Richard, 43
15 years ago, on the front line in Iraq, stood richard fighting for his country, and fighting for his life.
"How I ended up homeless? Well, I was in the army, for 8 years, served in Iraq, I had a routine, my life revolved around the armed forces, when I was at ‘work’ lets put it, they made my breakfast, lunch and dinner, then id go back to my army house, it was a routine I had been in for years. But then I got blown up, my leg got blown up, in Iraq, things took its toll, and I was In hospital for a while, and I recovered, soon as I came out, the army let me go, didn’t even offer me an office job, they told me id be alright and id get compensation and an early pension. Next minute it was like, “see you tomorrow” then doors closed, BOOM, and if hypothetically speaking, I had forgotten something the doors wouldn’t open."
The British winters can be bone chillin and finding somewhere warm to sleep at night can be a great struggle.
"I have been on the streets for fifteen years, me and the Mrs, we sleep in a doorway, unless we make the money of course, we do The Big Issue, and if we make twenty-seven pound each, the geezer down at Victoria lets us stay with the dogs, and they are little noisy sods, not a lot of places let us stay if we have them with us. When we stay there, we go down to the basement, and we don’t disturb anyone that way if the dogs start to bark. But when I sleep on the streets, my legs start to play up a lot, especially in the cold, because of still got pieces of metal in my legs, from when the bomb went off, and its embedded in the muscle, so when the winters come, I really feel it in my legs, chills them to pieces and it hurts."
Different methods of coping, such as drugs and alcohol have been a mechanism used to help the people of thestreets, however Richard has found something else to help him through the cold winters.
"Cara, we’ve been married for 12 years, she had her own cleaning business, her own house and she lost it all, but that’s a different topic all together, if you meet her you can ask her. I met her when she was fresh as dumpling, before she became homeless and then I helped her when she ended up on the streets and we fell in love, she’s only three years younger than me, and she had no idea what she was going to do, how to survive, didn’t know anything, I told her id show her the ropes and then she can crack on, then that was it, within 9 weeks, I had that ring on her finger, she’s my wife and I am in love with her, I wouldn’t of married someone after 9 weeks if I wasn’t in love with her, that’s a bit crazy. I’ve got Cara, she’s my dynamite, and then I’ve got my brother, Brian, he’s not real brother but I’ve got Brian, and were always together us three."
There are hundreads of homeless people surrounding the streets of London.
"I’ve met hundreds homeless people in the same situation as myself darling, my best mate, who stays with us sometimes, he was in the Navy for 22 years, he was in the Falklands. There are organisations out there, like SSAFA, the solders, sailors, airmen and family association, they might give you a cup of tea and a change of clothing if you need it, but apart from that, there isn’t any long-term support. Help for Heroes, I asked them for help, and they said “do one basically” cause they had too many people.
There are youngsters out their, when I come across them in my everyday travels, I usually give them a couple bits of advice, I come across runaways, usually I do well by helping them, but most of the time they don’t want to listen, especially when I try to scare them and show them the reality of it all. I point them in the right direction to go if they need it."
The people of the streets are known to be victims of violence more than any other member of the public.
"I’ve never been attacked, but I’ve witness drunk youngsters on the way home from a night out, set alight to a homeless guys sleeping bag… I had two mates of mine, they slept down at Berwick Street, and this is in 1998. The two Chris’s they were called, they were homeless. There was a place, called Simply Sausages, where the Market is, it was a thriving market back in 1998, and they used to work for the market, for the veg and fruit stools in the mornings, helping with unloading the deliveries, so to make it easier for themselves they would sleep outside the shop Simply Sausages, and then one morning the marketers when to wake them up, “come on boys we gotta unload the truck”, no movement, then he repeats himself, cut a long story short, the two boys had been stabbed to death. There was hardly anything about them in the news, if it had been a non-homeless person, it would be all over the news."
But we get judged, we get called alcoholics, druggies, you name it, but I only drink because its freezing and it helps me not feel the cold and it knocks me out. You don’t know how many winters I’ve got on my belt…"