A homeless man has revealed how he is living inside a tiny clothes bin and bedding down for the night in the ‘comfiest bed I’ve ever slept in’.
The former heroin addict, known only as Nigel, discovered the unlocked container near a church car park in the Erdington area of Birmingham five weeks ago.
The 52-year-old, who is originally from London, now sleeps each night in the charity bin before heading out onto the streets to beg.
Footage shows how Nigel has set up a mini home for himself with bedding and duvets – and it even has his own ‘library’ with a selection of books and a ‘beer shelf’.
Nigel said he found himself on the streets of Birmingham after being put up in a multiple occupancy house with drug addicts in Northampton.
While giving a tour of his new home, Nigel, who said he left his shared house in a bid to stay clean, said that no one has thrown clothes in the bin while he’s been inside – but if they did, he would say ‘thank you’.
Homeless man Nigel has been living in a clothes bank in the Erdington area of Birmingham
Nigel discovered the unlocked clothes bin around five weeks ago where he now sleeps each night
In an interview with the Birmz is Grime blog, Nigel says he’s hoping to find a permanent place to stay in Coventry but is happy in Erdington in the meantime.
And despite living as a rough-sleeper on and off most of his life, he also told of his ambition of setting up his own homelessness charity.
Nigel said: ‘I’ve been living in the clothes bin for four or five weeks. I realised it was open. It’s warm inside and its waterproof.
‘It’s more comfortable than any bed I’ve ever had. There’s my library, there’s my beer shelf.
‘Nobody has put clothes in while I’ve been inside. If they did, I think I’d say ‘thank you’ and they will be like ‘hang on, the bin’s talking to me’.
‘I’m totally off the heroin but a few beers help me sleep at night.
Nigel says he’s hoping to find a permanent place to stay in Coventry but is happy in Erdington in the meantime
Nigel has decorated the inside of the clothing bank by installing shelves to place his books on
‘I’m waiting on Coventry Council to rehome a bloke and then I might get a place somewhere hopefully.
‘I’ll have a little drink here – but I’ve been clean of drugs since Christmas Eve. Before that is was crack and heroin. It made me feel numb.
‘But I love it here, I love Erdington, I have always loved Erdington. The people are nice. I’ll probably get about £10 a day but that’s enough.
‘If someone else comes up and says I’ve been begging here two or three years, I’ll just say give me 20 minutes and I’ll move. I’ve not had no real problems.’
Nigel said he started boozing again around eight weeks ago after he was put in a HMO in Northampton.
He said: ‘They were taking drugs and drinking so I walked out of there. So I’ve been between here and Northampton since.
‘I grew up in London and my family moved to Surrey when I was 12. I left home at 16 because my dad kept beating me up.
‘I lost my girlfriend and got jobs as a mechanic and plastering and I didn’t start doing class A’s until I was 31 and it all went downhill.
The heartbreaking footage lays bare Britain’s homelessness crisis. Pictured: Nigel outside the clothing bin
This is the inside of the clothing bank where Nigel is staying. He says no one has dropped clothes on him
Along with the ‘library’, Nigel also has a shelf to put drinks on
‘Most of my mates are dead now from drink and drugs. The youngest one was 31. The others were in their 50s and 60s.
‘I’m trying to get into a home in Coventry and then I want to set up a charity to help the homeless and needy. I have three trustees already in line.
‘I want to help drug addicts, alcoholics and the homeless. I first wanted to do it 30 years ago when I was homeless and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
‘But thinking about something and doing something is two different things though.’
The footage of Nigel talking about his plight has been viewed more than 600,000 times in just 24 hours.
One person commented: ‘What a lovely man. I can’t take it in just how he has to live. Love and light to him. I hope he finds a safe permanent place to live’
Another added: ‘Let’s hope a padlock don’t get put on it whilst he’s in there. God bless him and help him.’
A third put: ‘Illegal immigrants being put up in hotels and this poor bloke has to live in a bin. This country.’
On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said she would create a ‘cross-government taskforce will put Britain back on track to ending homelessness’.
She told the Labour party conference: ‘Whether you’re a leaseholder, a tenant, a home-buyer or without somewhere to live – this Government is on your side.’
And Prince William is currently working a programme called Homewards, which aims to develop a blueprint for eradicating homelessness in all its forms.
In London, councils warned this month that homelessness and the housing crisis are having a ‘devastating impact’ on Londoners and ‘wreaking havoc’ on boroughs’ finances.
‘Skyrocketing’ numbers of homeless people requiring temporary accommodation and the growing strain on social housing budgets means several local authorities in London are edging closer to effective bankruptcy, it is claimed.
In its submission to the Treasury ahead of the Budget on October 30, London Councils, the cross-party body which represents all 33 councils in the capital, said housing and homelessness pose the ‘fastest growing risk’ to the financial sustainability of its member authorities.
London Councils estimates more than 175,000 individuals are now living in temporary accommodation arranged by their local council, equivalent to one in 50 residents in the city.
This means on average there is at least one homeless child in every London classroom, with London accounting for 56 per cent of England’s total number of homeless households in temporary accommodation.
London Councils’ latest survey of members showed the number of homeless households living in temporary accommodation rose by 10 per cent to 60,959 between April 2023 and April 2024.
It comes after official figures showed last month that there was a record high of more than 150,000 children living in temporary accommodation in England.
A total of 117,450 households were in this situation at the end of March, some 74,530 of which were households with children.
Both are also record highs, according to data published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
There were 151,630 children living in temporary accommodation, an increase of 15 per cent compared with the end of March last year and the highest figure since this measure began in 2004.
Temporary accommodation is a form of homelessness and can include people living in hostels or bed and breakfasts (B&Bs).
The figure for total households in temporary accommodation has risen each quarter for the past two years, and is up by 24 per cent on 95,000 in early 2022.
The figure for households in B&Bs – 17,750 – as of the end of March is 30 per cent higher than the same time last year, while the 5,550 households with children living in B&Bs was up by almost half (44.2 per cent).
By law, B&Bs are meant to be used only for families in an emergency, and for no longer than six weeks, but the figures showed 3,250 households with children had been there for longer than that.
This figure was a rise of 79.6 per cent from 1,810 at the end of March 2023.
Meanwhile, separate figures from the Ministry of Justice, also published last month, showed bailiff repossessions as a result of a Section 21 no-fault eviction reached the highest level for six years.
Landlords can apply for an accelerated possession order if the tenants have not left by the date specified in a Section 21 notice.
There were 2,916 such repossessions between April and June this year, an increase of 31 per cent on the same period last year and the highest quarterly figure since the beginning of 2018.
The MHCLG figures showed that 6,630 households were assessed by councils as being threatened with homelessness between January and March 2024 due to Section 21 notices to end their tenancies, a rise of 1.2 per cent from the same quarter last year.
