Tales from the streets - Meet Sean - bisexual man homeless on the streets of London

I met Sean near Charing Cross Train Station. He has no family left due to a generic illness in his family. He is bisexual and speaks openly about it. Check this out!

Vlog in text: 

So we are here with Sean who's been on the street of London for how long um I would say 10 months right what happened that you ended up on the streets I had um a breakup of my relationship and then my brother passed away in a car crash and I started drinking heavily and I lost my home and ended up coming to live well I basically ended up on the Streets of London is of London Yeah you mentioned that you you're not from London yourself from outside London from I'm originally from Oxford

um I lived in New Zealand for 15 years came back went to to Oxford back to Oxford um but yeah I've ended up in in London alcoholism my parents were drinkers themselves like big ones West Africa tongo yeah exactly yes the system's broken I'll pay tax all my life in the UK yeah born in the UK I ran an events company big company and kovid obviously it wiped it out yeah what happened did you oh

ended up using crack drugs hello how are you tired I'm cold and tired how was last night cold it's very cold last night pretty cold last night yeah yeah so you slept here and I out where it's Archie Arctic in hospital what happened it's got a testified it's very bad chest infection very bad chest infection and he ended up in hospital you're on your own yeah

[Music]

were you growing up in a dysfunctional family or something like that my um my brother was the last sibling um to be alive and he found out that he had hunterdon's disease um and he

it's basically a muscle wasting disease a bit like Michael Michael J fox that has got um and he he basically um it was told well the people people thoughts that he he killed himself because he couldn't he couldn't cope with the fact that he had the disease I've been I've been tested I don't have it it's generic my sister had it my dad had it my auntie had it and yeah I'm luckily touch wood if I had some wood um um it's all concrete um I don't I don't I don't have the disease so I'm clear

did you say how long probably about nine ten months and months Non-Stop and you're sleeping rough like like this I when I first started stay um sleeping in London um I had no no sleeping bag I had no blanket I was just literally on on the pavement that was it just in my clothes yeah so it was really it was really bad and you know when it snowed always I was asleep in the park and I woke up covered in snow I had nothing nothing

absolutely I looked like a Snowman when I got up

I literally I literally had nothing at all

the way do you catch things like that you just have to go over it you just have to deal with it I'm fully vaccinated from um coved I haven't had the monkey pox vaccination yet um but apart from that

and how you make money to survive I don't I beg I beg you you just look like a place where you can beg no I go on to Oxford Street Leicester Square and I sat on my bag

I sell my bag put a hat in front of me and if people are kind enough to give me money then then I'll get money but apart from that I don't I when I first came on the streets this will tell you how much weight I've lost I used to be a 34 inch waist I now fit into 28 inch waist and the 20 inch 28 inch waist is is falling off me now so when I walk they they slipped down and I have to keep pulling them up so that's how much weight I've lost all right I've gone I've gone from being I was 82 kgs and I'm down to

69 now you're messing about some substances or something no never take drugs never no I I drank alcohol when I can get it

problem in your case no I don't I don't I don't take drugs never ever taking drugs and I never will right that's that's unique among the homeless people come up to me and ask me if I want Spice um if we're on coke heroin and it's like no I've lost I've lost a good friends through drug taking and I'll never do it myself never it doesn't matter how bad it gets I I just I just will not take drugs

myself and a year dead

are you is your health going downhill well off as I said I've lost so much weight I feel shitty every day um I'm not I'm I mean somebody come up earlier they gave me a sandwich some fruits um a drink and I had that and that's all I've had in the past five days are you not hungry I'm starving

something no no no that's fine I don't expect you to well you know I'm just sitting here for a short time and I feel the coldness coming from that how do you think I fell I mean I sleep on it every night if I was you I would look for another place look here man yeah the only reason the only reason I stay here it's got cameras and it's open and nobody tells you to get out of here yeah but you go anywhere you you see people sleeping um you see people sleeping in doorways you see people sleeping in bizarre places that's not me I I feel safer here than what I would anywhere else

but it's cold but you get used to it you get used to it this is why I've got a sleeping bag underneath me because it keeps me warm

oh he's praying

he he does this every day he likes to pray in here he's a he's a street cleaner so he comes here he prays and then he goes off

right anyway to shop Sean if there's anybody watching that you know like the family members or anything like that I don't have family don't have family is there anything my say to the audience my my mum um sorry my father died when I was four my grandmother died when I was 13. my mum and my sister died probably

two years ago and then my brother died six months ago and so I'm I'm just on my own I'll just have a look after myself

