Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Homeless people offered hope by scheme started by one of life’s do-ers
Everyone has a different story to tell about how they end up on the streets. Some slip into it because of the growing housing crisis, some following a family break-up. Now a scheme in Bristol is offering a way out of their situation for some homeless people, as Tristan Cork reports
ROB Earnshaw paused for a split second as the memory of Christmas 2017 floated to the surface once again.
It was something he remembered well, almost too well, and there was the hint of a break in his Bristolian burr as he tried to put into words exactly how bad last Christmas was.
Even though his words were stark, and spoken with a matter-of-factness, they landed on the small table in this tiny and unusual home with a silent crash.
“Christmas Day last year was the worst day of my life,” he said. “Waking up in a tent in the rain, in the mud, and I thought ‘this has got to stop’, but I didn’t know how to stop it.
“But I have now, and everything about my life is positive now, and it’s a wonderful feeling, and it’s one that I didn’t think I’d ever have again,” he added.
In the year since that last Christmas, Rob Earnshaw has told flickers of his story to anyone who will listen. He’s told Canadian TV. He’s told Korean TV. He even made it onto Songs of Praise.
He’s the physical embodiment of an unusual and groundbreaking project that is still going from strength to strength down on a site on Malago Road in Bedminster, that should have, by now surely, become famous throughout Bristol and the wider West.
Little under two years ago, a local South Bristol lad Jasper Thompson was running a Jamaican restaurant in nearby North Street.
He and his wife began helping homeless people, feeding them and providing bedding, clothes and the like. He was doing what many different groups and individuals do on a regular basis all around Bristol, as the number of people on the streets appears to be getting worse, despite what the official figures might suggest.
Being ex-army, a do-er with a relentless approach, Jasper went from doing what he could to help individuals on the streets to something a little bit bigger.
If people needed shelter quickly and cheaply, why not convert old shipping containers. The idea was a simple one; if the homeless people converted them themselves, then not only would they create somewhere to live, but they’d also learn skills and be better equipped to step up and back into mainstream ‘normal’ life.
Jasper begged, borrowed, bought and bullied for supplies and tradespeople to help, and things began to take shape.
He was still providing a hot meal outreach, and word began to spread of the project. It wasn’t for everyone, but it helped many. Rob, whose alcoholism had destroyed his life, his job and his home, didn’t think he could be one of them.
”I knew Jasper anyway from the outreach when he first started,” he said.
“He’d been saying for a long time ‘you must come down to the site, we’ll sort you out’, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted to do, which was drinking and not doing anything,” he added.
The Help Bristol’s Homeless project is run on regimented lines - no drinking, no drugs. That did not appeal to Rob, who was free in his wet, sodden tent, to do what he liked.
It had been a slow descent for a man who had well-paid jobs in big companies in London and Bristol.
“To begin with, just over five years ago I was having problems with myself,” he said. “I lost my job, lost my home, but in my arrogance I imagined that I would be absolutely fine, I would get another job and things would sort themselves out. They didn’t because they don’t.
“Once you get in that trap, and you have to go on benefits - that’s so difficult to get out of. Two years ago, I just walked away from it all. I had a flat just across the road from here in Bedminster, it was lovely, but my mental state was such - the drinking had really kicked in by then, it kicked in long before I was homeless - so I just didn’t care anymore.
“I just packed a bag one day and just walked out and went on the road. It was fine for a while, because it is.
“You deal with it because you have no choice, but you do have a choice, there are choices out there, you just have to be brave enough to take the chance on it, and I did and here I am.”
Every explanation of his life before ends with Rob reminding the listener - and himself - that he’s got through it. That it’s over. That he’s here. That he has a home.
“Before I came here I was living in a tent up in the woods, as a lot of people do. My life was very different, it was horrible, miserable, cold and wet and me drinking heavily every day - to the extent that my friends were worried that I was going to kill myself by drinking myself to death.
“I don’t want to be negative about things, but it’s all about being honest with yourself.
“Here I am now, my life and me are vastly different now. I don’t recognise myself anymore – well I do, I’ve become the person I used to be but I’m a better version,” he explained.
