to stay that's not sharing with
36:38
a bunch of people who are going to be focused on drugs and drink.
36:43
It's a complex thing. And, yeah. But we will come back to this every year because
36:48
every year we'll chip away on it.
36:50
And see if we can see any improvement. That could be our commitment to be from
36:54
the street and radio all to and homelessness is that every year is one of our 26 or 30 episodes.
37:00
Oh, well, definitely. You know, just just shine a light and keep on talking
37:07
and pushing. Yeah, and raise awareness.
37:09
Yeah. Thank you, Rod, and we'll catch up later in the studio. Okay.
37:12
This is The Late Late Lunch Show with Rod Maxwell, supported by...
37:17
Where little explorers grow naturally. James, it's a huge topic.
37:21
We always run out of time on this, and it's a really complex topic.
37:28
I thought today that there were two moments that really made me think about
37:35
why it's so complicated.
37:38
And one of those moments was when we walked up to a man to get his opinion,
37:44
and then i spotted the bags and then i realized that actually he might be all those people who,
37:52
is the subject of being on the streets and it turned out to be the case and
37:57
yet he was very well dressed very well presented and,
38:02
has a profession but found himself on the street and then if we if we turned
38:09
to sammy a lot of people would think that maybe sammy's homeless but he isn't he's.
38:15
At home, he's got a roof over his head but he likes to be out amongst people
38:21
during the day and it's a source of income for him actually,
38:25
that showed to me how complex this is and you can't just always assume that
38:33
what the label looks like is what the label means if that makes sense,
38:37
Exactly. Yes. And also, by the way, when you said I'm the editor,
38:40
I can't do this without you're the amazing co-host. We are co-hosts.
38:44
I think that's a very important point. I think that we can't assume that everybody
38:47
is homeless on the street because they may have an accommodation,
38:50
but they still don't have any money. So they have to come onto the street in order to ask for money.
38:54
And also, not only that, they need the companionship or at least to come out,
39:00
and socialize like Sammy.
39:03
And I think the other point is that that chap that we met was extremely kind of well-groomed.
39:08
He had nice clothes and no wash, but he had nowhere to go.
39:12
And he had no home because of his circumstances, which means that this is,
39:17
what I would say, a failure of society and a failure of the government and social
39:21
services and organizations or charities to look out for people.
39:25
So then people are lost into the cracks of society because they haven't got the right support.
39:29
And if there is support, they don't know how to access it. And,
39:31
you know, that gentleman we spoke to has got skills, you know, he's a lorry mechanic.
39:41
And, you know, really, he seemed to be somebody who would love to be able to
39:48
be back and doing those, using those skills.
39:53
And as he said on the Fox Pops he was put into shared accommodation but.
39:59
With people who were alcoholics who were drug addicts and he just couldn't cope
40:05
and I understand that so for him living on the streets as hard as it is,
40:12
is better for him than actually going into a building of multiple occupancy
40:20
which is something like an HBO or something like that.
40:24
It's just, James, it just makes you really frustrated.
40:29
Yeah, it's mind-boggling and also I think that this is Britain bureaucracy because.
40:37
Who's controlling this? Who's doing anything about it? If the council know,
40:40
or social services know, or the police know, that some people are spending money
40:44
on drugs, or some of these places have turned into a crack haven,
40:48
why is no one doing anything about it?
40:50
Where's the support? Because this poor man was having to live with these people
40:54
when he didn't want to, obviously, you know, get involved in that stuff.
40:58
And he's saying that food's getting nicked from the fridge, so he can't even
41:00
buy food for himself. So it's just outrageous.
41:03
We're not a third world country. This is one of the five biggest economies in
41:07
the world. And yet the bureaucracy means people just think, oh,
41:10
we don't care. We don't give the stuff. It's someone else's problem. And it's not.
41:13
They need to sort this out. Yeah, it is. And I sometimes think that we can't
41:19
call ourselves a developed society while we are prepared to live with us.
41:28
At the same time, I know for some people it is a life choice because they don't
41:35
feel equipped to live in normal civilization, perhaps.
41:41
And I do have this feeling of whether you've got to allow people to express
41:48
their free will. And if somebody doesn't want to be living under bricks and
41:52
mortar, well, that's okay, you know, maybe.
41:56
Be but for those who desperately want to i don't want to say normality but to,
42:03
live a normal life to have a roof over their head to feel security of that and
42:09
to be able to build their lives again because they've got an address which means
42:12
that they can apply for things etc etc.
42:16
Then you know we've got to make it easier for people to achieve that yeah exactly
42:23
i i personally speaking from someone who has autism, I think that the structures
42:28
or the processes, they're not right.
42:31
Life is wrong, or at least this country is wrong. People who have any kind of
42:35
social communication difficulties, which this chap said he did because he didn't
42:39
have an email address and he wasn't good at IT, who's there to help them?
42:43
Someone should try to help these people.
42:45
So they should say, look, I don't know how to use IT. I'm really struggling.
42:48
I don't have an email address either. Can someone help me?
42:51
And they should be able to offer support and should say, yep,
42:53
we have people who aren't the ground, we have people who are experts in this,
42:57
they can help you. And I'm sure if I spoke to my mum about this,
43:00
she'll say the same and say there just isn't any support for people.
43:04
But James, this man can help others because he's got skills.
43:08
He used to be a mechanic. You know? Exactly. But people don't,
43:12
you know, they don't have the right structures and processes to think aha,
43:15
this chap is struggling with IT and stuff.
43:18
Let's find him somewhere to live that hasn't got any drugs and let's saw other
43:22
people in places that do have drugs, and let's find a place that will support his skills.
43:33
Childbed learning in nature's playground so that's been another view from the streets,
43:38
uh we've been looking at people who live on the streets and we've been looking
43:42
at the topic of homelessness as always
43:44
if you've got any views on this get in contact with us through the lately lunch
43:48
show through our socials uh the lately lunch show at gmail.com or go to radio
43:53
altie at gmail.com we'd love to hear from you
43:56
and if you've got a topic you would like us to cover then get in contact as
44:01
well and we'd be happy to do so.
44:03
James, good to see you. See you next week. Thank you, Ron.
44:07
You're listening to The Late Late Lunch Show with... Back to the Garden Childcare
44:11
where little explorers grow naturally.