THE INTERVIEW OF JASON

INTERVIEWING JASON: 21/02/22

When I first approached Jason, he was sitting cross legged under the city hall underpass. I asked if I could sit down next to him and have a chat about his life. He seemed keen, if not excited, to tell me what's been going on.

Jason, somewhere in his thirties, told me he was an alcoholic. When I asked him 'what's going on then?' he replied that he had just recently lost his disabled brother, (one out of two siblings) the other he has not seen since his dog was taken by the authorities.

I noticed a serious bloodied wound on his wrist, when asking how he got this he replied, 'my dog attacked me whilst some guys were beating me up.' I asked if he had received any medical help, he replied, 'nah, no one's bothered.' When I asked further about him being attacked, he told me a group of homeless boys asked him for some gear, when he said no, they beat him up. His dog, distressed and confused, attacked Jason's wrists. Jason later told me this led to him having a fit, 'I had a fit, hit the floor. Had a literal fit when my dog was attacking me, two of these homeless boys started going through my pockets and took all my money, about £400 of my universal credit. A cop even came around the corner and was watching them take the money out of my pocket. They did fuck all, the police hate us.'

After being beaten, a local homelessness charity took him into Adams court, a local Cardiff hostel. He was only allowed there briefly and after being kicked out he told me he ended up 'walking around all night in the pissing rain with no place to go.' Since we started talking, his clothes had only just dried.

When I asked, 'How do you think the public treat you?' He simply replied, 'terrible, yeah... terrible.'

'Do they just walk past you?' 'yeah, just like look down on me and stuff.'

'What can we do? How can we help?' Jason replied, 'By actually helping. Like getting us a hotel or a hostel or something. Do you know what I mean?'

When I asked if there was support for him around Cardiff he answered, 'nah, there's just a load of fucking idiots round here. Especially the junkies, I went down with my dog the other day and he got a needle stuck in his fucking paw.'

When Jason went to seek help regarding his dog's injury, he got the police called on him. When the authorities arrived, they took the dog to the kennels, Jason had owned him for ten years. I asked if he thinks he'll get his dog back, he simply replied 'Nah, no. Been too long now. My brother gave me the dog, he was my responsibility.' At this point Jason seemed visibly upset.

When I asked how Jason was dealing with the current storm situation he said, 'not good, I was out in it last night, I've literally just dried now.' I asked him if he needed more clothes, where would he go? He said the homeless shelter, but when going there earlier for a blanket, he said they couldn't even give him one. Even when asking for a blanket at the hostel, all he got was a thin bed sheet, which was now wet, wrapped round his legs as I interviewed him.

'Do you get moved on a lot?'

'Yeah, yeah'

'What do you do when you get moved on?'

'Walk about love, that's literally all I can do... walk about'

Sitting under the flyover I told him I loved the graffiti around here, and I've always wanted to get into it, he said 'yeah, coppers don't like it though. Chased some boys on Friday night, it was hilarious.' Telling me more, he said he saw two boys spray painting, 'on Friday night I was sleeping, and these kids started spray painting right above me. I was going "for fucks sake man what are you doing?" they were telling me "Shut the fuck up," they were only youth though, only about 12. The kid said, "shut your mouth mate before I spray you!" I went back to sleep, woke up later with a sprayed blue sleeping bag, and all over my cheek fucking green and orange spray paint. Cheeky fuckers, funny though.' I admired that Jason saw the funny side of being vandalized, I wondered how many other people would have.

I asked him what he was like when he was a kid, 'oh, well cheeky.' He said he was originally from Caerphilly, and when he was about eleven, he was on crime stoppers Wales. His Mum inevitably found out and wasn't happy, 'you little bastard, you said you've been going to school! You're on crime stop Wales!' We laughed about that.

When I asked what he did to get on crime stop he said, 'remember those little metros?' (a mini red car from the 1980s), 'my brother gave me one with no windows, an hour later he turns up with another one with no engine, one of the boys says it needs petrol, so we go up and steal nearly two grands worth of petrol. Later I had to go to court, was a right laugh.' When the judge said he'd put Jason on the young offenders, he simply replied with a cheeky smile, 'crack on bud.' Eventually Jason was put on electronic monitoring, aka 'tagged' around his ankle, and he had to be inside at 7oclock every night. 'I was 11.' he told me.

I asked if people gave him money, he replied 'nah not really, they think we're going to spend it on spice. But to be honest it's the only way I can get to sleep. It just knocks me out.' He's often woken up to strangers going through his stuff, but he says its more common for guys to come over and piss on him. 'They see you're sleeping, come over and start pissing on you. They think it's fucking funny, pissing on you.'

After sitting with Jason for about an hour, I was honoured with how much he was willing to share with me. Both a smart and caring individual, it broke my heart to realise the amount of shit he had to put up with while living on the streets. So, I urge you, next time you walk past a homeless person, stop, have a chat, see what they really need. We must all look out for one another in times of struggle, especially when there is such a lack of support for homeless people. When around every corner there is an obvious unequal disparity of wealth, it dawned on me during my chat with Jason that we really do have more in common with homeless people than billionaires.