£300 a day on Wolverhampton streets? No chance, say city beggars
"It's an absolute joke – that's more than the footballers at Wolves earn in a day." The response of homeless drug addict John Rowlands to the claim that beggars could earn £300 a day on the streets of Wolverhampton.
The allegation by Councillor Steve Evans has caused anger among the city's homeless community and the majority of the general public.
Mr Rowlands, a 38-year-old former pupil of St Mary's Grammar School in Walsall, where he attained 10 GCSEs and five A levels, considered himself lucky to receive £20 a day.
He said: "I've got nothing. I live off the generosity of the people of Wolverhampton. I'm a heroin addict, that's my problem. I've wasted my life. But we're the most vulnerable people in society and we're getting thrown out of the city centre because the council think we're a bad advert for Wolverhampton."
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Donna, aged 39, who did not want to give her second name, said: "What this councillor is saying makes us all look bad, he's talking out of his backside.
"I'm not here for the money, and it's mostly food and hot drinks that people give us anyway. It's a horrible way to live when you're homeless."
Donna said she knew Hayley, the homeless woman found dead in a shop doorway in Queen Street in January. "When I heard she'd died, I was thinking I might be next," she said.
Chris Garner, a 74-year-old former nurse, who lives off Penn Road, and her daughter Jane Garner, of Bradmore, stop to talk to Donna. They were both homeless after Chris' marriage broke up and they lived in their car and hostels for two years.
When Jane gives Donna £6, her mother calls her foolish. Chris said: "We weren't on the streets but we were homeless and we know what that feels like. But I'm more cynical than my daughter. In this day and age there are going to be people on the fiddle who are not really homeless."
Jane said the emergency shelter set up two weeks ago off Broad Street had been 'a long time coming'. She said: "It should have been set up years ago and the fact that it took someone to die in a doorway for it to happen is disgraceful."
Charlie Jenks, 29, who has been homeless for almost 10 months, lives in a tent by The Maltings in the city centre. He was so angered by Councillor Evans' comment that he wrote a message on a large piece of cardboard for passers-by to see, making it known he was a genuine homeless person.
It read: "Homeless But! I can't speak for other genuine homeless people, however I can say I do not earn 300-500 pound per day and never have or I promise I would not be sat here daily. I do it because I have to eat."
He said: "The most I have got given in a day was about £8. People are more likely to buy you something from Greggs, and I appreciate it."
Former care worker Ash Cooper, aged 26, who is singing for his supper on Dudley Street, has been on the streets since October. He said: "Whoever said we can earn hundreds of pounds in a day must have been high as a kite when he said it. This is my work, I'm not begging."
Andrew Greenwood, aged 43, who has lived on the city's streets for the last five years, said: "You could be the best beggar on the planet and you could not make £500 in a day."
Today Wolverhampton Council said that the beggar referred to by Councillor Evans was no longer in the city, having moved on elsewhere.
Councillor Evans reiterated his claim that begging was 'an issue' in Wolverhampton but they were working with others 'to enforce the law and to support vulnerable people who resort to begging as a result of homelessness and other complex needs'.
Clarifying his original comment, he said: "Intelligence from the local police suggested that one beggar collected £300 on one of the days in the run-up to Christmas and may have made as much as £500 in a week.
"Given the complex needs of many of these people, our policy has been to offer alternative solutions to their current issues in the form of short-term crisis accommodation. However, most have rejected this in preference of remaining on the street.
"Like most big towns and cities, Wolverhampton does have an ongoing issue with begging, but we are working hard to address this and we would encourage donations to local charities who support homeless people."
