In the classic movie musical My Fair Lady cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle summed up in song her deepest wish in the famous line ‘all I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night air’. In the best Hollywood tradition, her wish came true, but sadly, for many modern-day Britons such supposedly basic necessities as a room over their head and enough food to eat are fantasies.
Reasons for being homeless are legion – drug addiction, alcohol abuse, mental illness, long term unemployment, the death of the family breadwinner – and so on. Homelessness and poverty are often inextricably linked, with poor people frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income, which is first conceded. Being poor means living an illness, an accident, or a wage away from living on the streets. And once the cycle of homelessness begins it’s more often than not incredibly difficult for those affected to break the chain and get back on their feet.
In a country totaling over 60 million souls at the tail end of 2003, at present there are more than 380,000 people making up what is now termed the ‘rough sleepers’ (a number that may in fact be somewhat conservative). And unlike the past, it’s not only single people making up the ranks of the homeless. Children, the elderly, even entire families wander our city streets in search of lodging for the night and enough food to make up one meal a day. We see them asking for money on street corners or sleeping rough in train station archways, that’s if we notice them at all, and if we do it’s usually to think of them as being someone else’s problem. The ‘someone else’ usually being welfare organizations that are often under-funded by the government and seriously under-manned in terms of resources and workers to cope with the ever-increasing numbers of people in need.
So what has the government done? Well, it could be argued that the homeless plight has to a degree been tackled by those in power. Over the last year and a half, there has been noticeable increased activity within government bodies. The Department Of Transport, Local Government and the Regions released the More than a roof report in March 2002, with the aim of finding a new approach towards solving the problems of modern homelessness. The Homelessness Act came into effect in July 2002 and April 2003 saw the implementation of the Supporting People program. Local authorities have produced local homelessness strategies (implemented from July 2003), and moves are in place to assess the situation at a grass roots level. Local politicians are being lobbied to include homelessness in their political agenda. The homeless as now being targeted as eligible voters with a valuable voice in how their problem can be actively tackled within their individual communities.
But is this enough?
It is clear, that simply by providing a roof over a homeless person’s head is only part of the solution. Invisibility in mainstream society is an enormous problem with many feeling marginalised and unconnected with society in general. So to, enormous psychological damage is often inflicted through the rigors of living on the street. Self esteem can take a huge battering leading to further drug and alcohol abuse or a slide deeper into depression which can seriously hinder efforts on both a personal and institutional level to help people get back on their feet.
In an effort to combat many of the problems associated with the state of homelessness in modern Britain, the medium of art is being successfully used as a tool of both public education and individual rehabilitation and empowerment.
At this year’s Glastonbury music festival, starting June 26, Afroditi Krassa, a student at the Royal College Of Art will be launching a campaign with the aim of raising public awareness of the homelessness and encouraging the government to do more to alleviate the problem. The campaign features a long red and black box of matches that on one side displays images of people in front of the iconic Big Ben and on the other has Prime Minister Tony Blair’s name and address at number 10 Downing Street along with prepaid second class postage. Over 10,000 of these have been produced to be sold at the festival. The primary goal here is that once the matches are all used, a single comment should be written on the box, explaining how the problem could be fixed, before posting it off to the prime minister and hopefully leading to a larger political commitment towards the eradication of homelessness.
An increasing number of professionals who work with the homeless on a day-to-day basis are turning to the discipline of art therapy as a means of personal empowerment. In a nutshell, art therapy encourages the individual to use the creative art process as a way of expressing their state of mind. And through this their abilities, interests, personality, concerns and conflicts re-emerge. In a sense they rediscover who they are. This in turn allows those working with the homeless to more effectively gauge and offer therapeutic means to improve self awareness, self esteem, reconcile emotional conflicts, solve problems, reduce anxiety, develop social skills and manage behavior. The benefits are great.
An admirable exponent of art therapy is the London based Crisis organisation established in 1967, Crisis works towards alleviating the pain and suffering associated with being homeless. Firm in their belief that ‘every homeless person has a right to the support and opportunities they need to fulfill their potential as human beings’ the institution recently launched ‘Crisis Skylight’. This is a centre where the homeless community are actively encouraged to take part in a range of free creative workshops ranging from art and drawing through to singing, sculpting, creative writing and film making. The hope is that not only will homeless individuals be able to build on or discover new skills, but will also interact with others and facilitate their reintegration into society in the longer term.
James Lee House, a Salvation Army Hostel in Warrington, has hit upon a novel idea to publicise the plight of the homeless by having its residents create Rokkaku kites. These are six sided Japanese fighting kites, which, along with traditional Haiku Poems, will be exhibited outside Parr Hall during the CF04: Culturefest on the weekend of Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 June.
Julie Collins, who works as outreach course leader for the Warrington collegiate, and who has been working with the residents of James Lee House said of the installation: ‘One of the things we aim to do is to change people’s perceptions, the residents do get labeled, but we’re doing a number of arts projects to tackle this.’
The issue of homelessness in Britain is unfortunately a social and cultural problem that will be more enduring that any of our lifetimes. Yet with the concerted efforts of those in power within government, dedicated volunteers, homeless rights activists and the heightened awareness and support of the general public, the necessary attitudinal and systemic changes will be implemented sooner rather than later. Leading us all to a state of complete agreement with the fictitious Miss Eliza Doolitle as she dreams of finding a home…’Oh, wouldn’t it, be, lovely!’
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