I don't get up you get abuse when you're on the streets um I had um before I had this I had a um

I had a suitcase and it had my iPads my laptop and a phone in it and somebody come up when I was asleep and they stole it so a homeless guy stole from a homeless guy Lord they do that they do that and my shoes my shoes are in there if you don't hide your shoes they steal your shoes and you have to sleep don't leave your shoes around no but some some guys come here and they they just leave their shoes out right like they'll get in the sleeping bag and leave their shoes there and it's like why do that because somebody can just come along and steal them and you've got no shoes to walk in the next day so if you don't hide them or keep them keep them in your in your um sleeping bag with you

they'll get stolen shoes are very likely to stolen especially if they're Nikes or Reeboks or or a well-known brand then yeah they'll get stolen it's like anything if you don't nail it down or keep it with you or I go to sleep at night and I put my arm through a strap so that I know if somebody tries to take it they'll wake me up London is pretty safe here it's safer than most cities yeah yep yep there's organizations that help you out um there's a place called connections they give you free food every day you can shower um you can get all your clothes washed and dried um I was there yesterday and I got everything dried and washed and dried um but yeah they can only do so much they're only open until three so they're open from nine and then till three um but apart from that you get nothing like even the councils the councils do you're receiving any benefits yeah I'm I'm getting benefits and getting benefits but it's only three

um you get 340 pound a month is that all yep nothing else

so you expect to live on 340 a month and you expect you're expected you're expected to go to um appointments and to travel to the appointment

no that's fine to travel to the appointment you're expected to pay the money to get there and it's like 10 10 12 quid every time and if you don't turn up they stop your payments

stop your payments before yep last month last month yep the stopped it they paid me four pound ninety one and I said to them how do you expect me to live on four pound 91.

literally four pound ninety one for for the whole month and I went there and said how'd you expect oh they said go to a food bank and I said if you go if I go to a food bank they give me cans of stuff how am I supposed to heat it up how am I supposed to cook this stuff when I'm living on the streets

they give they give you stuff because they think you're in a house and you've got a microwave and a a cooker and a fridge but I don't I live on the streets I don't have electric nothing so is there anything in the future that may change your faith in you no I'm gonna be dead

if there's cold weather it Carries On The Way It Is

I don't I'm 50 51. and I don't see me living past 52. and that's been honest

and I'm I'm I get no help from from the government I get no help from the council I'll get no help from anybody and she got these cops that come round at night like one two in the morning and they wake you up to make sure you're okay and it's like I was asleep why are you [ __ ] waking me up sorry I don't mean to swear um why why are you waking me up at one two o'clock in the morning when you can clearly see I'm asleep

people want to donate to you or help you in some way is there any contact that you can live and they can get hold of you like a phone number on the email yeah my email is s Mallon so s m a Double L

my email is s Mallon so s m a double l o n 71 yahoo.com or I can give you my telephone number your easy easy time when you're not begging you're taking it easy and then you're going back on like a street we can stay here um Monday to Friday we can stay here until six a.m then they kick us off because the workers come in

um at the weekends we can stay here Saturday Sunday all day apart from that nothing Charing Cross they don't like homeless people using their toilets um but they don't open their toilets till seven so normally I go over the bridge and go to Waterloo tears the toilets yeah yeah um but apart from that and then I'll go to connections for a shower Monday Tuesday Friday um but Saturday Sunday we're just left out very well um it's it's not it's not I wish it was

well you go you you get to know you get to know it so oh I can't find my number

in yeah

you know what I mean I wish

you just got out I haven't had sex in nine months

I would love somebody's come and sweep me off my feet and take me home and yeah

it's been hard man there's nothing wrong with you you know you you can get it if you want to yeah but when like not being funny but when somebody sees me with this carrying this around

where am I gonna leave it it'll get stolen

yes that can take care of it for that time they don't do it they steal it themselves they think there's something in it all I've got all I literally have in my backpack is this sleeping bag this sleeping bag this and a change of clothes that's it there's nothing valuable in it but people still steal it because they think there's something in it

and people just treat you like [ __ ] they think they look at you they say you're on the straights and they think you're a piece of [ __ ] and that's it they don't give a [ __ ] about you well man put your weight together get laid anytime man oh wish are you straight

