Beggars, homeless, street drinkers & drug users in Sheffield!

[paula4sheff]

I went to Covent Garden in London and saw they have these street mimes -- people who put on fancy dress or paint their bodies and then stay perfectly still to entertain and delight the tourists.

 

Can we dress up or paint Sheffield's spice statues as colourful mimes? They have already cracked the hard part of staying still. It will put Sheffield on the tourist map and create much-needed income and job satisfaction for our new mime brigade.

 

That actually made me laugh - send it to Julie Dore!

[Cyclone]

Different issues there though. In a lot of cases it really is as simple as people that were previously engaging stopping because they know they can make money begging to continue their drug habit.

 

Ones things absolutely certain - having a drug habit continually funded is NOT the way to sort a life out.

 

Having issues with paying for lighting/fuel etc is one thing.....making your priority drugs isn't going to help with that, one bit.

 

Well, if only addiction were as easy to overcome as someone telling you that it's not the right priority to have in life!

[paula4sheff]

Well, if only addiction were as easy to overcome as someone telling you that it's not the right priority to have in life!

 

No one thinks that. But if you're constantly given money for drink/drugs by strangers, it's not going to make seeking help any easier is it, nor even admitting the need for help.

[Cyclone]

Prevalent stereotypes and stigmas in the world today often dismiss those who are homeless as simply drug addicts or alcoholics. Lisa S., quoted above, would probably be the first to admit that she took some wrong turns along the way in life. But, then again, life can deal out more than a fair share of trauma, stress, pain and other negative factors that tremendously impact our lives.

 

Trying to answer the“the chicken or the egg” question, researchers have made a clear discovery. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, addiction can be both a cause and a result of homelessness.2 To further complicate matters, mental illness is often an underlying cause of addiction and, therefore, homelessness as well. This fact makes negative stereotypes about addiction and homelessness all the more ill-founded.1

 

That negative stereotype is abundantly clear on this thread.

[paula4sheff]

That negative stereotype is abundantly clear on this thread.

 

I think people do have sympathy but are just at breaking point with the state of the centre, what they routinely have to witness, and how it is coming to dominate certain parts of the centre.

[hauxwell]

I went to Covent Garden in London and saw they have these street mimes -- people who put on fancy dress or paint their bodies and then stay perfectly still to entertain and delight the tourists.

 

Can we dress up or paint Sheffield's spice statues as colourful mimes? They have already cracked the hard part of staying still. It will put Sheffield on the tourist map and create much-needed income and job satisfaction for our new mime brigade.

 

We have a male mime who entertains the public on Northumberland St, here in Newcastle. He’s there most weeks so I am used to seeing him now.

He tends to paint his face white and wears a black bowler hat. It’s hard to believe that he is a living statue, how he can remain motionless in some very awkward positions is beyond me.

I’m sure it must be a paying business but I think he deserves it.

Don’t think I would know the difference on my next visit to Sheffield if you do spice up statues.

[woodmally]

That negative stereotype is abundantly clear on this thread.

 

Basically as Paula has stated. We have pretty much lost all sympathy for these people. We see them day in day out. A lot have been barred from various services such as the Archer Project and Bens Centre who do sterling work in difficult conditions.

 

Even Anthony (hug a druggie Tent City man) Cunningham has ranted a few times how addicts are causing him problems from causing him to have to close the Sunday Breakfast Club he set up to help those on the streets. If he is getting critical you know its got really bad.

 

This is compounded by people giving them money and enabling their addiction. The income stream needs to stop otherwise they will never seek help.

[centralguy]

Cyclone of course can afford to be a sympathetic saint, he gets to go into town, show sympathy to all the poor druggies, then go home. For the rest of us who actually live in the city centre, we have a very different lived experience, being asked for money every 10 minutes and being verbally abused and spat at if we refuse. The if they deserve sympathy why do we not, as after all we haven't done anything to deserve it?

 

Although I suppose the upshot of living in the city centre is knowing that the vast majority aren't homeless, because you can actually see them go into their accommodation at night when its no longer profitable to be out!

[Longcol]

Different issues there though. In a lot of cases it really is as simple as people that were previously engaging stopping because they know they can make money begging to continue their drug habit.

 

Ones things absolutely certain - having a drug habit continually funded is NOT the way to sort a life out.

 

 

And the evidence that all beggars are there to fund their drug habit is..................................................

[woodmally]

And the evidence that all beggars are there to fund their drug habit is..................................................

 

1) The fact that they are often seen sat outside with a bloke hovering in a distance. Its the same bloke that goes from beggar to beggar.

 

2) Many of us see them go home in an evening after doing a "shift".

 

3) You never see the ones begging sleeping rough at night.

 

4) You will see the ones begging for money in a drugged out state high on spice.

 

5) Unless you have been living on another planet you will have seen the spice addicts around the city centre. They obviously must be getting the money from somewhere.

 

Do you need any more evidence?