Capture Cardiff – Homelessness

The prospect of curling up for the night on a pavement somewhere in Cardiff’s City centre is not a pleasant one. But in this winter’s sub-zero temperatures the idea is rather hellish . Yet for the countless homeless people in Cardiff this is the reality they are faced with on a daily basis.  If there is one such glimmer of hope for those on the streets of Cardiff though, it is that Cardiff is considered a better place to be than most if you are in this predicament.

Godfrey Lewis, senior project worker at The Huggard Centre says, “The provision for the homeless in Cardiff is much better than most other cities in the UK. There is a very good service in Cardiff to cater for the homeless.” But in terms of numbers, it is a rather grey area he explains, “It’s impossible to put a figure on it. You would have to calculate all the hostels,both council and charity run and then all the clients who are sleeping on friend’s floors who are all classed as homeless as well. But in terms of those sleeping on the streets, the numbers are relatively low.”

The provision Godfrey talks about in Cardiff is multi-agency based, with charities, churches, the local authority and local businesses all working in partnership to provide a service for those without a home in Cardiff. Yet if there is to be an improvement in the situation, Godfrey believes the initiative needs to come from the Government,  “Where there are problems is with the DSS. Homeless clients have to rely on housing benefits, and to do this they have to be in receipt of some sort of benefit. What we find is that it becomes increasingly difficult for homeless people to claim. Any missed signing dates or change in circumstances, their benefits stop and they are back to square one.”

In accompanying Dennis Donovan and Jeff Rees of the Cardiff Council City Centre Street Team on their duties,  I chat with a Polish man named Marek , the problems with the system are all too evident. “No one will help me now in this situation, I have no address and I have no life and I cannot claim benefits,”said Marek . He arrived here three years ago, worked at a hotel, paid taxes and lived in a shared house. Yet he didn’t register his employment with the Home Office, so now, unemployed and without a fixed address he is unable to claim benefits.

Marek also tells me that if he raises £25 today he will sleep in The Blue Dragon Hotel tonight, a prospect I imagined unlikely but Dennis assures me I am wrong, “He’ll get that and probably more. I’ve seen people get over £100 on International rugby days, the problem is what they do with it – it’s nearly always used for drink and drugs. My advice is, if you are giving to the homeless, ask them what they want it for, if they say booze or drugs don’t give. If they say it’s for food, go and buy them something to eat, just be prepared for a mouthful of abuse when you return!”

The frightening thing according to Dennis, is that it can happen to literally anyone. “The drop into the pit is very fast. Yet the climb out of it takes a long time. We have had bank managers, academics, solicitors, all sorts of professionals become homeless. Be it a break down of  a relationship or any sort of problem and before you know it your career is down the pan and you are without a home.”

We visit the Winter Bus, which is run jointly by Cardiff Council and The Salvation Army and provides a warm haven of hot drinks, cakes and sandwiches for Cardiff’s homeless. Here, a recently homeless man tells me about his situation. John, 48, returned from Lanzarote to deal with a family crisis in December. The crisis averted he was left without a place to stay or any money to return abroad. Having lived and worked here for 42 years John assumed help would be forthcoming. But it hasn’t been, “Because I had been out of the country I have now been classed as ‘a person from abroad’,” he explained. “So now I have to go through an Habitual Residence Test, which takes a minimum of 12 weeks. I am unable to claim Jobseekers Allowance, I cannot get a crisis loan until they are satisfied I will not be leaving the country. They are asking me to prove a negative, which is just impossible.”

John, like most people this evening on the bus will hope to get some emergency floor space as part of the winter provision at Tresillian House [a homeless hostel that has 24 bedrooms and provides emergency floor space in the winter months] . The work done by the City Centre Team and the other agencies who work with the homeless in Cardiff is invaluable. Dennis and Jeff will be up the following morning at 5am – providing the homeless with bacon rolls and Oxo. They inform me it is much like a rugby scrum.

It is impossible to simply eradicate the problem of homelessness. There will always be somebody faced with a set of circumstances – self inflicted or otherwise – which will result in them becoming homeless. What is clear is that in Cardiff there is a dedicated team from various bodies intent on working with and helping the homeless in the best way that they can.

Emyr Price

 

 

 

 

 

Predictions 2009

Before we reach the end of 2008, here are some (not so) wild predictions for the year that will be 2009.

Sports :

Manchester United will again win the Premier League. Yawn.

England will win the Ashes against a knackered old dog of an Australian side. Wooo.

Cardiff City will be playing in the Premier League. Jumping the gun a bit here maybe.

