Episode 1 Cardiff: Living on the Streets

I've been on the street so long now I've give up.

I'm going to be on the street for the rest of my life, I think.

Cardiff is facing a housing crisis.

In just two years,

the number of people sleeping rough on the streets

has more than doubled.

Yeah, I sleep in here.

I'm film-maker Chris Rushton,

and together with Angharad Arnold we've spent six months

following the plight of Cardiff's homeless.

I want to understand why the numbers are on the increase...

I don't know what the council are going to do

with my particular case.

I've just got to sit there, bare it, grin and just keep on going.

..the risks they take sleeping rough...

There's dangers. I've been beat up.

Men offering me money for sex.

..find out how the homeless survive, and the prejudices they face.

-Get a life and get a fucking grip.

-That's it.

-There's loads of work.

-Grab yourself and do it.

And stop begging.

I don't like being like that.

They need to get me off the streets. I don't like doing this.

Following the lives of those with nowhere to go

would prove to be an upsetting story.

I can't live like this no more.

HE WHIMPERS

This is the reality of living on Cardiff's streets.

I'd followed the plight of the homeless in Swansea

on film five years ago,

but since then, Cardiff has overtaken Swansea

as the homeless capital of Wales.

When Cardiff seemed to be showing all the signs

of affluence and success,

I wanted to find out about those who were down on their luck

with nowhere to go.

Our journey begins in summer of 2016.

One of the main reasons for homelessness

is relationship break down

and having no-one to turn to in a crisis.

I've been on my own since I was 16.

I've had no family around me, no family contact,

so it's just something I've become accustomed to.

Raymond has been homeless on and off for years.

Living on the streets and sleeping rough

has become his normal routine.

It's 7.30 in the morning. Raymond's asleep.

His bedroom, ironically,

is the emergency exit of one of Cardiff's biggest hotels.

I'm so tired. Bad night tonight.

What was keeping you awake last night?

The birds.

The bloody seagulls.

If I had a gun I'd kill the lot of them.

SEAGULL SQUAWKS IN DISTANCE

When he sleeps, both him and his possessions are a soft target.

I see you've got a bit of a deterrent there, with your bag.

Yeah, I tie it to the post.

'Being organised is half the battle.'

Battery pack. Travel charger.

But it's dead.

He's chosen this pitch partly because of this facility.

It's just an outside socket

for the people that is using the restaurant,

so you can charge your stuff.

As long as I'm not shaving outside like I did before

in the middle of the day when the restaurant's open.

I like to have a change of clothes and be clean

instead of looking like a tramp every day.

If I'm on my own, it limits me where I can go,

but I just don't care.

I just take it wherever I've got to go anyway.

Oh! I've left my blooming charger around there!

Can't let that go missing.

Now, this, I need.

If I lose this, I'm knackered.

We were shocked by the numbers of people

who've made Cardiff city centre their home.

A survey by charities on one night counted 47 people sleeping rough.

Shoes. Spare trainers.

Another of the well-kitted rough sleepers is known as Smurf.

He's spent most of his life with no fixed abode.

That's the bag sorted.

I've got everything, yeah.

Very good, yeah.

31-year-old Smurf grew up in Derby.

I've been on the streets now...

It'll be 12 years on the 19th of August.

My little journey started when I was 13,

when I started to go downhill.

He had a falling out with his family

and wanted to make a new life here.

I've been here, what, eight years?

His real name is Stuart,

but the reason he ended up with the nickname Smurf

is to do with the blue-skinned cartoon characters.

I was sitting with a group of friends one day

and we was having a bit of a conversation,

and they just basically turned and said,

"Oh, you're well blue-minded, you are. You're like a Smurf."

And it stuck.

Look at Smurf's back garden!

It's Alexandra Park.

It's just a stone's throw away from the Civic Centre.

This, unknown to other people,

this little bush on this amazing garden,

is where you will find my Smurf workshop.

I've been on this park now two and a half, three months.

