Episode 2 Cardiff: Living on the Streets

I've been on the streets 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.

I'm sleeping here.

I'm film-maker Chris Rushton, and together with Angharad Arnold,

we spent six months following the plight of Cardiff's homeless.

We 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'm just going to sit there, bear it and grin,

and just keep on going.

The risks they take sleeping rough...

It's dangerous. I've been beat up.

Men's offered me money for sex.

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

Get a life. And get a grip. There's loads of work. 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.

SOBBING: I can't live like this no more.

Oh, mama.

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

We are two months into our filming on the streets, trying to

understand the rise of homelessness in Wales's capital city.

Spare change, sir? Have a nice night.

It was as if the city had become a magnet for homeless people.

Almost half those I met on the streets weren't from Cardiff.

Spare change, please?

Whilst the vast majority come from the South Wales valleys,

some came from much further afield.

The most recent arrivals are Rob and Tristan.

Originally from London, they have been travelling round

the country for five months looking for somewhere safe.

At this time of night, I mean,

if you're just stuck around here, it's not that safe, is it?

Not when people are trying to play silly buggers.

It can be tough for homeless people who are outsiders.

Where we are now, in, like, a totally different city,

hundreds of miles away out of London, you get...

You don't know what can happen.

Most of the people from Cardiff who are actually on the streets

together, they all know each other, right?

We don't know any of the others. We only have each other.

You got yourself and each other, and that's about it.

That's all you've got. Yeah. Yeah.

I had met homeless people before who are gay.

They all told me they'd experienced physical and verbal attacks.

To escape the violence of the city centre,

Rob and Tristan make a one-mile trek to the outskirts.

Nobody here.

Sleeping here has become their regular routine.

Do you want me to get the poles out? Yeah, please.

I think this is just over the week that we've actually done the tent.

But before it was just sleeping bags here. Any weather.

Under the flyover, they are hidden from view,

but they can't risk making this a permanent campsite.

We would like to leave it up,

but we don't know what happens here during the day.

You'd only have to have somebody come round

or spot it and it'd be gone.

Rob and Tristan feel safer here, so it's worth the trek.

In the city centre, it's very different.

On any one night, there can be as many as 40 people sleeping rough.

Here the bright lights of shop doorways and CCTV offer

some level of protection for those sleeping on the streets.

20-year-old Rochelle has her own way of staying safe on the streets.

I've always slept through the day so I'm awake at night.

I think it's just a comfort thing, know what I mean?

So I know I'm all right at the night-time, then.

There's a few times people have come up to me and asked me, like,

for business and stuff like that, know what I mean?

Say, "You can come back to mine, I've got a spare room at mine."

But I'd rather not, know what I mean? I say no.

But then I know I'm all right, then.

Rochelle has little contact with her parents,

and had a difficult time when she was growing up.

My family didn't have money, know what I mean? But we survived.

It's just... Things just went out of proportion, know what I mean?

Went off the rails and that. Ended up in care.

Just started misbehaving,

No-one wants hold of me, so, just ended up out here.

She's been homeless on and off for five years,

living on the streets, where it's hard to avoid the constant stress.

All the time, people staring at you and laughing, know what I mean?

I don't know why.

When I sees people walking past, I'm jealous,

cos they've got a normal life, know what I mean?

I wanted to understand Rochelle and why she'd ended up spending

so much of her life sleeping rough in Cardiff.

After a night under the flyover,

Rob and Tristan are back in the city centre.

Rob told me his life was turned upside down after his mother died.

At the time, he was living with her.

My mother passed last April and we lost the house.

And that's why, you know, we come on the streets, right.

We had no choice.

The couple wanted to get a place of their own, but found

they were at the bottom of the list for local authority housing.

In our own borough of London, Lambeth, they wouldn't touch us.

Our own place where we're actually born will not touch us.

I'm taking this one.

Disillusioned and angry, they left London.

In Cardiff, they discovered that the local authority has

no obligation to house them because they're not from the area.

It's now their seventh day waking up under the flyover out of town.

At one time, Rob and Tristan had jobs.

Our plan has always been to push on and get a place

and, like, get back into work.

I mean, it took months for us to be able to make a claim to

benefits because we kept being told, "No, you ain't got an address."

So, basically it's been months living on nothing, absolutely nothing.

OK? Yeah.

Because their benefits still haven't been sorted,

they've applied to an emergency housing fund.

It's a discretionary one-off payment from the Welsh government.

And they want to find out if the money has come through.

