City’s street paved with misery
every day feeling so sympathetic, but by the end of each day they have made my life hell. You end up just asking some of them to give you one quiet day. Some of them are lovely when you ask them to move on.
“I can’t blame them for being on drugs. I am sure I would be straight on drugs or drink if I was homeless.”
And another was quick to point out you don’t have to be living on the streets to be an anti-social problem.
“We came to work one day and someone had vomited outside the door,” they said. “But we think that was people on a night out. There is a spectrum – it’s not just good people and homeless people.”
The rise of homelessness across the city has been well documented. And people working with the homeless say Spice – which is cheaper than heroin despite having a similarly profound physical impact – is a huge issue and one that continues to grow.
Several pictures and videos have been posted online from around Cardiff of people suffering the drug’s effects. And those working with them say Spice causes a more chaotic lifestyle and makes it harder to get them to engage.
It’s also believed that people who were once on class A drugs like heroin are now on Spice, so what can police do about it?
”We are always out on patrol,” said Sergeant Emily Trigg, a South Wales Police officer who patrols the city centre on a daily basis to understand how authorities are attempting to tackle the issue.
“As a neighbourhood police team, our main aim is to engage with our communities.”
She said: “The city centre is different to other communities. Two key parts are the business community and the homeless community.
“We have to work in partnership with other agencies more than we previously would, like the outreach team who are amazing.”
Within 10 minutes of being on St Mary Street with the officers an apparently homeless woman who they approach starts shouting abuse at us.
Sergeant Trigg said combating antisocial behaviour is “definitely a daily priority for us”.
She said: “It is a case-by-case basis. If someone is on any drugs, clearly their health would be our main priority.
“We would check on their welfare and if they needed an ambulance we would call an ambulance. If it was someone who was causing persistent anti-social behaviour we would look at using our powers to address that.”
The police and council say there are facilities for supporting people but the challenge is to get them to use them.
“The hardest part is getting people to engage with the support services,” said Sgt Trigg.
“All the support services are working together to provide support but only if people want to engage. It is fair to say that the hardest part is getting people into those support services.”
Cardiff council say they are working with partners to tackle the issues.
A council spokeswoman said: “Not all rough sleepers or homeless individuals are affected by substance misuse and not all drug use in the city centre can be attributed to those who are homeless.
“However, many rough sleepers have complex problems including substance misuse and our homeless outreach team work with them daily.
“We work to support partners including South Wales Police and drug support agencies to help tackle drug use within the city centre and have recently secured funding for a multi-disciplinary team to work with hard-to-reach rough sleepers which will include increased substance misuse support.”