Homeless in Manchester...Part One.

My assignment for today got cancelled, leaving me 100 miles from home in the rain with no purpose. So I had a walk around Manchester city centre, where according to a report in the Manchester Evening News issued by the goverment there are 150 people sleeping rough in the city. But unofficial numbers put this figure at nearly 2,000.  Campaigners say benefit sanctions and evictions have led to a rise in rough sleepers across the region.

Here are some of them...

Rough sleepers, Piccadily Gardens.

The two rough sleepers above had only been on this wall in Piccadily Gardens for about 15 minutes, I had been seen them arrive as I watched the TV crew following this Police officer arrive in the Gardens, he promptly moved them on. 

Sean.

This is Sean. I saw him on Market Street. He lost his wife twenty years ago. They had a child together but she ended up staying with family as Sean fell apart, devastated by grief. With no support network Sean developed a drug problem trying to escape from the torment in his mind, he didn't recieve any medical help for his psychological problems, slipping through the net.  He has been on the streets since last christmas when he was affected by changes to the benefit system which caused him to fall behind with bills and ended up with him being evicted.
"You can't beg!" He told me. "If they catch you begging they will move you on. So I write peoms and people buy them off me." During the fifteen minutes I was with him he sold two poems.

"Do not beg. Donation for a poem. A little something for all your help. I am homeless. Thank you Manchester."

John and his dog Rooney.

This is John and his dog Rooney. They have been homelesss for 15 months. John became homeless after his wife and child died. He suffers from Epilepsy. "I totally lost it when they died. They offered me a hostel but said I couldn't bring Rooney. They said I should put him in a shelter if I couldn't find anyone to look after him. I couldn't do that he is the only family I have got left! He knows if I am going to have an Epileptic fit. In the past when I was going to have one that day he would lay with his head on my lap and not move at all, like he could tell. It's happened a couple of times. They said if I wouldn't leave the dog and go in the hostel then they wouldn't be able to help me, so here I am." 

Manchester #MarchForTheHomeless with Merseyside Love Activists.

SOME IMAGES HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED TO PROTECT IDENTITIES

Today in Manchester a small group of between 20-30 protestors marched through Manchester city centre, the protest consisted of members of the Merseyside Love Activists and Homeless Rights Of Justice group who are currently in occupancy of St Anne's Sq at the camp there. They were marching to raise awareness of the homelessness situation within the city and how the homeless community is being further impacted by the recent Budget announcement this week.

The demonstration set off from Piccadilly Gardens where there is a kitchen set up to specifically feed the homeless in Manchester.

After passing through Chinatown the march came to McDonalds, where upon they burst inside with their banners.

 The Police were called by staff and escorted the protestors off the premises.

After marching back to Piccadily the march tried to gain access to Halifax bank, some of the protestors made it in but security locked the doors trapping some of the protestors inside.

Eventually the Police gained control of the situation and the protestors were let out and the march continued down towards the Arndale Center.

This time the Police were infront of the march and were able to prevent the protestors from gaining entry along with bank security.

Then the march came upon this scene of a homeless man passed out by a bench with a member of the public sat on her phone totally ignoring him as did the other hundreds of shoppers who were going past at the time. If you have never been to Manchester it is quite common to see a person asleep on the floor. This is part of the issue that the protestors were demonstrating about, the fact that there seems to be no concern in the wider community for people who have ended up in this position.

The demonstrators tried to rouse him, but he was un-responsive only opening his eyes for a brief second and then flaking out again. One of the protestors got on the phone to call paramedics to the scene whilst others put the man in the recovery position.

After about 15 minutes the Police arrived on the scene and took over from the protestors some of whom made their way back to Piccadily Gardens, while others stayed around to see what was going to happen to the man.

Occupy Liverpool Love Activists Peace Camp during Cunard's birthday weekend.

   As over a million people converged on Liverpool's dockside to watch Cunard's Three Queens flagships float down the Mersey, under the Red Arrows fly past and to the sound of the pop music blaring out of the P.A speakers set up around the area, a small group of around thirty protestors sit in a camp on the Pier Head area just across the road from the Cunard Building itself.

The "Liverpool Love Activists" occupied the Bank of England branch in Liverpool last month and were part of a recent occupancy of McDonald's in Manchester. The activists are protesting about the Conservative austerity drive and it's impact on the homeless. Some of the members of the camp are ex-servicemen who have become homeless due to current government policy. They claim that homeless people in Liverpool are treated badly by the local police force, some times with violence. I asked her if they had complained, she said that "We had tried but nothing ever seemed to be done about it." Speaking to the Liverpool Echo the groups leader Juliet Edgar said "...Joe Anderson (Mayor of Liverpool) has been shoo-ing homeless people out of Liverpool for the Three Queens. It's out of order!"

Juliet told me the group had no plans of ending their occupancy until they are forcibly removed, she said "They came down about 8 O'clock last night (Sunday) threatening us with a court order, which they said they had obtained, but they didn't come back so they can't have had one in the first place."

Whilst I was with them I saw a handful of people asking the activists why they were spoiling everyone's fun, which seemed ironic as some of the younger activists were dancing along to the music coming from the P.A's. An onlooker I spoke to said to me "It's ironic isn't it! These people protesting in the middle of all this money being wasted. This country is a state."

N.B. By the way Liverpool Love Activists thanks for your hospitality and the sausage sandwich!