Nine o'clock sharp.

Yay!

Success! Show me the money, show me the money!

The ?50 could give Rob and Tristan the break they need

to sort out their benefits

and put them on the road to finding somewhere to live.

Most of those we met on the streets struggled with the benefits system.

Because they live such chaotic lives,

applying for and sticking to job centre rules can be difficult.

With no money coming in, some resort to begging.

Any spare change for the homeless? God bless.

Many of these street homeless are addicted to drugs and alcohol,

often as a way to blank out the reality of living on the streets.

Connor is another outsider who has made Cardiff his home.

I've been on the streets for about, just short of

five months now. Four and a half, five months.

He left his home in Cumbria because, he said,

he'd be in danger if he stayed.

Obviously it's a bit of... Thing I don't like talking about.

But family problems and just, like, bad past.

And for me, a fresh start was to get out and start a new life somewhere

in a different city and get myself back on...

Back to my usual self.

Spare a little change for some food for the homeless, please?

God bless you, have a good day.

Although surviving on the streets can be tough,

there's never any shortage of food.

One for you, and one for your friend. God bless you. OK? Hang on.

That was nice, wasn't it?

Yeah, give us a burger, a cheeseburger.

You get people like that.

They go out their way just to go and get the burger.

Can't beat a cheeseburger!

But begging of all sorts comes with risks.

I regularly witnessed how the police moved homeless beggars on.

They have the power to ban people from an area such as

the city centre for antisocial behaviour.

Persistent beggars are issued with an order,

and a map showing the area where they are banned from.

The banning order usually lasts 24 hours.

Now it's Connor who has attracted the attention

of a community police officer.

Just doing what I'm doing,

next minute he comes along and says, "You're begging, you are doing this,

"You're going to have to get up, you're a tramp and that." I'm shaking, man.

He's trying to move us on, saying I'll get locked up if I get caught again.

I'm just sat here, no begging cup in front of us, no nothing. Winds me up.

Sorry, man, I'm getting angry.

Within minutes, Connor's approached by another officer.

I know why you're sitting here. I'm not begging. There's no cup.

My colleague spoke to you earlier, didn't he?

You're picking on us, yeah.

Picking on us. I'm not begging. I'm just sat here.

Do yourself a favour, find a bench to sit on, we'll not bother you.

The officer wants to move him to one of the benches.

Sit on the bench and we won't speak to you. OK?

Picked on again!

They stop you making you money, they stop you getting your food.

They...

they don't understand how you've come from there to hit the bottom.

They don't understand, you know what I mean? It's hard.

Despite the constant stress, Connor's decided to stay here on

the streets of Cardiff rather than face going back to his hometown.

Living on the streets and sleeping rough is the last resort for

anyone who has hit a crisis and has no-one to turn to.

Rochelle chooses to sleep rough,

at least up until the winter weather hits.

Sometimes she sleeps most of the day.

So I've slept all day. I woke up about an hour ago.

To the police, again.

Telling me, "You can't sleep here, you've got to move."

Every day, it is, they move me. Every day.

It's doing my head in, now.

Part of her daily routine are the food drops run by charities,

and, increasingly, Facebook groups and restaurants.

Got my milks.

There's more than enough to go round.

I won't eat it all. So, do you want any of it?

This is probably one of the good days, innit?

With her new-found friend, they are bagging up

as much as they can carry.

We ain't going to eat all this, know what I mean?

And some of them don't bother coming.

Some of them don't come here, so...

If I see people I know, innit, then they can have it.

Here you are, Kev. Carry that.

Kev? Darren. Darren. Whatever your name is. Whatever your name is!

Well, I don't know, do I?

Just call me Ginge. All right, Ginge.

They're going to distribute their stash

amongst those homeless people who missed the food drop.

Do you want some?

That's all you can have,

cos we got to give some of this to the other people.

Where we're going, up Chippy Lane and back round? Yeah.

Simon, do you want any food?

No? Want some milk?

The street culture of the homeless is hard to break away from.

It can become a way of life.

There's ice in it.

Yeah, that's cos they've had it in the freezer.

Some people might think you're pretty desperate to... I don't care. Well, we are.

I'm homeless. And I want a fag.

People say you can't buy privileges, I'm not buying them.

I'm doing it a different way, you know what I mean?

It was my birthday on Monday.

What did you do?

Got pissed on my own. Did you? Yeah. On your own?

Yeah. Up Castle ground.

Five years is a long time to be on the street, you know what I mean?

The homeless charities told me they have offered Rochelle support.

