'They had nowhere to go': The story of rough sleepers left outside in London's Covid-19 lockdowns

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who was sleeping rough on the streets made it indoors when the Covid-19 pandemic struck five years ago.

More than 30,000 people who were rough sleeping or vulnerably housed back in 2020 were brought indoors through the Everyone In scheme but homelessness was far from solved.

What about the ones left behind? The film I’m Still Here stands as a vital chronicle of a year on London’s streets during the first year of the pandemic.

The film, directed by Franc Vissers and Elizabeth Healey, largely follows the work of Under One Sky, a frontline emergency project as they jumped into action when London deserted back in March 2020.

It shows volunteers tending to those who weren’t housed in hotels, offering food and drink and working to help people into accommodation.

The film also gives a voice to those left out on the streets in a deserted city – a perspective that may well have been lost to time in between all the memories of Downing Street briefings, Partygate furore and mangled celebrity covers of Imagine that Covid conjures up.

“There was this presumption that everyone was in a hotel,” Vissers told the Big Issue. “The people that were left out were sort of invisible and so I wanted to give them a voice. I wanted to give them an opportunity to speak up for themselves and to give us an idea of what was happening with them.

“There was just us and them, there was nobody else on the streets. There were just people who were homeless and those people who were trying to help.”

I’m Still Here captures the chaos of the early days of lockdown in all its gruelling glory.

It shows street outreach teams stepping into what escalated into a humanitarian crisis at times in London – a prospect unthinkable in one of the world’s premier cities. 

Vissers captured on camera the situation outside Trafalgar Square where rough sleepers were locked out of toilets and struggling to get access to drinking water.

“There was nowhere for them to go. It was really one of the reasons that spurred us on to keep filming. The whole injustice of everything that was happening to them. They were just forgotten,” said Vissers, who has volunteered at London homelessness charity’s Glass Door winter night shelters for much of the last decade.

Under One Sky volunteers became more frustrated throughout the film as the government stopped taking people indoors through the Everyone In scheme and hotel and hostel spots became harder to come by. The frontline group started fundraising to get people indoors themselves.

The action underlines that, while Everyone In was undoubtedly a remarkable achievement, it was a one-size-fits-all approach that didn’t work for everyone.

One of the people interviewed in the film, Lawrence ‘Dodger’ Bradshaw was only housed later in lockdown after a health scare. He had spent 18 years sleeping rough on the streets and eventually died in 2022 after a period of ill health.

He told filmmakers: “People arrive in London and think the streets are paved with gold. They’re not, they are paved with cold.”

But for others in the film there was a more positive outcome.

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Chris, who declined to give his surname, features throughout the film after he came to London following three months on the street in Essex.

He’d been doing odd jobs and hours where he could find them but was forced on to the street when work dried up as the pandemic loomed.

Chris spent the first two months of lockdown on the street until Under One Sky managed to find him a place in a hostel and then a spot at homelessness charity Emmaus’ St Albans community. The 67 year old is still there five years later, working in the charity’s second-hand furniture shop.

His path off the streets makes for one of the film’s most poignant moments. Chris teared up as he learned that he was going to move indoors and out of London, leaving behind others on the street as well as the workers who had supported him.

“I had my first shower and got my clothes cleaned for the first time in a few months,” Chris told the Big Issue. “It was good to be indoors but I couldn’t sleep. No matter how much I tried. I ended up in their TV room for a couple of nights and then when I went back into the room there was a bottom bunk empty and I nabbed it and slept for 24 hours.

He added: “That Sunday was emotional. It was the fact I was coming off the streets. I wasn’t sure what I was coming to but I settled in within about a week then started working in some of the shops, meeting and greeting then, from there, I started running some of the shops.

“I believe that I would probably be dead [without efforts to get him off the streets]. I don’t think I would have survived another winter on the streets.”

Vissers hoped that the film would be a “uniting force” to bring together the government and frontline charities to ensure the pandemic’s lasting legacy could be a virtual end to street homelessness.

That hasn’t quite panned out – homelessness has surged since the relative low of the pandemic and official rough sleeping figures in England showed a 20% rise in 2024, it was revealed last month.

In London alone, almost 12,000 people were counted as sleeping rough in 2023-24 – the highest number on record.

Various screenings of the film have been held around the UK with Chris sharing his story at some of them.

It stands as a reminder that, when Labour is drawing up its long-term plan to end homelessness this summer, no one can be left behind.

“I get quite emotional when I see the film, especially when I see what I used to look like,” Chris added. “I’m always grateful to Under One Sky, they kept my spirits up. I had things to do during the evening, taking food to people. Sometimes I used to sit down and chat to someone because they hadn’t spoken to anyone all day long.

“The film – I’ve seen it so many times now and there are always new bits I forget about. It’s something that I’m quite proud of. I wish more people would see it.”

To find more about I’m Still Here, including how to watch the film or donate to filmmakers, head to imstillhere.film.

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