Wales will win the 6 Nations. But not the Grand Slam.

The New York Mets will again choke in the final weeks of the regular MLB season, blowing a comfortable division lead in the process.

New York Giants will retain the Superbowl.

There willl be a European based, possibly London, NBA franchise announced before the year is out.

 

Music :

The Stone Roses will reform.

Blur’s London gigs will be hailed as the best thing ever, prompting a new album.

We will get to hear The Beatles’ ‘Carnival Of Light.’

Amy Winehouse will die.

The dream come true rumours of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Blur headlining Glastonbury won’t just be rumours.

Paul Weller will check into The Priory for alcohol abuse.

Liam Gallagher will miraculously find his voice again in time for Oasis’ Wembley shows.

Twitter instances

A reminder of the genius of Roy Keane (excuse the music)

 

 

Five minutes into a recent talk given by BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan – Jones, and aptly entitled ‘From typewriter to Twitter’, I was informed, very noisily, that Roy Keane had left as Sunderland manager. Noisily because Cellan - Jones had informed his Twitter stream that he was giving a talk in Cardiff University and had left the feed on the live presentation that he was giving. Alerts were encouraged and they were at full volume.

I have to confess that I am on Twitter, but I am not nearly as active on it as I should be as a trainee journalist. Yet I was informed instantly, courtesy of Twitter and Cellan - Jones’ feed, that Keane had left. It reminded me that the main benefits of Twitter only arrive once you have built a broad network, and in this sense the news about Keane made me want to be more active. I’m not a Sunderland fan by the way.

Cellan – Jones also talked about the recent atrocities in Mumbai in relation to Twitter. What he said was that essentially from a journalistic point of view Twitter is an excellent source of instant news. Yet often it’s not first hand instant news but second hand. Take his observations on Mumbai for example. From his contacts in Mumbai Cellan - Jones was informed on Twitter by someone on the spot who had heard the shooting. Yet  the second update, a minute or so later regarding the shootings was a tweet reading ‘News channels reporting shooting in Mumbai.’  This shouldn’t be deemed a criticism. Either way you look at it Twitter is a great source of instant news, it’s just not always a direct source.

Cellan - Jones described the modern day reporter as being  multi-skilled, interactive and poorly paid.  This final aspect was hammered home recently when the editor of Cardiff magazine Buzz – a listings and entertainment magazine that has been running for 16 years – described her salary as, “pretty appalling for what she does.” Without revealing her actual salary, the figures being talked about left little to the imagination – think junior office clerk.

But the multi skilled requirements of the modern journalist will hopefully be beneficial. As Cellan - Jones pointed out, ” It’s no use being quite good at a lot of things you still need a core skill.” The fear today that new journalists will become the jack of all trades and master of none is a rational one. However, the multi skilled requirements are providing the modern day journalist with a greater choice in what to specialise in. A specialism that’s required to utilise that ‘core skill’ Cellan – Jones is talking about. I for one, hope so.

 

Emyr Price

My Football – The need to be instant (and share)

Rick Waghorn’s efforts to change the way football reporting works through the website Myfootballwriter will hopefully pay off. The aim of the website is simple. In the modern era of rolling news, it aims to bring football news NOW, and the detailed comment and analysis later. Crucially, its focus is on teams in the Championship and below. Teams whose fans are starved of the type of instant media coverage given to the Premier League’s big guns.

Waghorn, in a recent talk suggested that it was the brand that will outlive the publication in relation to local football writing outside the Premier League. Fans are familiar with, and rely on the football hack at the local rag to provide them with their fix of news about their local club. But people today want, and are now accustomed to getting their news now, as it happens. Why then should fans of teams in the lower leagues wait until Monday afternoon or Sunday at best to read a match report that happened on Saturday afternoon? After all, the deadline for that report will have been say, at 6pm on a Saturday evening.

Financial constraints have meant that currently Myfootballwriter covers only Ipswich Town and Norwich City - who coincidentally lock horns in the East Anglian derby this weekend. But, it would surely have greater success if Myfootballwriter were to develop into a stop off point for the fans of the likes of Hartlepool United or Grimsby Town. Clubs who are largely without any national coverage.

Todays age of convergence requires new journalists to be able to communicate on many different platforms and not just by the traditional means. But with this comes the danger that in the near future the profession will be full of people who are competent at a few things but excellent at none. Yet a person who excels in one thing is surely more valuable than someone who excels in none. Waghorn offered the need for specialism.

