Episode 2 Swansea: Return to the Streets

You soaked me!

Having nowhere to go but to live on the streets is a last resort

and there are many reasons why people end up sleeping rough.

I'm in bits!

I'm filmmaker Chris Rushton and together with

Tracy Harris over a period that spans three years we have followed

the plight of the homeless in Swansea.

Oh, it's no fun at all.

Really... no fun.

Now, we want to understand the difficulties

many homeless people face when they try to break out of

the cycle of homelessness.

I've had to beg since I got out of jail, you know what I mean?

Get out of jail and they expect you to stay on the streets.

-It don't make sense.

-We wanted to find out what had happened to

some of those we'd filmed in the most desperate circumstances.

And to discover if those trapped on the streets by alcohol

and drug addiction can change their lives for the better.

This programme contains strong language

It's now a month before Christmas 2013.

As the winter weather begins to bite, most of Swansea's homeless

have found places to stay with friends or family.

But I knew of at least eight still living on the streets.

Wally's one of them.

Anti-frost devices...

..called cardboard.

Stop you getting piles.

You know what I mean, cos a warm arse and a cold floor...

not a good combination.

He grew up in Swansea and at one time had a steady job,

but now, aged 31, he's living and begging on the streets.

-Hello, my friend!

-How are you?

LAUGHTER

My friend, do you have some spare change, please? I take notes, I take debit cards,

I take all donations gratefully received.

-There you go, sir.

-You fucking serious?

Wally's gift of the gab sometimes pays dividends.

I'm saving up all my Jobseeker's Allowance...

to pay for a deposit for a house...

a month's rent in advance, a month's bond. I mean,

I'm saving it all up on my own.

So, how much you got so far?

Erm...

£340.

In the Post Office.

He knows how to avoid dipping into his savings.

One of the places those on the street can get free food

is the Swansea Mission of Mother Teresa's Sisters of Mercy.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

What a concoction this is. It's nice, isn't it?

It's OK for somebody helping you for nothing.

I can give you a fish finger if you want a fish finger.

Do you want a roast potato?

Enjoy then, boys.

Wally's been homeless before so he knows the score.

Last time I was out for 12 months, I had to live in a tent

and everything.

And then I got myself a job, worked myself out.

Got myself a room.

And things were going good and then...

..things happened so I ended up back on the street again.

So...

it's all right.

But the reality is that many others

don't find it such an easy place to survive.

Andy and Barry spent November sleeping rough.

But finally, they got to view a property for rent.

Oh, I want the front bedroom, I told you that.

LAUGHTER

-It's nice for you to come in and the place is nice.

-OK, yeah.

You will like it, then.

And after, we're just going to sign the paperwork

and we can do it when you move in.

They were all set to move in a week ago,

but there's been a delay in making the house ready.

He's still saying that they're cleaning out the property today which is Friday and,

you know...

the landlord, if you give us the landlord's number

we can actually speak to the landlord and say,

"Look, we're on the streets, we need to get in there now."

With nowhere else to go,

they have no choice but to live on the streets.

They head to the City Temple,

another place in Swansea that helps those who are down on their luck.

-Tea or coffee?

-Coffee please, love.

-Milk or sugar?

Three sugars with milk, please.

It was the people here who helped Andy, an alcoholic of 20 years,

get a place in a residential centre in Yorkshire

to try and tackle his addiction.

He did well and got off the booze for six months

before he relapsed.

I've done something for the first time in my life for 23 years...

I dried. I had a go and I failed.

And I... now I've got to try and make amends and think about

what I'm going to do now, to get it back.

And the worst thing about it is I'm back to square one

like I was last year

and the year before.

In the same place, doing what I do...

surviving.

Of those who attempt rehab,

less than 30% succeed in getting off the booze.

It's not unusual for those who try

to relapse two or three times and have to start all over again.

For Barry, his rehab was enforced, he spent three years in prison.

-Let me work.

-I'm sober, remember, you're the piss head, not me.

-Oh, shut up, you tramp.

