Two armchairs are facing each other in the Whitworth art gallery in Manchester. Denise Harrison, a mental health blogger with past experience of homelessness, is sitting in one of them, waiting for questions.
A member of the public sits down opposite her, and tentatively asks if she thinks it’s OK to give money to people on the street, as charities discourage it. “It’s down to personal choice – you shouldn’t feel bad if you do or if don’t,” replies Harrison. “Some worry it’s enabling addictions, but it’s also providing someone with the option to pay for shelter. On the street, someone can end up with several free McDonald’s burgers but nowhere to sleep that night.”
The questioner, reasonably satisfied, leaves, and another sits down with the next question on homelessness for Harrison. The dialogues are part of a performance artwork called Are You Sitting Comfortably? by the artist Emma Turner, who felt the public were becoming inured to homelessness in Manchester. The official number of rough sleepers was 278 in 2017, a 41% increase on the previous year, but the true number of its homeless people – counting those in temporary accommodation – is likely to be much higher.
As Harrison says of her time suffering with alcohol addiction and sofa surfing after the breakdown of her marriage: “It’s scary how quickly a situation that was so abnormal became normal, my new normal. It can happen to anyone.”
The work was part of the inaugural International Arts and Homelessness Festival and Summit, running 12-18 November, which explored a potentially contentious idea: the role of arts and culture in tackling homelessness.
Manchester was chosen for the event because the city council’s homelessness strategy for the next five years explicitly includes a commitment to increasing access to arts, and because of how the city’s cultural sector has stepped forward to provide support for the council’s plan. The strategy was born of crisis: homelessness has steadily crept up in Manchester due to a lack of housing and cuts to social welfare.
“Funding to local government to help tackle homelessness was reduced, so for the first time the city council said they couldn’t solve it on their own – and we were there to offer a solution,” Amanda Croome, chief executive of the Booth Centre, a day facility for people who are homeless or at risk, told the summit.
Third sector organisations began working together to approach the council, consulting businesses, universities, cultural organisations and the faith sector, as well as people with experience of homelessness. Their findings underpinned the new Manchester Homelessness Charter. The city’s goal was to get each person a home – but “there needed to be holistic support”, Croome said. Officials will now work towards what is described as a jigsaw of homelessness support approaches, rather than focusing exclusively on immediate needs such as shelter and healthcare. This includes the chance to meet people, build skills and have fun.
“You can’t generalise about why people are homeless – there’s no one thing, so helping people to tell their own story and gain confidence is part of recognising those individual needs,” said Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, whose campaign hinged on a promise to tackle homelessness. “It’s the importance of providing the opportunity to reconnect with passions and dreams, and that is something we’ve overlooked in the past.”
But how would this approach work in practice when the crisis is so severe? Beth Knowles, an adviser on homelessness for the mayor’s office, reiterated that the call for a more holistic approach came from homelessness services themselves – even frontline providers such as the night shelters.
“I’ve spoken to some about trialling the jigsaw approach,” she said, “and while it might not seem the most immediate thing when you’re trying to find beds, some see the value in maybe having some singing or photography sessions on site, because it’s worked well.
“Of course, not every council officer is going to see this as a priority. But to do something it doesn’t have to be a priority. It’s part of a whole package. It’s about what that individual needs and offering it.”
Croome said: “We do a lot of work helping to get people in to accommodation. But we find that if you put someone into a flat and they have no support network, no interests and nothing to do, then very often in six months they’ll be back on the street. What the arts do is give people a new perspective.”
Lawrence McGill has become an avid gardener since first becoming a regular visitor to the Booth Centre, filling salvaged containers with soil and seeds. He has also written poetry, and a song, Spinning Plates, about juggling life’s hardships. “My life started the day I stepped into this place,” he said. “Everyone has some genius, I think, and they help bring it out.”
The charity With One Voice worked with the city’s galleries, theatres, cafes and other public spaces to exhibit the work of dozens of artists at the festival, many of whom had experience of homelessness. There was a new mural painted by 40 homeless people on Ducie Street, and a photography exhibition at Piccadilly station of portraits of people who attend the Booth Centre.
The festival ended with an “immersive opera”, Man on Bench, produced by the arts organisation the Museum of Homelessness and staged in a railway arch, written by and starring Dave Tovey. His story embodies both the festival and the jigsaw approach: after a string of bad luck, including being diagnosed with both cancer and HIV, Tovey was homeless and suicidal on a park bench when a security guard started up a conversation with him. The result was that Tovey moved into a night shelter and started taking photos the next day; after being introduced to a social enterprise, Café Art, he began winning photography competitions. That was five years ago: he now gives talks and runs events all the over the country.
Man on Bench doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of life on the streets, and Tovey isn’t convinced it will change policies. “But we do want to change people’s minds,” he said. “If one person sees the play and feels more compassion afterwards towards people in that situation, I’ll see it as a success.”
He sometimes teaches at shelters in London, and said his art workshops have become like therapy, but less formal and intimidating. “When you’re in a secure, safe environment, focusing on drawing or mucking about with materials, you’re more likely to share your problems,” he said. “Support workers are in the room too, and they hear it, but they might not have been told directly otherwise [what your problems are].
“That’s why it’s so powerful. It gets people talking.”
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