Homelessness crisis: Ian Harrison’s 20-year struggle laid bare

Sixteen years ago, Ian Harrison was filmed begging for money in homeless Covent Garden. In the footage from 2008, a fresh-faced, recently evicted 19-year-old Ian talks to the camera about his intention to take as many drugs as possible to temporarily escape his problems. “I want to go so far, all my problems go away, just for one night,” she says.

Now 35, Ian watches this old film, blinking slowly and sighing heavily. His younger self then comments, “Nothing changes, only the time and the people I ask.” Ian nods, recognizing the truth in those words. “He’s right. Look where I am now!” he says Ian remains homeless, his face bearing the scars of years spent on the streets and his ongoing battle with heroin and crack addiction.

Despite having temporary accommodation in a hostel, Ian’s life teeters on the same precarious edge as it did years ago. Their homelessness began in the late 2000s, during the Blair/Brown era, when efforts to reduce rough sleeping had had significant success. However, the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent economic recession led to a steady increase in homelessness over the next decade. The pandemic briefly reduced the numbers as efforts were made to get people off the streets, but homelessness is once again at an all-time high. Last year, Ian was among 11,993 rough sleepers in London, the highest number ever recorded in the city.

Homelessness is at an all-time high again and last year Ian was among the 11,993 sleeping rough in London, the highest ever recorded in the capital.

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— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 11, 2024

Labour’s deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has slammed the situation as “shameful” and has taken on the task of tackling it. He will lead a new intergovernmental task force, reminiscent of Tony Blair’s approach, which focused on tackling the root causes of homelessness. This holistic approach is something Ian misses today.

Ian’s single room in the hostel is littered with rubbish, stained walls and buzzing flies, resembling the cardboard box he lived in under the Hammersmith flyover. Having grown up in care, Ian struggles with basic life skills. “I never had parents who told me to brush my teeth, get in the shower, do this, do that. When you become an adult, you don’t have those things,” he explains.

Although currently drug-free and on a methadone prescription, Ian finds stability elusive in his current environment. “It’s hard to be stable in a place like this, because it’s a very unstable place to be,” he says. Living with 26 other addicts in the hostel makes it difficult to avoid relapse. Ian feels that the support he receives is insufficient, lacking guidance and therapy essential for self-care.

Ian’s unresolved trauma from years of sexual, mental and physical abuse has never been adequately addressed. “They say you need therapy, but to get therapy you have to be completely clean of drugs and alcohol for a couple of years. But that’s part of the disease, it’s part of the symptoms of the disease,” he says.

Ms Rayner’s cross-departmental team faces the difficult task of transforming the lives of people like Ian, an expensive but necessary endeavour. The Sky News producer who filmed Ian in 2008 has witnessed his cycle of homelessness, stays in hostels and visits to mental institutions, only for him to end up back on the streets. “I’ve been stuck on a merry-go-round for 20 years,” says Ian. “I become homeless, I enter a hostel, I become homeless. You give up.”

Asked what his 19-year-old self would have expected at 30, Ian replies: “To be honest, I thought I’d be dead by now. And I wouldn’t have cared if I was.” But now, Ian cares. A wish list on the wall of his hostel reads: “Stop using drugs, save more money, take better care of yourself, start a business, go to the gym, get a routine, go on a camping holiday.” To achieve these goals, Ian will need the kind of support that has eluded him for most of his life.