Broken and realising that perhaps his last chance lay in a group of old shipping containers in the shadow of the main railway line south out of Bristol, he finally gave in to Jasper’s appeals and turned up at Malago Road.
It wasn’t a quick salvation. “The first couple of weeks was difficult,” said Rob.
“It was difficult to acclimatise or re-acclimatise to having somewhere to live, and also I couldn’t drink, so that was hard,” he added.
While the idea is that those coming for sanctuary and hope at Help Bristol’s Homeless pitch in and join the communal effort to build new homes, there isn’t a requirement. People need time to sort themselves out, including the man who is now the project’s biggest evangelist.
“For the first three weeks I was here I didn’t lift a finger, because I didn’t want to,” said Rob.
“Then one day I just woke up and I thought ‘just go with it, mate’, and I’m so glad I did, because now I feel
Before I came here I was living in a tent up in the
woods, as a lot of people do. My life was very different, it was horrible, miserable, cold and wet and me drinking heavily every day
ROB EARNSHAW
like I’ve got a purpose in life again, which I didn’t have, and I’d given up completely.
“I’m down here with the guys, we get on really well, we work well together and we live well together and it’s all thanks to Help Bristol’s Homeless.
“I’ve learned how to do basic construction skills, which I never imagined I would because I never imagined I’d have to, I’d always pay somebody else to do it.
“As a person I’ve developed as well, because this is about our own personal development as well as the development of the project and it’s so nice to see other people around you developing with you.
“It’s just been an incredible journey, and it’s one that you don’t want it to stop. Once you embark on it, every day is exciting, because every day is going to be different, and every day is going to be a challenge. But that’s what life is all about, isn’t it? Now in my own mind I’m ready to face these challenges, and think of a positive way of getting over them,” he added.
Speaking just before Christmas, Rob’s eyes lit up when he thought of what Christmas 2018 will mean, in almost the mirror opposite of his last Christmas memory.
“This Christmas is going to be much different,” he said. Instead of reluctantly joining a queue of homeless people getting Christmas dinner from the outreach on College Green, he’ll be using his chef ’s skills to cook it for those old friends still out there.
“And then I can go home,” he said, proudly. “It feels... it’s really emotional because I’d imagine I’d never have one again. It was either going to be a tent or a doorway for me for the rest of my life and that’s not a good
mental position to be in, but sadly a lot of people are in that position now,” he added, pausing to let the emotion play out.
His attention turned back to helping others - people he knows still, who he shared those miserable wet days in the tents in the camps that are dotted around Bristol like shanty towns in a developing world city.
“What we try to do is get people on the night bus, which has been really successful,” he said.
“Two people who were on the bus for a couple of days now live here with us.
“It’s great to see it. I’m not going anywhere, I’m staying with the project.
“I always call it my former life, because this is ‘normal life’ for me now.
“One of the guys who came in not long after me moved out about a month ago. He now works with the British Legion, he’s got a flat just up the road, and it proves that what we do here works.
“It’s about giving somebody the opportunity but it’s about a little bit of self-help as well. You can’t give people everything - they’ve got to take a little bit of responsibility for themselves - that’s the whole no smoking, no drinking no drugs. Otherwise none of us would get any better if we were allowed to continue doing what we’ve always done.
“It’s so nice to see people change, almost daily. The lad out there Mike, has a similar story to me, he’s been here a bit longer than me, and every day you can see he’s getting much better all the time.
“He’s learning. He’s one of our technical guys - he can do construction, he’s got a real talent for it, he’s encouraged to do that and it’s great
“It’s nice to be able to give something back, and get more people off the street,” he added.
“I’ve got a mate who was up in the camp where I was, he came down yesterday for his dinner, and he’s going to be moving in with us after Christmas as well.
“It’s nice to be able to be in the position where I can reach out to people and help them have what I’ve got,” he said.
Rob was speaking inside a new home that has just arrived at the Malago Road site - and is something of a new departure for Help Bristol’s Homeless. It has arrived from a company called Newspace, ready-built, and described as a ‘modular housing solution’. Created in a factory, it is remarkably similar inside to the shipping containers converted by the Bedminster crew.