The idea that local news websites could compliment each other in this sense is also a good one. Myfootballwriter would benefit from the addition of an informative, professional video clip, yet its specialism is in instant rolling football news. Local television news sites could provide this, and in exchange they would be provided with the kind of instant football news that Myfootballwriter does well. Yes, this would mean recycling video footage and news copy, but that is done frequently elsewhere. The benefit for both parties of improving their engagement for readers would outweigh the negative aspects.

Emyr Price

Note : Success has been forthcoming for Rick Waghorn this month, with Channel 4 announcing investment in a community conversation tool for football clubs entitled #FC, as part of a £60 million innovation fund.

Richey Edwards

One of Richey’s many genius moments as a lyricist.

What a shame that The Guardian published such a poorly written and researched obituary to the now officially dead Richey Edwards.

Telegraph Law

It’s christmas everyday for the community at My Telegraph

Source : Creative commons

Shane Richmond, the Communities Editor of the Daily Telegraph website came to Cardiff University last week to talk about a number of aspects of the new social media world. Prominent in the discussion was My Telegraph. This is the Daily Telegraph’s online service that allows readers to communicate and engage with each other through a community of blogs.

The service has been widely praised and last year it won an Ifra XMA Cross Media Award, with the judges describing it as being ‘the best deployment of blogging used in any newspaper anywhere in the world.’ Praise indeed. The service is open to anyone at all who wants to blog – free speech, respected opinions and the only restriction being that bloggers don’t do anything illegal.

This raised the issue of legality online in such instances. Shane Richmond said that the only way My Telegraph could work was to make sure that none of the content is read – instead of reading it all, some of it or reading it once it’s online.  How then, does The Telegraph ensure that there isn’t a whole host of illegal material making it onto My Telegraph?

Of course, personal blogs aren’t regulated or checked for legal issues before they go online either. If I wanted to write the names of those involved in the Baby P case right here then I could. But My Telegraph provides a platform for blogs on a completely different scale. Traffic and profile is huge in comparison and so there should be a duty for regulation.

Richmond also talked about the idea that laws such as Contempt Of Court will struggle to survive online. It is very difficult to keep things within the law with the expanding online media world, but surely it isn’t right that there should be no regulation or checks on blogs on such a platform as My Telegraph?

This isn’t to say that I don’t see the worth of My Telegraph - just that I think that it has a greater responsibility than the average personal blog, just like this one, to ensure that laws aren’t compromised. It surely wouldn’t mean compromising the positive aspects of blogging or the community that makes My Telegraph a success.

The growth of Google

Building bricks - the rise of Google. Flickr.

In Jeff Jarvis’ Guardian column this week he talked about how Google has not so much defied the economy in recent times but instead defined it. This assertion is based on, amongst other things, the fact that last month Google announced another quarter of growth with profits up by 26%.  Whilst businesses elsewhere continue to struggle, Google continues to flourish.

Why is this? Jarvis says it’s because, “Google is built for the new world order. Its first advantage is that it is digital.”  It doesn’t he says, “Grow by borrowing capital to buy companies. Instead it has created a network for an abundance of new companies and advertisers to be independent of it (Google).”

Anthony Mayfield gave a talk last week, part of which involved him explaining how Google actually works. Given his insights it is not surprising at all that it continues to grow, but also a good thing that it does. Unlike other search engines, like Yahoo, Google puts its users first. Its natural results take preference over it’s sponsored links ensuring the user is always looked after. A company may pay to top the sponsored links, but if subsequent traffic shows that it is not a particularly user friendly search result, it will be replaced by one that is shown to be more user friendly – regardless of how much that company has paid.

So Google’s continued growth defines the economy. Applied to the new social media age this must be a good thing. The more that businesses and advertisers learn about the power of linking, of  User Generated Content (UGC) and the blog, the more they will try to gain from it by abusing it. Google’s nature in the way it works will reduce their ability to do this. Promoting genuine results,be it UGC, media blogs or other news, Google users will find the things that are most relevant to them in the increasingly cluttered online world.

In essence, Google makes it easier for people to access journalism of worth – important news, and increasingly this is from UGC. Crucially it will be the kind of content that represents the positives in the new world of convergence.

This week’s  job cuts and decidely less glamorous relocation at The Independent, which will result in nearly a fifth of the workforce being slashed, have been blamed on a lack of advertising. With the exception of the rise in reverse publishing in some places, the traditional newspaper industry is undoubtedly under serious threat. As more and more advertising is prevalent online, so Google continues to look after its users. Steering them away from content generated by advertising and towards the huge amount of worthwhile content that has arisen in this new age of convergence. I can think of worse things that could be defining the economy.

Emyr Price