I'm bi okay it's a shame you're not bi as well we could have a good time

so well sorry I should n't I said well you left your phone number we let you know we gave you a phone number you may get a phone calls from my own people

know you never know but I wish you all the best you say my thank you thank you he said you're homosexual

he said are you gay and I said why are you asking he said um because I'm home now I don't want to [ __ ] and that's right

obviously as well but it was like no you're just a random number and I could see him and it's like it's not interesting so you do like a maybe like anything like that you know for cash as well and things like that maybe if you offered me 20 equipment

it's a bit you don't have the enlightenment you know for this you know that for the for the audio man but it's good to well see how the audio is in this one yeah but yeah you do whatever you come in it to survive and uh

you did tonight and said to me I'll give you 20 quid if you suck me off once again

but yeah I'm not I'm not fully I mean I'd go with a woman but I go with men just

whatever happens

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Tales from the streets - Meet Mark - homeless alcoholic

 

Mark comes from Southampton, he has been homeless in London for about 2 years. He comes from dysfunctional family and is an alcoholic. Check this out!

Vlog in text:

Right folks we are here with Mark who's been on the Streets of London for how long a good year and a half to two years right now since about 2020 start of the pandemic but well when it was beginning

ended up on the street well to begin with it was all sort of when I was born it was childhood issues and stuff and like did you grow up in like dysfunctional family or something like that sort of yes but it was a dysfunctional family based around addictions and alcoholism my parents were drinkers themselves

West Africa tongo yeah exactly yes the system's broken I'll pay tax all my life in the UK yeah born in the UK I ran an events company big company and kovid obviously it wiped it out yeah what happened did you oh

ended up using crack drugs hello how are you tired I'm cold and tight how was last night cold it's very cold last night pretty cold last night yeah yeah so you slept here and I out where it's Archie Arctic in hospital what happened it's got a testified very bad chest infection very bad chest infection and he ended up in hospital you're on your own yeah

[Music]

um that is one of the main problems that a lot of homelessness people go through whether it's alcohol drugs it could even be simple things like gambling or not especially nowadays with the way that the government is with everything with the cost of living but not even being able to pay their own rent and anything like that it's even another reason why it's very hard to get off the street because you need to sign up to benefits and everything like that if you haven't got a bank card or anything like that you can't get onto your benefits because they won't pay into anything else they might give you cash in hand payments anymore nowadays and it's just a difficult system to break out of right at this time do you come from London I come from Southampton which isn't far from London it's about 60 miles south of London my family is in the Kent area right now but I've like to find myself in London because you do a lot of homeless people get the idea that you would get more help here whereas what the government say is if you don't have a connection to this area even though it's a bigger city like we can't help you we could help you with food and everything but normal Necessities clothes and everything like that but when you're only getting that sort of help it's just a day-to-day routine of doing the same thing every day and if you're not getting the Help Housing wise you can slide on your mental health and everything whether it's depression whether it's anxiety even normal speaking to people it can be very very difficult and the more you go through it the more of your mental abilities you lose at times it's Vicious Circle it's a very Vicious Circle it's a very Vicious Circle you've got these people in government now spending loads of money on like airplanes just get from one place in England to another when are you talking about the Richardson that's it that's it I was reading that spending 2 500 quid an hour or something like that to use an airplane when that could feed the whole of London for about a week on breakfast yeah whereas me if I was prime minister I wouldn't take an airplane I'd just like catch a national expression like wherever he was off to UPS off and then that 2 500 an hour can go towards food for the homeless in these charity groups and day centers Mark you mentioned something like you grow up and there was a addiction problem in the family what about you are you messing with substances I do I mean I saw my mum and dad drinking very constantly when I was a child and it just sort of latched on from there and it's been like that since my young teenage years even while I was at school I think I think there's like a connection to that but some people seem some people end up like with parents that are drinking can get on with their lives and just move on some people are just set differently in the head some people can cope some people can't we all COPE in different sort of degrees at times yeah what substances are here on the streets there are quite a fair amount I mean I don't know whether or not it's like it up North but obvious alcohol that's one of the ones like I know people who are homeless up do a bit of cracking stuff like that bit of speed we all have a coping mechanisms there's spice there's new psychotic substances it's even all in the prison and stuff like that and get weed drugs in prisons it's pretty much the same thing with homelessness and just like prison Services some of the homelessness connected to the prison Services because of not getting housing some of them might have to go on to the Rob but some might happen robster food and stuff and they start getting themselves in trouble everything like that yeah