This is my little home. You have to duck down and stuff.

You sort of get in. It's not a lot, but it's my home.

It's where I live. It's where I sleep when I can get to sleep.

We were about to discover that his collection of junk

is the raw materials for making all kinds of amazing things.

This bike here is made from an office chair...

They're wheelie bin wheels, the back axle is off a pushchair.

We've got a BMX scooter, which is the main framework.

A unicycle on the front,

and the whole thing holding it together,

two planks of wood, and two bolts.

That is holding the whole thing together.

Yeah! That looks pretty cool.

It was truly an astonishing feat of engineering and up-cycling.

Use the breaks, always check the traffic.

Safety first.

With nowhere safe to keep his stuff,

his tricycle makes light work of having to lug it around.

Hello, lads. Hi!

Cheers.

What happens when I'm cycling around

on my lovely little contraption here

is people kind of laugh.

They don't quite understand the concept of the bike.

The bike was created to make people laugh,

to spread joy.

I want to see people laughing. Not hiding away from it, you know.

This is fun.

It's a fantastic way to exercise and keep your heart rate down.

See, that's the sort of bag I could do with,

cos it's waterproof.

Smurf chose a life on the street to escape his family difficulties,

but many end up here as a result of serious addiction

to drugs and alcohol.

In 2013, I'd filmed in Swansea

where most of the homeless people I met

were trapped on the streets by drink.

One of the people I'd filmed back then was Dean,

sleeping rough on the streets.

Oh, well. At least it's not raining!

He was in poor health because of his alcoholism

and was repeatedly collapsing on the streets.

You've got a head injury, that's the thing.

I can't release you. I won't be happy to release you on the streets.

I'm not Iron Man. I can't live like this for the rest of my life,

you know what I mean?

Now, four years later, I met Dean again.

He's come to the Huggard Centre,

one of the charities in Cardiff that helps the homeless.

-Hello, Dean.

-Hi, babe.

-All right?

The Huggard offers some of Cardiff's most entrenched homeless people

accommodation and support of all kinds.

-Ah, nice one.

-There's your quilt, all right.

-Huh?

-OK?

-Yeah.

They help him out with a duvet.

Dean hasn't put his name down for one of Cardiff's 43 emergency beds.

Being caught up in drink means his life can be chaotic.

I will be warm, because I've got this big quilt.

And the main thing is somewhere bloody safe.

Where people don't go past and spit on you

and kick you and stuff like that.

How do you do it, Dean, every night?

Like, looking for somewhere new every night to sleep.

It's not the easiest thing to do, but it's got to be done.

'Trekking past City Hall,

'he's looking for somewhere safe to sleep.'

There we are, look. See it?

What's good about this spot?

It's dark, it's out of the way.

I can't see nothing else.

'I'd witnessed homeless people bedding down many times before,

'but it was still upsetting to see.'

So, this is your good night, yeah?

It sure is, Chris.

Safe enough for me.

'I'd known Dean for five years,

'and it seemed to me there was little hope

'that he would ever be able to get off the streets

'and break the habit of a lifetime.'

At the weekend, the city centre is packed with people

on a big night out.

Some of the homeless make the most of it.

Any spare change, please?

Whilst others have to put up with the invasion

and the bad behaviour of some of the revellers.

The spot where Smurf was planning to sleep has lost its appeal.

That's normally my spot.

Someone's obviously had too much to drink,

thrown up all over the place.

One of Smurf's strategies for surviving on the streets

is to make friends with everyone.

-Hi.

-Hiya, mate.

But there's no avoiding the dark side

of a night on the town.

This looks like a typical Friday of young people going out,

taking full advantage of cheap drinks in nightclubs

and kicking off.

Not homeless people, drunks.

Smurf's front room has become a battleground.

SIREN WAILS

-It's escalating, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's kind of escalating.

It's, getting, you know, heated,

so let's get out of the way before we get pulled into it.

I mean, I've spent that long on the streets, you know,

it's nothing to me.