When he was released four weeks ago, he started drinking.

Now he wants to quit, but it's tough when you are surrounded by drinkers.

It's just too much.

As I've come off myself being around is not a problem,

being around is OK cos I know...

well, it's there

and because I don't want one and the way they talk and go on and on

it... takes about 20 questions to get one answer.

Do you know what I mean? It's hard.

Almost three years ago, I filmed another homeless person

who ended up on the street because of her addiction.

Tracie's everyday life revolved around drink.

This is my habit and I'm not afraid to open the thing and drink it.

This has been my habit since I've been a young age,

since I've been nine.

She turned up in Swansea with a boyfriend who beat her

and then, promptly, disappeared.

She wanted to get back to her family in Ireland.

I just wish things would change, but they can't.

SOBBING: Cos I'm destroying my life.

I'm away and I've no friends and nothing.

I'm living on the street.

Trying to get into hostels and that all the time.

I know...

To blank out the pain, Tracie also turned to drugs.

At rock bottom, rehab was the only way out.

Now, two years later, we are about to meet her again.

I think things have improved, as you can see, there's the new me.

The old me has gone, here I am. Sorry!

I don't mean...!

SHE CHUCKLES

For the last 18 months, Tracie has been in rehab

at a faith-based centre in southwest Wales.

I can actually see things more clearly now without drink in my life

and without drugs there.

I'm actually getting to observe the beautiful world

and surroundings around me, it's just so amazing to be sober here today.

But it was a difficult journey.

When she arrived, she still craved alcohol and drugs

and had to face up to going cold turkey.

Well, to be honest, I went through the hot flushes, the sweats

and the shebang.

Er, the withdrawal symptoms, erm, but I didn't go on any medication

to come off it.

I just kind of sweated it out and just started praying and just

started... asking God to help me.

I'm actually in a routine and I'm actually doing something

from when I get up to the time I go to bed.

You have your breakfast and then you do cleaning.

You do actual things each day to keep...

keep you motivated and not think about going out and drinking and...

no, it gives you a deeper way of thinking about the way

life should be, rather than living the life that I've had before.

-And you've been a great asset to us, Tracie...

-I have...

You've done really well.

For me, it's a major turning point...

Through counselling and diversion therapy, she has re-learnt

how to live a normal life.

The only mentality when you were out on them streets was just sitting

there having nowhere to go, freezing cold...

having to be told to move on and...

it's probably still the same there now, it probably hasn't changed,

but I just feel sorry for the people that are on the streets in that area

cos there's no place for them to live and nowhere for them to go.

Back in Swansea, Andy and Barry have nowhere to go

so tonight they'll be sleeping out again.

Before they bed down, they stop off for supplies.

No point in looking, one can now... Andy.

Barry is turning out to be quite influential

getting Andy to cut down on drink.

Got to keep an eye on him.

Otherwise, otherwise he'll be...

HE WHISTLES THROUGH TEETH

Slipping cans in his pocket, that's what I mean,

I got to watch him to make sure he is doing what he says he's going to do.

Andy usually needs more than just one can to see him through

until morning, but even the one can is causing a problem.

-Don't drink that can.

-I'm not drinking it on the street.

-It's not open.

If I was going to drink it I would, but I'm not going to.

Because the can of cider is unopened, Andy is in the clear.

It's Friday night and the city centre will soon get rowdy,

so, to avoid any potential trouble they head out of town.

Their destination is Swansea Civic Centre

where no-one is likely to bother them.

Tonight the temperature is expected to drop to minus three.

Another blanket, there's two there.

Come prepared, see? Every time I come out I end up doing this until I get myself sorted,

but the only person who can do it is yourself.

Can't rely on anybody, really.

Barry and Andy expected to be off the streets

and living in a rented house by now.

But their planned move is delayed even further.

It's not very nice for someone to give you false hopes, especially...

It's a dream, innit? You light up a dream and you let that dream go past.

It's devastating, really, innit?