Founder Jasper Thompson was enthusiastic, and said this could be the bigger answer for local authorities grappling with rough sleepers.
“What we do is get people off the streets and give them a purpose, help them learn new skills, build something,” he said. “But we’re nowhere near the whole solution, it takes ages and costs a lot to create a new home.
“This is cheaper and quicker and could be a short-term solution for councils.
“Imagine if Bristol, or Bath or Southampton or wherever, bought up half a dozen of these and put them somewhere in the city centre, and managed them, and it could be a way to get people off the streets quickly.
“They’ve brought one here because they like what we do, and were inspired by it. We’ve got council people and charities coming over to look at it today,” he added.
Inside, Rob was proudly showing people around. The main difference inside is that there are two bedrooms, and a small communal living area, and a bathroom with a shower more deluxe than most people’s.
Over a cup of tea, Rob explained how he thought he could be able to help connect to people - many of whom he still knows - still out there in the wet and cold.
Bristol’s established homelessness charities and organisations are trying their best, but are either overwhelmed by numbers, struggle to connect or have been exposed as exploitative.
The DIY sense of Help Bristol’s Homeless means it can better connect with those struggling in those tented cities and camps in the woods.
“I get it. I do know what it’s like,” said Rob. “The outreaches are great, and we have to have them. They have got a job to do and they do it as well as they possibly can.
“But, by and large most of them have never spent the night on the street or in a doorway or an alleyway and it’s absolutely not their fault and that’s the way it should be; nobody in an ideal world should have to sleep out, but it isn’t ideal is it?
“The situation will only get worse before it gets better. It will get better and it is improving but there’s still a long way to go,” he added.
Helping to put up the Christmas tree in the middle of the site - a rather fetching artificial black one - is Aaron Johnson, a softly-spoken northerner who has been off and on the streets for most of his adult life, certainly for the past 15 years.
He was one of the original homeless crew who set up the project around two years ago, but moved on and out of Bristol.
Now he’s back in the city, and is amazed at seeing how the project has grown.
“I’ve been back here for about four weeks,” he said. “I was here at the start, I actually helped build the original container down here.
“It’s essentially given me a purpose to life again, it’s giving me a purpose to get up in the morning and be part of something.
“I’ve never had any formal construction training, but I can do most things on the site.
“I’ve learned a lot of things through the different trades that come down. You watch them, you’re working with them so you’re learning as you go along.
“I went back into homelessness for a while, and then got involved in another charity outside of Bristol for around six months,” he added.
“It has grown a lot. It’s exciting to be back here and see how far it’s come,” he said.
Everyone has a different story to tell about how they end up on the streets. Some slip into it because of the growing housing crisis - recently being evicted from private rented accommodation rose ahead of the usual ‘relationship or family breakdown’ as the most common cause of homelessness, showing that it is often the economics of the housing crisis rather than the fall-out from a social crisis that is leading to the unwanted boom in rough sleepers.
“With me, I ended up homeless due to alcohol addiction and relationship break down.
“I’d travelled the country for numerous years, just travelling around from town to town.
“I’ve been in and out of Bristol for about ten to 15 years,” he said.
As the main city in a mainly rural region, Bristol is a natural magnet for people either already homeless, or aiming for a better life, whether that’s someone coming from Paulton, Preston or Poland.
“Bristol is actually quite good for the homeless, especially for the day services. The only thing that lets it down is the night services. There’s only one night shelter, with a few beds in it - that is the only problem. There isn’t enough night facility,” he said.
The city council has done something about that, just in the weeks before Aaron arrived back in Bristol, with the opening of a 24-hour homeless shelter in Brislington.
But having spent months and years on the streets, with its relentless boredom and descent into being ignored as a human being, Aaron has one request for people who pass the homeless by.
“Just say hello to the people,” he said.
“Speak to them like human beings, don’t just walk past a homeless person and think ‘oh it’s just another homeless person’.
“Because you don’t know their story and it’s quite easy to slip into homelessness through no fault of your own, so just treat people with a bit of respect and just say ‘hello’, because it can make a difference in somebody’s day, just not being ignored,” he added.