Pissheads fighting, pissheads throwing up on your front yard.

It's just everyday life.

I was seeing another side to Smurf.

Part of him actually wanted a way out of homelessness.

I want to get out of it now, you know, I've had enough.

I've done 12 years. I've had enough.

But, you know, I'm that far out of the system,

you know, it's...

It's just everyday life to me now.

Three months ago, Smurf put his name down

on a waiting list for a hostel that could offer him

the support he'll need to readjust to normal life,

but he's losing hope that it will ever become a reality.

Finding any kind of roof over your head in Cardiff

can be difficult.

The council's housing list has 8,500 people on it,

and over 800 of these have no fixed abode.

It's now been two months since Raymond first told me

that he was on the waiting list.

You start losing faith in people and faith in the system.

You know, I'm born and bred in Wales.

I've got nothing against any foreigners, nothing like that,

but they seem to get priority over anyone,

which I do think is wrong.

Spare a bit of change, please, ma'am?

The doorways where Raymond sleeps

offer little protection from the weather.

You know, I don't want to be out here,

especially with winter on the way.

Cos it's starting to get me down.

You know, feeling depressed a lot more, stressed.

Just...lonely, as well.

There's no way I'm going to be out here for Christmas.

Christmas is four months away

and I wondered if Raymond would manage

to get off the streets by then.

Living on the streets is both dangerous

and bad for your health.

In a recent survey of homeless people,

80% said they suffered from mental health problems.

Smurf is one of them.

When he was 22,

he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

The stress of living on the streets exacerbates his illness.

I'm just finding it really hard at the minute.

Yeah, it's just getting tough on me at the minute.

With my head, that's where my problems start.

I start getting agitated, and then, before you know it,

I'm in jail for GBH, or something stupid.

He makes light of the voices in his head.

Luckily, I never feel alone.

I've always got somebody talking to me.

But it's a hard thing to live with, but if you know how to deal with it

and how to cope with it, you're all right.

And I've kind of come to terms with it.

I've got a grip on it.

There's the odd occasion that I lose my temper

and I'll have an episode, but I've not had one for a while.

You know, you find little ways to make yourself stand out,

so people smile and actually notice you.

It's a very, very lonely place.

Hopefully, it's not going to be for much longer.

Hopefully, I'll be off the streets soon.

One of Smurf's coping mechanisms is his creativity.

Chop the top off it first...

..cos you don't need the top.

With me being schizophrenic,

my head goes to a very dark place at times,

and it's nice to be able to do something like this.

I find it therapeutic, you know, doing something with my hands

and keeping busy, keeping me sane.

It helps my head.

It stops me from losing my temper, and it works.

It does the job.

Once he fixed cars for a living.

See, I'm a panel beater by trade.

I used to repair smashed-up cars for a living,

but that trade died out.

I'm a very proud man, and I don't claim benefits or anything.

And there we have it.

Any drinks can, candle holder, lantern.

I can literally get a 35p can and sell them for £15 each!

And he doesn't just sell these creations.

What I do, I go and I secretly hide them around town, you know,

cos nobody notices them.

But then when they see people pointing up at something,

then they notice.

I've planted them all around Cardiff.

They are, literally, absolutely everywhere.

But most of the long-term homeless aren't like Smurf.

Those who struggle with serious addictions

and end up homeless on the streets face the biggest challenges.

Dean's 37.

He's been on a downward spiral

for all the time that I've known him.

I've been an alcoholic for about 13 years.

It is my downfall, I'll be honest with you.

The booze is.

It's when Dean goes without drink that he really suffers.

Every morning, if I haven't got enough of the drink...

..either, you know...

..I'll spew a bile.

He told me that the only way he could stop the retching

is to have more to drink.

I know it sounds ridiculous,

but that's the way that an alcoholic works.

Why do you still want to go for a drink after that?

I'll never stop drinking. I'll never stop drinking.

Never, ever.

That's what's keeping me less depressed.

It was hard to bear.