They gave us false hopes and they let us down, and that's wrong.

With no family or friends to take them in,

they have to put up with five more nights in the cold.

For those who end up being homeless for long periods,

living on the street can become a normal way of life.

Timmy, where's Baz?

One of the youngest on the street, Wally, meets Tim,

one of the oldest.

You seen Andy and that, have you?

Nah, I didn't see Andy. How you keeping, son?

Good, how are you?

-Sweetheart! You're still looking beautiful.

-Thanks.

With 20 years' experience, Tim knows only too well how

the homeless are perceived.

All the people walk over us.

I didn't want this.

But...

-it did happen to me.

-Yeah.

-And we're still smiling and having a laugh.

-Oh, well...

If you don't smile, you're going to cry.

Some people just look at us...

-"Oh, get up and get a job."

-Yeah.

Who's going to give me a job?

-I'm homeless...

-Yeah.

How can you go to work without a home?

-Thank you very much for that.

-You know what I mean?

Two miles away, it's good news for Andy and Barry.

They have moved into their rented house

and Barry is enjoying just being indoors.

I don't have to go out in the rain, I don't have to go out in the cold.

I can just go to bed and chill in the warm.

But they can't get the heating to work

and the previous occupants have bypassed the electricity meter.

It's a way of getting free electricity,

but it's highly dangerous.

At the Access Point, a local charity that helps support

people who struggle with housing issues,

Andy's calling the landlord.

The light fittings, the tubing's in the kitchen, they're not

working at all. I'd like that gas meter and the electric meter sorted

because... the electric cooker's not working neither.

He wants to get everything fixed before Christmas.

If he rings back today, let's go from there, shall we?

-Cos I'm in again in the morning so if you let me know what he says.

-He knows...

-I mean, at least if the oven was working...

-Yeah.

..I could use the oven.

But no-one called back.

Most of the homeless people we met came from broken homes

and have been in care.

Wally told me that as a young child when his parents split up

he ended up living with his grandmother.

This was fine until she became seriously ill.

I looked after her for a few years and...

..they wouldn't let me look after her after she had a stroke.

I wanted to look after her, they wouldn't let me.

Because I was too young.

So she went to a nursing home.

I was... 12.

Parted from his nan, Wally had no-one to care for him.

From then on, trouble was never far away.

I was an alcoholic from a young age.

Since I was about 12.

Wally got through school and then trained as a mechanic.

I had an apprenticeship with Rover.

And... I was working hard. And my drinking got the better of me.

And then the drugs started coming into play and...

the drinking side and the partying side kind of took over my life.

And... Here I am again.

This is what happens.

He became homeless after separating from his girlfriend four months ago.

Since then, the streets have been his home.

I'll take you to my house.

Watch your step.

Watch your step.

And welcome to my house.

This is my house, this is my bedroom.

My living room, my kitchen.

Sorry, it's not much, like.

I would offer you a cup of tea but I don't have a kettle

and then I can't make it.

It's an entry to a cellar but at least it has a roof.

This is it, you go up here like this.

And... some pop. You want some pop?

Want pop?

It's only pop, it's Caribbean.

There you are.

Then we got chilli sauce for when we have food.

Even though we're homeless...

it makes you feel homely. I've been here for two months.

Usually, this one will go like this. Over there... Over the air vent.

And then you got...

this one like this...

And then you got this blanket.

Put your head...

It's better than a sleeping bag and you go like this.

But Wally is vulnerable in this spot

because there's only one way in and one way out.

I'd heard of many instances in Swansea where rough sleepers

had been the victims of unprovoked attacks.

It's far safer indoors,

but taking responsibility for your own place can be daunting.

Having finally got a house to live in,

Andy and Barry now face new challenges.

Barry's coping well but housemate Andy is hardly ever home.

So, I don't really know what's going on in his head.

He's been... he's back on the drinking, he's drinking too much.

So, really, I don't know what he's doing.

That very same day we found Andy in the city centre.

