"I lost my dad 10 years ago. I went on to the heroin and crack. I lost my job and everything."
Then, when he was on the streets, he saw someone selling The Big Issue.
“I was walking past this geezer one day and I saw this woman give him a £20 note. And I thought, 'Oh, that's easy,’ and I had a go, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
“I came off the heroin and crack and I got on to the Issue.”
Even then though, he had not quit using completely.
“I was on Spice” — a synthetic, particularly potent form of cannabis also known as Black Mamba.
It was this drug, mixed with alcohol, that last year killed Damian Dineen, a 32-year-old homeless man on the streets of Birmingham.
Outreach workers with The Big Issue helped Michael get off Spice.
“The office put me on to this person who helped me, who explained what the drug was.
“I saw a few people shaking, and I thought ‘That could be me one day’, so I stopped that and I’ve been clean ever since.”
"I've had chocolate chucked over me, I've been spat on, I've been called a crackhead, a smackhead. I've been beaten up, I've had my bags stolen"
Selling The Big Issue was not as easy as he at first thought.
"I was scared, I didn't what to do. I was — how can I put it — I was a bit timid. But then I came out of my shell."
These days, he can handle the knock-backs.
These days, he says, he can even tell if someone’s going to buy a copy before they reach him.
And there are always going to be some who will never be won over.
“We do have a few people that hate The Big Issue sellers.
“I've had chocolate chucked over me I've been spat on I've been called a crackhead, a smackhead. I've been beaten up I've had my bags stolen.”
The time he got beaten up was when he tried to sell to a bunch of drunken kids.
“I took one of them down with me, but the others had me.”
"The majority of the people think that we get our mags for free, but we don't.
“We buy them for £1.25 and sell them for £2.50. So every mag we sell we make £1.25.
“So like, I've just been out six hours today and I made a fiver."
(This particular day was one of the coldest of the year to date: minus 5 and 20/mph winds.)
“People would rather give to the homeless who sit on the floor than the Big Issue man.
"I'll tell you straight, I’ve felt like handing my jacket in and just sitting on the floor because half the time, I’ve seen how much they get and they make more than me."
But he doesn’t quit. He sticks to his pitch.
For one thing, the police will move on homeless people for begging.
They leave him alone, because he is an authorised vendor and this is his patch.
From the first-floor window of his favourite café, he points down to the shop fronts below.
"Local shops, local business, all love me."
This one gives him free sandwiches. This one gave him hand-warmers against the cold.
The third one, he concedes, is trickier.
“That’s a jewellers, so they can’t give me nothing.”
But the local businesses like him, he says — and his regulars customers too.
His favourite is a woman who works locally.
“Actually, she’s taking me for a meal tomorrow — every Friday, she takes me for a meal.
“We have a little chat, go back to work.”
But it didn't happen overnight. He had to work to gain people’s trust.
"I have 365 offences
and I've been
caught 22 times."
“I’ve had the good and the bad — and I’m still at it after six years.”
But he is aiming to move on.
“The plan is to keep looking for work… to hand in my CV to all the agencies, wait for them to phone me — and just keep doing that until a job comes up.”
He wants something in sales. In five years, he would like to be running his own business.
The problem is, the agencies won’t put him on their books.
The problem, they tell him, is his criminal record.
“I have 365 offences and I’ve been caught 22 times.”
A lot of this, he says, is from “when I was doing drugs, when I was hanging around with the wrong crowd”.
But he has had his relapses too.
The last time was about a year and half, two years ago: drunk and disorderly.
But in another 12 months, he reckons, his past offences will have been cleared from his record.
And in the meantime, selling the magazine helps keep him from relapsing.
“It keeps my mind occupied — because if I don’t do the Issue, my mind’s going to go back to the old ways and then I’m gonna think ‘Oh, there’s some money’— ‘Oh, I can have that away’...
“I’m still going to have problems, but The Big Issue is a helluva lot of help too.”
---
Advice from a London vendor in this extract from a Big Issue training video.
Writer Jonny Jacobsen helped launch the Scottish edition of The Big Issue in 1993.
Also in this series:
1 The Big Issue: a hand up from the streets For many, selling the magazine has been a first step towards regaining control of their lives
2 Michael's Story
3 Street Wise Councillor Sharon Thompson is well placed to speak for the homeless: as a teenager, she slept rough on the streets of Birmingham herself.
4 How you can help You want to help Birmingham's homeless? A few ideas…
