[Rishi Sunak goes for photo op in homeless centre]
Sunak: Do you work in business?
Dean: No, I’m homeless. I’m a homeless person.
Sunak: Is banking or finance something you’d like to get into?
Dean: I’d just like to get through Christmas. cited Tweet 24th December 2022
But you can help. Just £75 will buy a monogrammed cufflink for one of these homeless old bag people. Alexie Sayle’s Stuff s2e4, TV appeal, BBC 1989
A life which resembles millions of other Americans following the recession. Nine million jobs have been created since the recession, most of which … [are] minimum wage jobs. Which means that Americans are working even more than ever. Working & Homeless: The Death of the American Dream, Youtube 52.18, 2022
The American dream should then be back on track. But at what price? ibid.
Unstable, part-time and underpaid jobs: this is the reality hiding behind the American dream. This has put almost one in every two workers into poverty … The working poor. ibid.
‘American dream’? mmm It’s all a bunch of crap.’ ibid.
American workers have come out of the crisis more vulnerable and poorer than ever, condemned to always working more hour just to get by. ibid.
In Seattle 500 families live in these temporary camps tolerated by the city. ibid.
It’s a dream for the giants of finance … with the workers paying the price. ibid.
The recession was the perfect pretext to put the new rules of the game into place. ibid.
San Diego: Next to a parkway in this parking lot 54-year-old Maria begins her day. This car is her home. Maria no longer has a place to live. She’s been sleeping in her van for a year now. Just like Maria, around 30 other people sleep overnight in their car in this free parking lot. Poverty in the USA: Being Poor in the World’s Richest Country, Endevr films 2022
In the United States 40 million people are living below the poverty line. ibid.
The system is not very kind to those short of cash. ibid.
In the state of Virginia the law is strict: if the rent is late by five days the landlord has the right to begin the eviction process. ibid.
Richmond: Budget hotels on the outskirts of the city have become a refuge for those kicked out of their homes. ibid.
28 million Americans still do not have any health insurance. ibid.
Mojave desert: ‘A lot of us have been out here for multiple years. Kind of gotten used to it. The summers out here are brutal and the winters are unforgiving.’ Living Homeless in the Desert, Youtube short 15.18, Vice TV 2022
About 40 miles north of Los Angeles is the town of Lancaster … You see encampments in pretty much every direction … Hundreds of people without homes living in this part of the Mojave desert. ibid.
More than half of all unsheltered people in the US live in California. ibid.
At night they roam the streets of America looking for a place to sleep. Tonight they found a car park. They join many others of the half-homeless as they are known in America, those people forced to sleep in their cars or in cheap motels after having been evicted from their homes. No-one has counted how many Americans are living like this. Half Homeless: Living in Cars: Poverty in the USA, Youtube 53.50, Endevr 2023
Shirley’s motel is highly sought after. The rent is $800 per month and the majority of residents are from the middle class. ibid.
Many people are living in poverty or are homeless and struggling to survive the very harsh and dangerous streets of the city. Poverty in Paradise aka Homeless in Las Vegas: Poverty in the USA, Endevr 2023
‘No pity in sin city, bro.’ ibid.
With an estimated 6,500 homeless people now residing on the city’s streets, poverty in Las Vegas had been an increasing problem in the city and continues to rapidly grow. ibid.
‘The worst thing in the world is being homeless. You’re never safe. Not for a moment.’ ibid.
‘The tunnels are packed with people … Nine people died in the floods.’ ibid.
‘Most residents just walk by and don’t look.’ ibid.
The police continue to move them on even if they are unseen by the public. ibid.
Homeless on the streets of London, but this down-and-out [Adam Holloway] is not who he seems. He’s a reporter for World in Action living on the streets of London with a hidden camera. World in Action: No Fixed Abode I, ITV 1992
It’s getting late and already the best doorways for sleeping in are being competed for. ibid. Adam
Lincoln’s Inn Fields: There are hundreds of impoverished people sleeping rough among the bushes and flowerbeds tonight. ibid.
I want to see how quickly the state can react to my changed circumstances. ibid.
It’s been a bad day. The DSS sent me to a shelter for the over 60s … So I’m back at Lincoln’s Inn Fields tonight. ibid.
The system can’t cope so I feel like a second-class citizen. ibid.
Today as always there are disturbed people on the streets. ibid.
This is a vicious circle which once in it’s difficult to escape from. ibid.
I know now why there are so many people begging on the streets. The benefit system for the homeless is so complex; it fails to deliver support for the most needy. World in Action: No Fixed Abode II, Adam
An atmosphere of violence seems to follow the newer younger homeless on the streets. ibid.
When you’re homeless you spend much of your time walking between benefit offices. ibid.
I did the obvious thing and applied for a council house; I started with Camden Council. World in Action: No Fixed Abode III
As far as I could gather, ten people live in the house, nearly all of them on housing benefit paid by Hackney Council. £75 per week doesn’t buy you much in a J Estates bedsit. There was very little furniture, no cooking facilities and a broken gas fire. I use the curtains for blankets. Councils should operate strict checks. ibid.
The rental property Kyla has been living in with her baby and her four-year-old has become a health hazard. Riddled with mould and asbestos … Like so many places across Australia, rental prices here have skyrocketed. Four Corners: No Place to Call Home, ABC 2022
Having a job in Australia is no longer a guarantee you’ll have a house. ibid.
Estragon: Nothing to be done.
Vladimir: I’m beginning to come around to that opinion. Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
Vladimir: May one enquire where His Highness spent the night? ibid. Vladimir
Estragon: In a ditch. ibid.
Suppose we repented? ibid. Vladimir
People are bloody ignorant apes. ibid. Estragon
Estragon: Let’s go.
Vladimir: We can’t.
Estragon: Why not?
Vladimir: We’re waiting for Godot. ibid.
What about hanging ourselves? ibid. Estragon
Don’t let’s do anything. It’s safer. ibid. Estragon
We’ve no rights any more? … We’ve lost our rights. ibid.
Do you want a carrot? ibid. Vladimir
His name is Godot? ibid. Estragon
Estragon: No use struggling.
Vladimir: One is what one is. ibid.