The restive season

Four homeless people in Bristol tell Anne Bamforth exactly what they think of recent controversial comments by the homelessness tsar, Louise Casey

John's story

"I heard that that woman [Louise Casey] had said that the Big Issue encourages sleeping rough," says John, 37. "Encouraging people? That's crazy. Nobody's on the street because they want to be - they're there because of circumstances. I'm there because I can't get any accommodation in Bristol until I can get enough money together for a deposit.

"I've been travelling around for 11 years, and the longest I've ever lived anywhere is two years. I was 26 and I'd just come out of prison. My rent had been paid while I was inside, but it just shot sky high. When I came out I couldn't afford to keep it. I was unemployed, so I just got up and left. They were chasing me for the bills, so I just kept moving.

"I don't mind sleeping rough as long as I've got money, and I don't get wet-through every night. You can buy clothes, you can watch TV in a pub, as long as you've got money. Nobody's got a clue I'm sleeping rough. I go into garages and that to have a wash. It's easy. There's no reason for anybody to be filthy. Some people just give up, but you've got to look after yourself.

"I don't use hostels - I don't want to know, can't be bothered with it. I just want a place of my own. Hostels are full of idiots, aren't they? Druggies and all that. It's just a waste of time. I don't want people around me all the time. I want privacy. When you're homeless, or selling the Big Issue, you have people around you all the time.

"I don't want to be homeless at Christmas, because that would do my head in. The lights are doing my head in already, all the decorations.

"This Friday I've got to do it. I'll get somewhere this Friday."

Mike's story

"I'm not really conventional as far as a homeless person's concerned," says Mike. In his early 50s, he gave up work to care full time for his mother until she died in 1995. "I went into a privately rented bedsit, and I had a really bad experience. I had six months of hassle and torment and eventually physical assault."

Mike then tried bed and breakfast accommodation, and stayed with family for a while, finally ending up "penniless in Exeter". The Homeless Action Group helped him into a shared house, but he says: "I used to stay out sometimes till one o'clock in the morning, just walking the streets, because I just didn't want to be in the house. Eventually, after five months, I just decided to go out and try it, and see what happened. I got myself boots and a sleeping bag, and on February 2, 1997, I walked out of the house and have been homeless ever since.

"I went to pieces a bit emotionally when my mother died. I just felt there wasn't any role for me, or anything left in life really. You're not supposed to say this, but in some ways homelessness helped me. It gave me a new strength I didn't have before, made me stronger, more self-reliant, and more positive about myself.

"I've never fancied hostels - all that hassle off other people, I've never wanted to do it. I went back to sleeping out after my first weekend here, found the car park, and that's where I've been, and where I'll be tonight. I can't see a viable alternative for me as regards housing. I don't want to go into shared houses or hostels. It didn't work with me; I don't really like having other people around me. Maybe if I could find a nice shed somewhere, or a caravan.

"I think that for most people the situation is much more complicated than it seems. Often the problem is about their own belief in themselves, their self worth. A lot of people on the street have low self-esteem. They don't believe they can do anything better.

"Bunging them in a room, putting them on a scheme won't necessarily work. Often people gravitate back to where they felt comfortable before, and it all goes down the pan again. It needs a lot more thought and a lot more time."

Ruan's story

Ruan, 32, became homeless when his marriage broke up, a couple of years after he was made redundant from British Rail. "I've been staying on friends' floors for the last year-and-a-half, travelling around, sleeping rough. I've been sleeping rough until about four days ago, and I've just got into a hostel.

"I'm moving up now, getting it all back together again, recovering from the shock of being on the streets. It really has taken a lot out of me. I've got to recover from that and then I can start looking for work. They've all been a great help, the day centres, soup runs and so on. Some cases I'd be dead without them - blankets and so on. You can't do without them, especially at this time of year.

"I couldn't sleep at first in the hostel - I've got used to sleeping outside - but it's all right, pretty smart, a lot of privacy. It's a lot better than the Salvation Army - that's full of people who are old and mentally ill, It's soul destroying being around those kind of people. It's not for someone like myself who's a bit more capable. If you associate with them you're just going to sit down and lunch out like they have. But the hostel is just a stopgap between getting a place. It's just a leg up, that's all we need.

"If she [Casey] truly believes that people are using soup runs as an excuse to go on to the street, I don't see that - so I just sit back and let everyone give me things, and all I've got to do is shiver and live in total misery and poverty!

"I had a lovely comfortable house, a good job, and I gave all that up just to get a mug of soup each night? It's the most outrageous comment I've heard in my life."

Wayne's story

At 29, Wayne has been homeless for about three years. A few years ago, he had a successful business as a tree surgeon, but financial problems with the business coincided with other problems - "relationship, employment, everything, and my state of mind wasn't too good, as well" - and the only solution was to get out.

He "moved around a bit" until he ended up in Bristol, and over the next couple of years he slept rough and slept on friends' floors, until the Rough Sleeper's Initiative (RSI) helped him find a flat. "The Cyrenians' Outreach Team approached me on the street," he says. "It was them that got me onto the RSI, and they got my flat sorted out.

"I've also started with the Smart project (supervised methadone and resettlement team), so I've got a support worker through that side of things too.

"I've used the night shelter quite a bit, on and off, but I've never been in any of the hostels in Bristol. A lot of people won't use the shelter because it can be a bit of a zoo sometimes, a bit of a madhouse. Some people prefer to stay on the street rather than put up with some of the grief you get down there - you don't get any privacy at all.

"I've read in the paper that they're saying soup runs aren't a good idea, that they're encouraging people to stay in the situations they're in. They're not encouraging anyone. No one is going to stay on the streets for the sake of a few sandwiches and a cup of tea.

"I don't think the government have got their eyes open to the problem. They just don't understand what the problem is. There are so many different roads that lead into the whole homeless position."