In all the years I'd known Dean,

I'd never seen him in such poor mental and physical health.

At night, those living on Cardiff's streets

are at their most vulnerable.

As the clubs and pubs begin to empty,

Smurf's putting on his friendly face.

-How you getting on, guys?

-Very good, mate.

He attracts the attention of some visitors to the city.

What are you doing here right now?

I'm homeless. I've been on the streets 12 years.

Why are you on the streets 12 years?

I got made redundant

and then I couldn't pay my rent on my flat.

Obviously, I lost my flat.

And you're 12 years...telling me... Come on. Be honest.

-12 years on the streets on the 19th of August.

-No, no.

-You can't be on the street for 12 years.

-12 years.

-No way.

-No way.

-12 years on the streets.

-Why aren't you working?

I am.

Smurf usually tries to avoid situations like this.

-You've got your little jewellery.

-Yeah.

-You've got nice clothes on

and you're still a bum on the street.

Yeah, pull your socks up and do it.

-Excuse me, get a life and get a fucking grip.

-That's it.

-Grab yourself and do it.

-There's loads of work for you.

And stop begging, because you don't need to beg.

I'm not begging. I don't beg.

I don't ask anybody for anything.

-You've jumped to the conclusion, right...

-You...

-THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-Anyone told you homeless people...?

-No, no, wait.

-Whoa, whoa.

-12 years. 12 years.

The trouble attracts passers-by.

..many people like you. And you don't bother me.

I don't drink, I don't do drugs.

I make things from cans.

I struggle my balls off travelling around Britain

taking shit from dicks like you.

-No, we're not.

-So, go and finish getting pissed, yeah?

-We're not getting...

-I don't give a toss.

Now we're seeing the real you.

The government take more drugs than he does.

-Yeah, a schizophrenic that doesn't give a fuck.

-Right.

You think you can come to me and talk down to me?

Fuck off back to your house and be happy doing your shit.

-THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-Yeah. Oh, yeah.

-Go make your cans.

-I will. I will. I will.

-Get a job, you stupid

-BLEEP.

I've got a job. I've got a job.

-I've done it.

-Do I claim benefits? No.

All this puts his mental health in jeopardy.

Yeah, I'm a bit shaken up. That guy's...

That guy's just affected my blood.

You know, that guy's just affected my karma

and I don't like that.

Stereotyping me, you know.

I don't like that. I don't like being like that.

That's what I mean. They need to get me off the streets.

I don't like doing this.

When I'm out at work, you know what I mean, I work.

I've never signed on in my life. Never will.

I'd thought Smurf could survive on the streets,

but now I understand why

he so desperately needs a place indoors.

For five weeks we've been trawling the streets

to find out what had happened to Dean.

When we finally caught up with him, he was very much in the limelight.

You're all right, boy. All right, Trick, or what?

His friend's been worrying about him.

I've been in detox.

Yeah, I've been in detox. Llandough. I'm looking well, ain't I?

Much better, much better. See you later, buddy.

-Take it easy, Trick.

-Good luck, mate.

-Ta-ra, mucker.

Dean looked like a completely new man.

I feel healthy.

Clean.

I can remember stuff what I done the day before, which is a plus.

I had to do it for myself, and there we go.

He'd collapsed on the streets again and ended up in hospital,

but this time he was referred to an alcohol detox unit.

Now he's completely off the booze.

You know, there's off-licences all around me.

I could just go in the shop now and pull out a can of special brew. No.

Why? Why, like?

What's the point in doing all those weeks in detox

just to bugger it up by drinking again?

But because he was in hospital,

he missed an appointment with probation,

and as a result he's been in court today.

And everyone, even the judge today when I had to go to court,

commented how healthy I look and how clean I am.

The judge decided to drop the case, so instead of prison,

Dean's heading back to the detox unit.

We're just filming Wales' Lost Millionaires, we are, like.

And that's you, is it, love? Yeah.

-You single?

-Yeah.

