I was planning to do the interviews with the people without shelter both in Taiwan and in London. But unfortunately, due to the outbreak of Covid, Taiwan has been in soft lockdown since mid May. The gathering or face-to-face meeting was not suggested according to government’s instructions, so I can only do the interview in London after I touched down in late July.
After I’ve been a bit cool down with the idea which I want to collaborate with Banksy, I move on to do the interview with homeless people and the vendors sell big issue around the area I live. I’ve interviewed with two people who sell big issue on the streets and two homeless people.
John (Jonathan) was standing on the New Bond Street and Tom was located at the Mount Street, both as Big Issue vendors. I had to say it was so shocking when having a conversation with them. It’s really sad to hear that they sometimes sell zero issue for a day. And what kills me is that one of the seller, Tom, said he feels alone for the most of time. I’ve asked them about the feeling as a vendor of Big Issue and both of them gave me positive feedback. But they do hope they can sell more for one day, because, as I’ve mentioned previously, sometimes they sell none of them in one day.
Then I approached a man who sat on the pedestrian way of Park Avenue and Mount Street. Sadly, I couldn’t hear well what he was saying through his mumbling. Then I met a homeless man, Banu, from Romania, sat close by the exit of Green Park station. I asked him about the feeling of sleeping rough on the street, which I was so regret to ask afterwards. Because it was such a silly question, it’s just like you ask a person how he/she feel after had a car accident. But he answered my question in a kind way with a smile, “it’s rough, pee or sh*t is the hardest.” Then he said he was worried as the winter is coming, and it’s hard to bear the weather. Also, coincidentally, he also said that he’s all by himself in London and alone, just like Tom has mentioned.
This is the first time that I’ve done the face-to-face conversation with homeless people on the streets. It was no easy task as I’m an introverted person and it’s difficult for me to break the ice. I still remembered I was so nervous when I was going to approach the homeless who I couldn’t hear well his name. I should do more interview to be honest. But after talked with them, I really need some personal time to digest for a little bit because it’s too shocking for me, especially my mental state is unstable and what I’ve heard was way to heartbroken.
I did come up with an idea about how to help the big issue vendors to sell more copies. I found that it’s only allow to buy Big Issue by cash payment. So, I think what if the vendors can accept the card payment, would this way help to boost the sales? After two days of research, I think I have little time to solve this question sadly. The homeless issue is something too immense that I think I cannot solve in a short period of time after encountered with them face to face. I’m not targeting to solve it in a big scale but even if it’s in a tiny part, I still think it’s too complicated.
Then I found the homeless issue is also something about mental issue. After that, what they had said was hit me real hard, especially the mental issue around loneliness. I think I got a new idea…
To be continued…