LAUGHING AND JOKING

He'd fallen back in with Swansea's street alcoholics

and looked the worse for wear.

Now, Andy's back with Tim,

even though they had a big fallout in the past.

He's a pain in the...

But he's OK.

So, you've got the house and you're out here, what's going on with that?

-HOARSELY:

-I've got a house.

Yeah, I'm living well, but...

I've lost my voice, so what?

Alcohol can damage the vocal cords

and that's why Andy is sounding so rough.

Wally might be down, but he's not out.

He's a well-known face in Swansea.

Hiya.

BABY CRIES

Oh, don't like me! Oh... "Get the tramp away!"

HE CHUCKLES

BABY CRIES

No, that's bad tramping.

Oh, I lose points now for this.

I'm losing my rating because... Oh, no.

Don't cry.

Oh, Dan.

Tramping is Wally's code for how a good tramp should behave

on the streets.

And in his imagination, he has conjured up

another version of the Top Trumps card game,

where favourite things like fast cars are replaced by

the homeless, who are Top Tramps.

I guess you've got top speed.

But with tramping rules, you've got begging.

And then you've got 0-60. No. That's thinkability.

And then you've got likeability, you've got trampability

and you've got overall tramping rules.

Barry is at the Access Point drop-in centre to sort out a problem

with his benefits claim.

-Can I use your phone?

-Of course you can, mate, go ahead.

He's had a worrying letter about his housing benefit

from the local authority.

You can read, can't you? I'm not very good at reading.

Why are they saying my housing benefit started on the 26th -

that's right - but ends on the 9th of December?

Can you have a look at that for me, please? I'm not good at reading.

It looks like he could be evicted.

Reason for termination - claim terminated, not resident.

-I am, in't I?

-As in here, or...?

-Ah, you know, yeah because...

-He's not a resident here.

-You're not a resident here.

You need to phone them and tell them your new address.

-I need to phone these?

-Yeah.

The letter seems to say that the local authority think Barry

is living here at Caer Las, the charity that runs the Access Point,

not his newly-rented house across town.

And it's a permanent tenancy as long as the rent is getting paid.

Why is it ending on the 9th of December

and why have you got a different address for me?

I am, though. I'm living there.

Well, I wasn't living at Caer Las Road, there was no claim

for housing benefit at that address.

It's a charity-run place.

I can't live there, I can only use it as a correspondence.

Because I brought in a tenancy agreement and everything,

showing you where I'm living.

That's how I got the rent paid in the first place.

Yeah, sorry, sorry, love, I'm just a bit mixed up.

Barry's been on the phone for an hour.

I've never lived at the address, it's an Access Point!

You can't live at the other address because it's just a drop-in centre.

Send me out a letter confirming it's been done?

OK. No problem. Thank you, love. All right, no problem, bye.

I don't get it. They don't listen, do they? They don't listen.

You've got to scream at them to get any sense

and when you scream at them, "Can you please calm down?"

Many of those who end up homeless come from broken families

and so they have no-one to fall back on or help them out.

Andy grew up in care after being abandoned by his parents.

But his father is still around, occasionally.

Andy's dad, Cookie, has just been released from jail.

He's a pensioner

and he too has spent most of his life on the streets.

Cookie's also a drinker.

It wasn't my dad that made me drink.

I don't blame my dad for the drink, it was my choice. It wasn't his.

I do feel like I want to be like my dad, yeah.

I love living like the way I live.

And you know why I love living like the way I live? Because...

I know I can wake up in the morning,

probably with a couple of pounds shoved underneath my sheet...

..and just get up.

And go.

After a night on the streets, Cookie's legs have swollen.

Yeah, you're all right.

One, two, three...

It's not the first time he's been taken straight from the streets

to A & E.

-Set up the bed there.

-COOKIE:

-Hang on.

It was difficult to comprehend that 73-year-old Cookie,

with a myriad of health problems, was released from prison

to the street, only to end up in hospital within 24 hours.

He ain't got long left. I know he ain't.

I might never see my dad again.

