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P.2-3 The ContentsP.6-9 What is the big issue?P.10-13 Disposable?P. 14-17 Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be home-
less?
P. 18-22 The man who tries to be normalP. 22-25 Amy Porter - How I became homelessP. 26-27 No Heroes Animation
THE CONTENTS
Whats the Big Issue?
“ I’m selling The Big Issue to get a better life”
Homelessness. What does it mean to people, and most importantly what does it mean to you? Most people would probably describe a homeless person as someone who is an alcoholic and has no place to live, but why do so many people judge others without knowing the truth? Let's say none of these judgments are based on fact or
what you think. Mark is a 46-year-old man that we met on streets of Birmingham while he was at work, selling The Big Issue magazine. Walking by him most people would never wonder who he is or even why he's there, selling the magazines. Even if people do think about it, they might stereotype and think he's one of the ''BAD'' ones and not even care. Reality is totally
even true. How would you feel if someone you don't know, were judging you and calling you homeless, just because your clothes were not as good or were scruffier than others. How would it feel? I think it’s very important to think about judging other people especially people who are homeless. They might be an alcoholic. They might take drugs. However, you don't know why they do it and what their problems are that they're trying to forget, using alcohol or drugs. You don't know why they're homeless, so maybe before you judge; try to think
different. After we met him we noticed he's a friendly guy and it seemed like he's enjoying what he's doing. He stated to us that being homeless started in 1998. Mark also admitted he had problems with alcohol and drugs. ''1998 it all started.
Lot's of drugs and alcohol… It's been difficult and … yeah, really hard to me to get out of it… '' '' I’m selling The Big Issue, you know it's a bit for a purpose. I wake up in the morning; got me dogs and I sell papers. I enjoy it. ''
He told us about hostels and how horrible it is to live there. “You might see people and families living in one room. It's disgusting” but he finally managed to get a job, and helped himself by working for The Big Issue. He said selling magazines was the best thing that happened to him. He could finally get back to life and live ''normally’ ‘Mark was also the person who agreed to do use the disposable camera (page..) which shows that his dogs Marley and Bella mean a lot to him and that they are his best friends, who have helped him through during his hardest moments.
Living in hostels was horrible. families living in one room, it’s disgusting..
Disposable?When someone takes a photo of something, regardless of how impartial they try to be, just by consciously changing the framing of the photograph; to me, they’re forcing their own opinion, bias and subjectivity on the photograph. Sometimes that’s great, maybe you want to put your own view onto the photograph, shaping how the viewer might see it, but sometimes when you try your absolute hardest to remove all sense of that from the photograph, no matter how hard you try, as long as you’re holding the camera, I don’t think you can.I really wanted to think of a way of capturing photographs in a way that’s going to let me capture the kind of images I want, without putting my own views into the subject matter. I played around with a few ideas, giving people stickers to put around Birmingham, then attempt to find and photograph the stickers, that way it’d be a journey around Birmingham of somebody with a completely different life to my own.Another aspect of wanting to do this and the magazine as a whole was, that as a
person in the same city as many Big Issue sellers, was that until I really sat down and thought about it, I’d never really empathised with them or even considered why they might be in the situation where they’d only have the option where by selling the Big Issue was their best bet in life. Just sometimes when you’re in town and its freezing cold or raining, and you think to yourself just wanting to go home, when I really think about that, now I think well maybe that guy selling the Big Issue is thinking the exact same thing, except he can’t do that because if he leaves his spot he won’t make enough to get by for that week. So I came up with the idea of instead of me taking the photographs, was to take a few disposable cameras and giving them to these guys around Birmingham and letting them document their own lives, regardless of the outcome of the photographs it was 100% them, the only input from me is just getting to the camera to and from them.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be homeless?To have no roof over your head, no food, no water?
So why not help a little? A little goes a long way.
Although the world of the homeless seems to be very far from yours, in some ways it can be quite near. In today’s day and age it can be a consequence of losing a job, the death of a spouse or family member, a severe physical disability or anything else which may lead to you not having a con-sistent dwelling. Homelessness has been a huge issue in the West Midlands region, having statistics show that in Birmingham the number of people officially classed as homeless rose to …8,730 last year, accord-ing to new data, which represents a rise of more than 20% compared to previous years. The region’s homeless rate of 3.9 home-
Sometimes just a few pennies can help, instead of walking past a homeless person think for a second why they may be in that situation and how you would feel if you were in their shoes. Remember it is not nice to stereotype them; they are humans just like us and sometimes a bit of consideration is all it takes. It’s not a harm to respond to them, who knows you may be the only person to talk to them the whole day, so why not try a kind word and smile? The most direct way to aid the homeless is to give them food or money, when passing by why not give them some crisps or chocolates if you don’t have any change to spare!
