60 Days on the Streets

[HollowTalk]

Anyone watching this? I just can't understand how he can pose as a rough sleeper when he has a crew with him.

The crew film from far away at most points, they just really zoom in lol

But it said at the beginning that people were aware he was a temporary homeless person so he can't be making it a secret

Do you think he actually slept out every night?

Wow that's depressing - a programme about knife crimes and a programme on being homeless on two of the five main channels tonight.

Yeah I think he slept out

I watched last week and it was so depressing. The violence, addiction and uncertainty is just heartbreaking. Deana reminded me of someone I worked with (professionally) who was homeless. Saying that she wasn't entitled to help as she was white British, but the truth is that she needs to be on the street to feed her habit. There but for the grace of God go I.

Not sure what I make of it seeing as most actually had homes to go to so weren’t really homeless

Dickory I think the programme in a round about way is highlighting the issue; a lot of homeless people have homes they could go to but for various reasons chose to remain on the streets. Most of it is related to substance/drug addiction.

I was really shocked about the guy who was 'accommodation searching' and then that turned out to be a complete lie and he was a heroin addict. He fooled me I must admit. There was another life on the streets documentary following people (there was a thread here I'm sure) but one woman said that many women pretended to be pregnant to get more money from beggars by stuffing clothes up their jumper, which was really sad as many of them had lots of children already in care.

In the UK addiction services are vastly underfunded and the places that are available the criteria to get into them are so difficult. It's very sad altogether.

He seems to be really getting to the nub of the problem by sleeping amongst them and talking to them . Most appear to be addicts and many do not seem to be without a roof over their head , obviously they need real help to overcome their addictions and get back into functioning within society but what is very apparent is that whilst life on the streets is grim and difficult the amount of food and money given to them by well meaning people especially in London seems to facilitate their habits and gives them no incentive to seek help . To many it just seems like a job and I was a bit askance at the man who was making a tidy sum begging who had his own flat and was also receiving housing and other benefits . It will be interesting to see the final part about how Scotland is dealing with the homeless and if this is more successful than England's futile attempts