Help is there for anyone who wants to try and get back to a normal life.

I used to, like, you know,

be jealous of people having that lifestyle, but now I give up.

I don't really care. It don't bother me.

I've been on the street so long now.

There's no point in trying, you know what I mean?

The more I try, the more I seem to be...on the street.

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.

We'd realised how this close-knit street community was another reason

why people found it difficult to break out of the trap of homelessness.

The two tent dwellers, Rob and Tristan,

give the Cardiff homeless community a wide berth.

They aren't caught up in drugs or alcohol.

They are at a drop-in centre who've been helping them.

It's where they can use the phone.

After they had their benefits cut, they got a ?50 emergency payment,

which they are hoping will buy them some time in a backpacker's hostel.

Yeah, hi, do you have any vacancies for the next couple of nights?

We just had a look online, and it'll be paying cash.

It's for two people in the ?9.50 rooms.

They are being asked for photo ID, but they don't have any.

I've got my bank card.

One of the support workers, Maggs,

tries to put in a good word for them, but to no avail.

OK. All right, thanks for your help anyway. Bye-bye.

So they book a campsite instead.

Booked a campsite for two nights.

It's a step up from being under the bridge.

So many people come in here and they managed to get themselves a tent,

and they stay one night, and then the following morning,

council or whatever, or police,

have just taken it away, and everything's gone.

See you in a minute. OK, bye.

They get a lift to the campsite, which is 15 miles away.

Finally, they are on a site with facilities,

and for the next two nights they won't have to take their tent down.

Today we had money, it's gone. Lasted long!

But then, at the end of the day, love, we're somewhere safe.

All right?

We're done. All right?

But it's far from a permanent solution.

The next roof that we get over our heads, that's it, you know,

we will fight to keep it.

But with no phone and in the middle of nowhere for three days,

they can't knock on the doors of the agencies that could help them sort out their benefits.

I was meeting many people from across South Wales

who'd become homeless and who moved to Cardiff.

But even though the council has no obligation to house them,

many still feel they are better off here.

This is Cardiff.

City of the beggars.

For the last four months, Rhondda-born Carl has been homeless in Cardiff.

This is it, this is my street, this is where I live, this is what I do.

This is where I beg for food. Drink.

I don't do drugs.

Just do it to survive.

With no local connection,

he is unlikely to be fast-tracked up the council's waiting list.

I don't know what the council are going to do with my particular case.

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

After a relationship breakdown,

Carl felt he had to leave the Rhondda.

The Cardiff charity that came to his aid was the Huggard Centre,

one of the places that offers emergency accommodation.

For weeks, he was on what's called floor space.

Yeah, this place is a great help. This is where I slept last time.

In front of this doorway.

All this place was packed. All that place was packed.

Sleeping against there, here, all along the walls here,

all around, like.

Wherever there is length for you to put the body.

Here you can progress backwards so easy. So easy.

You've got to keep yourself going forward,

and positively moving forward.

Don't know what's going to happen this winter.

Could be sleeping in a tent somewhere unless something comes up.

Rather than wait for the council to house him, Carl is also

looking for accommodation with a private landlord.

But places are hard to find,

and landlords prefer people who have jobs.

Those who are trapped on the streets because of addiction

to alcohol or drugs face an even bigger challenge to find

suitable accommodation.

Research shows that four out of five homeless people are addicts.

Rochelle became addicted to heroin when she was a teenager.

It's got to the point now where she gets

no pleasure from the drug, only pain.

Which starts as soon as the effects of the heroin begin to wear off.

I ain't just ill. It's not like a cold or something like that.

You are ill. You can't move, you're being sick. Everything.

It's not nice. It's like you're dying.

She is trapped by her addiction to heroin,

and caught up in a cycle of having to make money to pay for it.

Spare a little change, please.

It's hard work. Constantly making money for it.

But it's got to be done, you've got no choice to do it.

It's either that or rob people or...

..something. Do you know what I mean?

So, heroin is like your boss, isn't it?

That must... What does that feel like?

Not nice.

If I had a choice, I certainly wouldn't be doing it.

A community police officer has spotted her begging and asks her to move on.

Five weeks ago, she was given an early release from a jail

sentence for shoplifting

on condition that she would attend probation.

But as a result of her life being so chaotic,

she's missed numerous appointments.

Obviously committed another offence by not turning up.

It's now in the hands of the court.

I didn't go to court, so I'm going to prison.

That's the fourth time I haven't turned up to court.