If anything happens to my dad, I want to be with him.

Andy is falling back into a life on the street with his pals,

but he's also been bringing them back to the house he shares with Barry.

Who is now fitting a lock to his bedroom door.

Andy brings people back all the time, so I'm just making sure

nobody can get into my room when I'm not here.

Even when I am here, my door's going to be locked from the inside

so I can just tell them I'm in bed

and I don't have to associate with them.

Andy and Barry's story was one I had witnessed before.

Of homeless people having no choice

but to take whatever accommodation they could get.

They had got a house, but with it came a whole set of problems

and stress.

Barry has made a new start whilst Andy is out on the streets

and getting into scrapes.

Now their differences are driving them apart.

The only problem me and you got is we've got to live together.

I don't want to do you, but if it comes to it, I would. I would.

I'll be honest with you. I don't want that. I have to live together.

It ain't gonna happen. You and me ain't going to fall out over this.

But we fell out the other day over the fucking TV and the stairs,

over your missus, your missus went fucking nuts on you,

took your money, you took it out on me because you got jealous.

There was a TV downstairs, it weren't working,

and I had a TV and Digibox upstairs.

You threw your toys out the pram. What was all that about?

All right, all right, fair enough.

But the two have no choice but to continue to muddle through,

despite their differences.

-You understand where I'm coming from?

-Yes.

For those still living on the street,

the December weather is turning colder.

There are 41 hostel beds for the homeless in Swansea,

but there are no vacancies.

There is, though, one emergency bed

and it's allocated on a daily basis to whoever is the most in need.

And tonight, that's Wally.

The way the weather is, I need a break.

I need one night and then I'll be back out.

And here we go.

I've got an emergency bed.

It's the Dinas Fechan Hostel,

run by one of Wales' largest homeless charities.

Yeah. Yeah, only twice...

He's shown to his bed for the night in the hostel's laundry room.

Twice in nearly two months...

-It gets quite chilly in here but we've got heating.

-Brilliant.

Thank you. See you later.

And there could be ten of us on the street,

so we have to take it in turns.

And share.

Yeah.

That's better than the floor.

It's not much, but it's something.

The next day, Wally went back to the streets

but just before Christmas, friends took him in.

As Christmas nears, Andy is spending less time on the streets

and he and Barry are getting on well.

Look at that. Da-nah!

I reckon you'll have to go out and buy more decorations

if you're going to put that tree up.

The move from living on the streets to taking

responsibility for a home has been stressful, especially for Andy.

The landlord still hasn't fixed the problems with the house

and they end up without central heating or an oven over Christmas.

It's hard to adjust, like, but I mean, what is the point in me

staying out and freezing my nuts off and getting myself bad again,

and I'm trying to give up the drink now at the moment, and that's going to be hard.

But at the end of the day, if I don't do it now, I never will.

They are at Zac's, the church run by the motorcycling God squad.

It's their Christmas do for those down on their luck.

-We've got to hang around, haven't we?

-Pardon?

-We've got to hang around.

If you can do it in rehab, you can do it here. There's no difference.

When I came back from rehab, it was like, I knew I was going to go

back on it, I knew I had to go back on the street and do it.

If you can do this without going to rehab now, you are coming well.

-Christmas treats as well, all right?

-Wicked. Thank you.

-No worries.

-Christmas goodies!

-How nice is that, eh?

-Very nice.

Andy is trying again to cut down on drink,

but this time with the support of his friend, Barry.

Next time on Return To The Streets,

Christmas sees some of the wettest weather ever.

We discover one of the last remaining rough sleepers,

Dan, who is on the streets with serious health problems.

My feet fit into the...

..knack at the bottom.

Got the hood there.

Despite the hardship at Christmas, Tim is full of cheer.

-Ho, ho, ho!

-That's it, you've got it, Tim.

You've got it, mate.

And we follow homeless drifter Paul, who has been waiting two months

for a reply to a message he sent to his long-lost family.

Every day I am waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting for a phone call.

It hurts.