Ross Kemp presents Living With … , a brand new four-part series on ITV in which he travels the country to meet people living with some of the biggest issues affecting Britain today.
Ross immerses himself in situations to gain a first-hand taste of the difficulties they face and highlight what is really going on, often unnoticed, under the nose of mainstream society.
The series starts on Thursday (25th July) with Ross Kemp Living With Homelessness. In this episode, Ross sleeps out on the coldest night of the year with some of Cardiff’s rough sleepers, he meets people from families torn apart by homelessness and uncovers shocking truths about the government’s understanding of the size of the rough sleeper population.
Ross says: “No one knows exactly how many rough sleepers there are, but both the government and charities agree that rough sleeping has at least doubled in the past few years.”
Ross meets a number of rough sleepers in Cardiff and finds out what drove them to their current situation and what help is available to them. He also tries first hand to experience what they go through on a daily basis and spends a nights in a freezing tent and on the street to find out for himself.
He says: “It’s interesting how many people pass and don’t catch your eye. They look at you quickly and then look away. And I guess that’s what I do, just look away. Straight past. Why would you want to stop, why would you want to engage? The only person that did acknowledge me was a drug dealer.”
Ross also finds out the truth about the government’s rough sleeper numbers. In South Derbyshire, where the Minister for Homelessness Heather Wheeler is the local MP, Ross learns that official figures showed a count of “zero” in her constituency. However, Ross meets a man who has been living on the streets there for over 30 years.
Ross also spends a night in a homeless shelter in Cardiff. He says: “Spending the night at the shelter made me realise how this environment could be frightening and unsettling, and actually deter some of the very homeless people it was supposed to be sheltering.
“It’s really hard to sleep here. I think possibly that even though it was very cold I probably found it easier to sleep in a tent than I will do tonight.
Finally Ross says: “It’s said that we’re all just a few misfortunes away from ending up on the streets. And every rough sleeper that I’ve met has been vulnerable in some way. Despite their good intentions, we can’t expect our night shelters and hostels to be mental health wards and rehabilitation centres.”
“Leading charities have told us we need to understand just how many people are actually living rough to solve this problem, which is rapidly becoming a national crisis.”
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