So they ain't going to let me out.

Living on the streets and stretches in prison have become normal for Rochelle.

I want to go to jail, do you know what I mean?

Better than fucking rain all the time.

Two weeks of a bed and a telly.

I get clean in there as well. Do you think you do want to get clean?

Yeah. I've got to, man. It's hard work doing this all the time.

Hard work.

Shortly after this, Rochelle was picked up by the police to serve

another few weeks in prison.

Amongst the street homeless we met, this was a common story.

In jail, they get off the drugs, but being released with nowhere

to go meant inevitably they would slip back into drug-taking.

Four days ago, Rob and Tristan got a ?50 emergency payment because they were destitute.

They spent the money on a few days at a campsite with facilities.

So nice just to be able to leave a backpack somewhere and the

tent up, and so we haven't got that... All of that to chug around.

All of that to chug around.

I'm not being funny. Today, you don't feel homeless.

I was struggling to understand why Rob and Tristan,

who had once had homes of their own, were constantly on the move.

Are you trying to find something or find yourselves, or...?

Probably try to find where we belong, really. Yeah.

That's what I think.

With their time up at the campsite, they are back in Cardiff.

They are skint and face the prospect of roughing it again.

Their only hope is to try sorting out their benefits.

They are back at the Inroads drop-in centre again to use the phone.

Rob's calling the job centre.

We are absolutely desperate.

We haven't got any money, we have nothing. There's no help.

We are actually rough sleeping, it's that bad. That bad.

Despite being on the phone for 25 minutes,

they get no assurances, but they are told they'll get a call back.

But there's nobody here at six o'clock. The office shuts at four.

And I have no...

HE SIGHS

I just think it's disgusting the... the way we are being treated. Right.

OK. That's great. Cheers. Right. Bye.

Fucking arseholes.

"The person shouldn't have told you you should have a call-back by 12:15.

"He should have told you it'd be by six."

With no home or phone they are fighting a losing battle with the system.

And having tried and failed to find anyone to help them,

they decided to leave Cardiff and try their luck again in London.

After five months,

Rhondda-born Carl is still waiting for a permanent place to live.

Spare any change for the homeless, please?

All helps. Thank you very much. Thank you, boys.

He's relied on the night shelters and floor space at the

Huggard Centre for a roof over his head.

I come into the centre and a member of staff come up to me and said...

"Where are you staying?" I said, "I'm still up the night shelter."

And he said, "Right, you interested in moving into a room in a shared house?"

I said, "I'd move into a shared shed if I could."

So today he's on the move.

He left his belongings here at the Huggard Centre in storage

whilst he was on floor space.

That's all my gear.

But he can't find one of his bags.

One rucksack, two rucksack. There's still a rucksack missing.

Rob, one of the support workers, wants to help.

What did the rucksack look like, Carl?

Same colour as these. It's got a...

We both know it's been here for ages, mate.

It's got a fold-up mattress.

It's not the safest place to leave it, unfortunately.

It's like a rucksack like that, but it's bigger.

What about...?

Ah!

Right.

My pilchards!

Someone tried pilfering my pilchards.

Nice one, Rob. Thank you very much, sir.

He will be sharing with strangers in a private rental.

The Huggard helped him with the bond,

security the landlord needs in case of damage to the property.

The key that opens the door to success.

This is going to be nice, this is.

This is the kitchen. Haven't had one of these for a long while.

Make a cup of tea when I want, coffee, make my food.

Nice little back garden. It's a nice house.

He gets housing benefit of ?260 per month for the rent,

which is paid directly to the landlord.

I'm just so overjoyed.

This is my chance to sort myself out.

I've actually got somewhere to put my clothes!

Look, I can fold them up tidy instead of having them in bags!

Mad pair of trainers.

Where is the other one, then?

It's going to take me a while now to get used to the comforts of having a home.

I'm so used to being on the streets and having nothing,

and then to have a home with kettles and...

Yeah.

Can't wait to get myself settled in now.

After four months of filming, we'd seen how difficult it was

to move people off the streets and into any kind of accommodation.

We were realising that the homeless street culture in Cardiff was a powerful force.

It was difficult to break away from,

even for those who wanted to change their lives for the better.

Next time on Cardiff: Living On The Streets...

Christmas Eve. I feel weak. It feels cold.

It's depressing, isn't it?

Some of those on the street struggle to cope with their overwhelming problems.

Just not being on the street, just be myself again.

Instead of feeling like a loser.

That's what I feel like, a loser. I'm worthless.