‘Something to be proud of’: UK graphic novel highlights homeless

Passersby ignore a beggar, homophobic insults crowd a wall, a lady burns a notice penned to a “victim” – not the standard stuff of comics however all vignettes from a brand new graphic novel by homeless people who goals to kill the stigma surrounding road life.

The Book of Homelessness, launched this week by a youth homelessness charity, compiles drawings, texts and poems by folks dwelling in shelters, hostels and short-term lodging.

“You don’t often hear about who homeless people are and why they’re out there, you think it’s just their fault,” stated Mitchell Ceney, who was homeless for about three years and now has a short-term residence in West London.

“Getting it down on paper is a way of turning my negative past into something positive for the future,” stated the 36-year-old, who drew a person fleeing a grocery store, a flashback to his personal shoplifting days.

With protections ending for hard-pressed renters and the newly jobless rising within the pandemic, about 230,000 persons are vulnerable to turning into homeless, in line with the charity Shelter.

Health consultants say the homeless are in better hazard from Covid-19 as a result of a weakened immune system attributable to poor meals and lack of sleep, together with over-crowding and unhealthy sanitation.

“People are much closer to the edge than they were before the pandemic,” stated Marice Cumber, founding father of Accumulate, the homeless charity behind the graphic novel.

“It really could be anyone,” she instructed the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The authorities has pledged 15 million kilos to a handful of areas with the very best variety of tough sleepers, together with London, Bristol and Cornwall, to assist get them via to March.

Cumber is not any stranger to mixing artwork with motion – previous initiatives embrace a radio station run by homeless folks – and she or he inspired the 18 contributors to “tell their own stories that don’t have to be about why they’re homeless”.

Profits can be shared by the authors and Accumulate, stated Cumber, whose charity funds scholarships for inventive programs.

For Ceney, who was once a chef and hopes to earn an illustration diploma subsequent yr – the e-book is only a begin.

“It’s given me something to be proud of,” he stated. “And maybe my experience can help someone else.”

(This story has been revealed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content.)

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