Donate clothing and toys as this can make a huge difference to their lives. Many homeless children have very few possessions, if any. Homeless parents have more urgent demands on where to spend their money; so their children do not get the luxuries of toys and anything fancy to play with like most other children would. You can donate items such as books, toys, clothes, games and much more to homeless shelters. So why not make use of something which your child no longer needs and give it to someone less fortunate? Festive seasons like Christmas will be very hard for the homeless, so sometimes it can be a nice idea to donate small presents for them, in order to make them feel happy just like you’d want your children to feel.
Remember to always appreciate what you have, because there is always someone out there who wishes they had what you have!
The feeling that give me is different than what I expecting that feeling is like talking to a normal people, they didn’t sound any weird, expect The smell on them, one thing I don’t understand
is they’re all smell the same, i guess it’s heat and sweat but I have nothing to hold it against them because when you understand the stories behind them, you’ll use a different point of view to look at
live in Birmingham more than 55 yearThe first time I went the a food bank event which is create by a charity call ‘food not bombs’, they’re sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people protesting war and poverty, that’s the aim of food not bombs and they say they’re not a charity, but they have all volunteers is all cross over the world. I still remember that day, the event normally start
them, what I’m trying to say is they just a normal people like us, I don’t want people look and viewed and treated from a judgmental perspective them differently. That’s the main reason we as a team decided to create a magazine that is homeless is the subject.Introducing a man know everything about Birmingham, he have been
The man who tries to be ‘Normal’
at 1 pm, but they’re later that day, I saw john stand alone on his own, away from other homeless people, I went over and talked to him, he seen happy and open mind, but when I asked him can I ask him some question, he
start to confuse for a bit, at first, he refuse tell me any information of him, all he telling me is which food bank that he’ll going to the next week, (I like the way he said ‘no, no, no’, its likes he singing the words, the voice go high and low) and when I asked how old he is, first he tell me he’s 84 year olds and then I think he didn’t look like a 84 year olds man, so I ask him again, and this time he told me a different answer which is 64.I decided to
go to London to see the different between them two biggest cities in the UK, I have to say the first inspiring in Birmingham, it didn’t give me a big city ‘feeling’ it’s just look like a big town, people are ‘ok’ nice, it didn’t look busy compare to London.So I decided to walk around London, to be exactly, I walked from south Kensington to Earl’s court, it token me an hour to walk, on the way to walk, and I didn’t see any homelessness. I felt hungry on the way to Earl’s court, so I brought some Christmas mince pies from Tesco, I eat but in the same time I’m searching for homelessness in the streets and shops. I saw an old man who dress and ‘look’ like a homeless in a bus stop, so I stop there in per. Take out my mince pies packs and open it, I’m watching his movement in the same time, when the time I opened it, he’s noticed and I knew he want to say something and then I quote what he’s said “can I have a piece of that?” He said, “Sure! Have one! Merry Christmas” I said.
Amy PorterHow I became Homeless
From the day I was born my life’s been a disaster my real parents set our house on fire with us in it. At an early age I was taken into a care house until we met Jane our foster mother who later came to adopt us all. We had a big family and she was a kind woman to take on more than five children at her own will but she still did it anyway. She showed us love, cared for us dearly it was almost like the perfect family.
We never went a day without eating and no matter what she would take us on family holidays every year without fail but for some reason this wasn’t enough. As I got older I just rebelled I came to hate her, I stopped listening to her she wasn’t enough for me. I purposely went against her rules countless times I said “YOUR NOT MY MOTHER, I DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU” we argued for months, Jane couldn’t understand what was happening to me and couldn’t control it either.
First my bad behavior was just at home but then later became a problem at school, my grades started to fall I started skipping lessons meeting up with different men that manipulated me, told me they loved me and made me sleep with other men for money I ended up leaving home. I had nowhere to go and sleeping with men was my only
source of income. I then went to stay with friends I officially had no home I was depressed so I started taking drugs. I told myself I was fine and my life was great my friends supported me so much they tried their best to help me get back on track but I wouldn’t accept their help, eventually they gave up on me. I hit rock bottom drugs became my only friend. I went from city to city staying in homeless shelters, they helped me a lot in particular st basils in Birmingham but eventually I had to leave they needed the room for younger students. I’m now 18 and my life is still a mess sometimes I wish I never left home but I can’t go back now, I can’t let my family see me as a drug addicted an 18 year old girl sleeping with men for drugs how would they look at me? Never mind…. I suppose I’ll just stay homeless.
