I felt a mixture of shame, fear and loathing from the looks I received and at one point felt like crying out “I'm not a tramp I'm just doing someone a favour.”  John Silcox goes down and out in Kingston and discovers the "whitewash" from a different perspective.

Late on Sunday February 1st, I gazed out of my window and like many Londoners watched excitedly as the snowflakes spiralled down from the sky and settled thickly on the ground. From the warmth of my flat I planned my next day, but couldn’t quite decide what to do first - build a snowman, have a snowball fight or go sledging.

For James Alexander Young and hundreds of other rough-sleeping homeless across London, the weather caused a different kind of dilemma. They didn’t appreciate the picturesque scene in the same way and their decisions couldn't wait until the next morning.

By 11pm, the London transport system had been virtually brought to a stand-still and the snow was already laying four inches deep and thickening. He had to act quickly, find some kind of shelter, stay warm, dry and avoid freezing to death.

James is just one of the 400,000 single homeless across the UK estimated by the charity Crisis and is also one of the 483 people who sleep-rough on any given night in the streets of England. Being male and single he falls into the governmental “non-priority” homeless category and is one of the most vulnerable ignored and isolated members of our society.

I met him five days later at the end of the newly coined “whitewash”, during a walk through Kingston town centre.

He was sitting under a doorway in Eden Street wrapped in blue sleeping-bag and holding a sign saying “I’m homeless and hungry”. When I stopped and asked him if he wanted anything he replied in broad Cockney; “A plain cheese sandwich could hit the spot guv”.

I came back five minutes later and after handing over the sandwich I sat down next to him and we started to chat. He told me he was 43 years old, had been on the streets since he was 19 and had started coming to beg in Kingston five months ago upon his release from jail.

James is also a casual resident at St Mungo’s hospice in Battersea and uses public transport to come into Kingston on most days.

When I asked him why Kingston of all places, he replied;

“It’s nice here, you don’t get much trouble and people are very generous. I used to beg in London but it’s become impossible, the Police keep on arresting you and last time I did it I got six months.”

Winking he added; “If it wasn’t for the Community Support Officers I think Kingston would be just perfect.”

Generally he prefers to stay out late in Kingston at weekends because he said people are more generous with money, alcohol and drugs when they are out on a club night. 

Because of the snow he couldn’t get back to the hospice on Sunday night and spent the next three nights on the streets.

“God it was cold” he said gesturing. “I couldn’t sleep more than a couple minutes at a time because I kept on getting pains in my feet. Along with the cold, being tired is one of the worst things about living on the street.

“Most people imagine that we spend all day sleeping but we don’t. I was up at half five this morning because of the cold and had to start moving to warm myself up. You can’t sleep good if you ain’t got a proper bed.”

Suddenly, James became agitated and started swearing. Wondering why I turned round and was surprised to see two Community Support Officers staring down. They informed us that begging was not permitted and asked us to please move on.

Seeing as it was raining James refused to move and voiced this very loudly. I decided it was best to go and after wishing him all the best, I left him arguing with the two officers.

 
I was glad to see that they treated him fairly but I still don't understand the “move on” policy. It seems to me that this approach is counter-productive. Instead of coping with the problem we just move it further away from sight. Ian Horner shared a similar opinion to me as we talked about possible solutions to homelessness.

   
Ian is a 53-year-old ex-Grenadier Guard who has served three tours in Northern Ireland, scaled glaciers in Canada with special divisions and ridden with the Queen’s Household Guard. He is also a certified Big Issue salesman and has been homeless for about ten years.

He was sitting at his regular “pitch” – certified Big Issue sales point – next to the Marks and Spencer store on Clarence Street with his Rottweiler Jack curled up in his lap, when I approached him. Despite the pouring rain, he and Jack had both been out there for the past five hours and were planning to stay a couple more in order to shift the last few copies.

Ian has to commute into Kingston everyday from the half-way-house in Hackney that he has been living in for the past 6 months.

 
“Because of the transport hell I’ve been forced to go into central London. I'm not really allowed to sell the magazine anywhere else but on my pitch but I was forced to if I wanted to eat that night. 

 
“Anyway after the New Year business goes down heavily so I tend to cut back and only work from Thursdays to Sundays. Otherwise I don’t even cover the price of my travel ticket.”

He admits that sometimes if he hasn’t made enough, he will pitch his tent nearby and stay the night.

“It’s quite cosy in my tent with my dogs and I’ve got a few pals who sleep rough round the area, so we tend to have a laugh,” he quipped.

Despite his enthusiasm, the lines on his face and missing teeth were plain proof that it wasn’t quite as comfortable as he had made out.

Ian told me that thanks to Crisis and The Big Issue Foundation he had been on an alcohol reduction scheme for six months and was going to begin a series of professional courses, to become a desktop publisher.

In the past twenty years, charitable organisations such as The Big Issue, Crisis, Shelter, Homeless Link, St Mungo's and many others have achieved great advances for the homeless and changed thousands of people lives thanks to their programmes.

Their campaigning played a key role in the elaboration of the 2002 Homelessness Act that has seen homelessness acceptance numbers drop by 60 per cent since 2004. Last November, they also heavily influenced Mayor Boris Johnson's pledge to end rough sleeping in London by 2012.

 
At one point, Ian asked me if I could hold onto Jack while he went to the toilet in a nearby shopping centre. I agreed and almost immediately after he left I became uncomfortably aware of the stare of passers-by. I suppose my scruffy winter coat and reluctance to shave didn't help matters.

 
I felt a mixture of shame, fear and loathing from the looks I received and at one point felt like crying out “I'm not a tramp I'm just doing someone a favour.” I immediately rebuked myself and was appalled by the stigma that society gives homelessness and that I myself unconsciously carry. 

The causes of homelessness are varied and every homeless person has his own story to tell. Despite dropping numbers and innovations of the past decade, the general public still greatly misunderstand the complexity of this issue.

Although only spending a few hours outdoors, by the time I left Ian my fingers were numb and I couldn’t feel my bottom from sitting on the cold pavements. I returned to my cosy flat where I wrapped up in a blanket, put my feet up on the radiator and enjoyed a warm cup of tea, just as I had on Monday, after spending all day playing in the thick white snow...

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home” J.H Payne.