-Whey-hey, I'm your girl!

-Let's go to the church, then, is it?

-THEY LAUGH

He's telling everyone about his transformation.

If you'd seen from then to now,

you wouldn't recognise me, put it that way.

-Aw!

-You know what I mean?

-So you've got your life together?

Yeah. I'm in the detox.

Put on a bit of weight, had a bit more faith,

-and I knew I could do it then.

-Yes.

-Well, you're looking good.

-And you are.

Pity you're not a millionaire!

Take it easy, ladies.

If I can do it then, basically, get off your arses

and you can do it too.

Dean has been at risk of dying on the streets,

so he was fast-tracked toward the help he needed.

There are over 450 supported accommodation places in Cardiff

that help people who've been homeless tackle their problems,

but accessing them can take months.

Since the Friday night altercation on the streets,

Smurf had disappeared from his usual haunts.

How you getting on, lads? You all right?

Now he's back, but minus his pride and joy.

I haven't got my bike any more, because the scrap man took it

because he thought it was scrap,

which I can understand cos it was made from scrap.

He'd given up on ever getting a place in a hostel.

I've been waiting, like, four months on the waiting list,

but, like, they've never got back to me.

And then they got back to me, and, yeah...

..the ball's started rolling.

He's moving in tomorrow, but he's not counting his chickens.

Going from this being my house to a one-bedroom flat,

I'm a bit nervous about it, to be honest.

It's a bit weird.

Today's the day when Smurf begins a new life.

12 years on the streets, and it's actually coming to an end.

He's moving into a hostel where he'll get the help he needs.

Home sweet home.

-OVER INTERCOM:

-'Hello, office.'

-Hello, it's Stuart.

'Oh, hiya. Push the door and come up to the office.'

Okey dokey.

Smurf meets his support worker, Millie Griffiths.

Before he settles in, she helps him complete a benefits claim...

The main things we need to get done is your housing benefit form.

..so now his housing benefit will be paid directly to the hostel.

The idea is that we're trying to teach you how to be independent

and how to manage your own tenancy, OK?

He'll also get the support he needs for his mental health problems.

Good. I'm really pleased you got here.

I think it's been a long journey, and there's been a lot of heartache,

-hasn't there?

-Yeah.

-And disappointments.

But from here, let's hope you're finally safe and secure.

If you could just sign that for me.

-Thank you.

-Took 12 years, but I'm finally here.

That's what I'm getting, one of them TVs.

The same as that, as well.

It's a Samsung, isn't it? Yeah. Same as that one. 32-inch.

Ready?

And we're in.

This is my lovely little one-bedroom flat.

Little single bed.

In my own bed tonight.

Yeah!

So, yeah, make it your home, basically.

-It's really important that you feel at home here.

-Yeah.

-OK?

-Congratulations, Stu.

-Thank you very much.

-Your property.

-Home sweet home.

My bathroom, which is really cool.

Only now does the reality

that he's actually got his own place hit home.

See, look, I've got new bedsheets and everything.

Look. Wicked.

I think it was more along the lines of I was that close to the end

it sort of didn't seem real, sort of thing, you know.

"Is it going to actually happen?"

And now I'm actually here and I've actually got my keys,

it's like, "Yeah, it's happened. I'm done."

So, I'm kind of happy.

Ah! Cool.

I think this blind doesn't work.

I am so chuffed. So chuffed.

Finally, my journey has ended.

Two months into our six months of filming

and we'd seen how people could end up trapped living on the streets

for months and even years at a time.

As well as getting a roof over their heads,

we were realising that solving the complex problems

of homeless people also needed specialist help and support.

Next time on Cardiff - Living On The Streets, it's autumn.

Those who end up with nowhere to go risk a run-in with the law.

I'm not doing nothing wrong though.

I'm picked on again.

And how desperate it can be for those who've given up on the system.

The more I try, the more I can't get somewhere to live,

so I've give up.

I'm going to be on the street for the rest of my life, I think.