so you you say most of the homeless here on the streets are messing with substances so you would say I would say most of us because most of us don't need coping mechanisms but there are a majority that can live on the streets who are used to it who might not have actual addictions who can actually physically go for the help while their mental health is up here because when you're on these addictions your mental health is from here to possibly here you're still coping with your day-to-day life but you need everything else in place which is the problem with England you don't get your mental health you don't get your normal doctors we don't get your Alcohol Services all in one place it needs to all be sort of conjoined are you receiving any kind of benefits from the government I used to I used to but at this moment I don't particularly have a bed like I don't have this bank card but this Monday coming I've got an appointment with some mungoes which are a charity organization who I will be going to and they will be helping me to reconnect with my family to get me a mobile just help reconnect with family and hopefully try and sort of Bank out with HSBC there are Charities out there that can help with these things that are stopping from getting into the next step which is the accommodation whether it be your hostel whether it be your shared housing whether it be anything like that right good luck Mark I I like to keep positive it's the only way well isn't the last time you you had a gaff the last time I had a gap was when the that pandemic started all right you had one day because it was well it was Travelodge it was hotels all right I mean I was homeless before that in the Kent area but when the pandemic started the government got funding for basically good amount of funding if you get older homeless off the street into travel lodges because of covert so they didn't want us out on the street to catch covered but I didn't risk it the coffee helped homeless immensely it helped me mentally I was in Travelodge Hotel my own bed my own TV my own shower in the room mentally I was actually up here my alkalism my drinking I was probably drinking two or three well every two to three weeks instead of three or four times a week like you weren't drinking as much no no I was finding things to do during the day that go out for a little walk like five ten minute walk during the day when it was quiet at night have a little shower and you could do a bit of a routine you like that I I loved it as soon as I get my own housing again that would be brilliant I can sort of set a routine look for work and it's that first step that you need

as soon as you get that first step everything falls into place it's like a jigsaw as soon as you get that first step you can start looking for your work I couldn't figure out whether he mentally able to work or not I think I am at this moment I just hope everything in England gets better with the government because with the government we're getting just people in power that don't know what they're doing to be honest they're just chucking money at the local councils and everything like that to help us but they don't know how to do that the councils then just Chuck the money into the Outreach Services into the data centers and they just don't know what they're doing I think we need as a country to have people working in these data centers in these Outreach positions who have actually been through it through the situation itself like the street workers yeah do you see any Studio workers here you do get the street workers like coming around but there's this thing called weather provisionment which means they only tend to come out if it's severely cold or if it's severely warm I see so if it's not nice and warm or in mild temperatures you've got to do everything for yourself which some people can do but some people out there need a bit more of a helping hand and I don't think the homeless should have to wait until it's Sub-Zero conditions or absolutely belted hot like it was summer 41 of degrees were they around the last couple of days because it was so cold for me I haven't seen them but with me when I get to sleep at night I find the most best places that are nice and cozy where they might not necessarily look let's see but you get them cozy places where it's difficult to find so in some ways you have to be less cozy for them to find you you have to like sleep on a park bench or something like that here right under the streets that's it or say that around the coach stations or around the train station you've got to sleep in them sort of bases where it's a lot more windier and by the way what you eating right now it's a bit of like a curry rice I don't know what the peas is somebody gave you this I actually found it I knew it was from last night you found it it was literally it's a cold it must be cold it is but it's still nutrition though it doesn't jump my gosh I know it's from last night's food group all right and when they were handing it out then it was cold anyway so it's still going to be the same temperature I can't believe that Mark Mark if anybody like your family members are watching this are you do you have anything to say to anybody who recognize you they're out there yes yes I would I haven't spoken to my mum since the night before the World Cup final which was Argentina and the France she did say to me to get in contact with her so then she could tell me what was going on on that match but unfortunately I had a bit too much to drink and I lost my phone but I'd just like to say hi mum this is in all right man's that showering cross and I will hopefully see you soon man is coping because of the drinking that's my actual addiction and Mark if there is anybody like would like to give you some donations or Reach Out is there any email or Facebook you have Facebook and people can contact you I haven't at the moment at this moment no but that will be hopefully what I will be trying to sort out on Monday when I get when I've got this appointment with Saint mangoes because I know they're getting me a phone it might be just one that calls in text but they will give you a fun yeah so I can like talk to their family because not being able to talk to me mum like for the past month and a half or so it has been a bit meant to leave don't end side to side yes

all right Mark thanks a lot for the interview all the best my friends top on Monday we'll go well and you get a gaffe I hope so myself all the business space that's it until next time

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