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Ryan McPhee: Before I started the Ark I used to live and sleep here in a cardboard box. I eventually got a tent and had a mate stay here with a tent. We got a storage tent, a table off the university, another tent, and some water drums. I bought a generator, a battery, someone donated a couch, I bought a tarpaulin from Poundland, got nails off builders. Even the students and staff were helping me out with things—marker pens, drawing pins, anything they could do to help.
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If you're homeless and need help, come in, and we'll have a talk about it. We're not going to put you up here if you're just going to take the piss and take-take-take. We want to know that you're going to your appointments, trying to get help, and looking to get off the street. If you come here with an "I'm on the street now, let's crack on with it" attitude, I'm not going to help you.
How have people who've been here progressed?READ ON VICE NEWS: New York Cops Are Now Shaming Homeless People on Social Media
There's a guy here, Marcin, who you can see playing the bongos around Manchester. He's been failed by the system and hasn't received any help, so I've put him up here and made sure he's got what he needed. Now he's been able to go into town, leave his suitcase here, and play his bongos down the road. He met a woman who let him borrow a work van, so now he can start to do some work and, when he can pay her back, he'll have the van. He was homeless, sleeping here a few days ago, and now he's not.In its opposition to the Ark, the city council alleges "vandalism, public urination, fighting, burning of bonfires, and the intimidation of members of the public." How do you respond to these claims?
This incinerator bin was only brought here a week ago; it's clearly not a bonfire. Public urination? We have two Portaloos. I do so much cleaning with bleach and antibacterial spray—where's the cleanliness issue? If you look around you won't see any alcohol containers. That's a rule I enforce, making sure people aren't drinking openly. I don't mind people drinking—everyone has their vices and that—but you have to work with people instead of telling them what they can and can't do. We don't let people drink freely here, but when it gets to the evening, we don't mind you having a drink—it's a part of everyday life.
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If they had any concern, they'd stop here daily, because they know this bridge is a shelter for homeless people—it has been for years. Really, the Ark being here is a good thing. What it needs is to be properly managed, with the proper authorities to come and ask, "What new people do you have in today? What assistance do they need? Where do they need to go?"When you became homeless, what was your experience in trying to get help?
I went through the system of going to the council and registering as homeless, and they gave me help and assistance. But the system's set up so you're going round in circles and keep failing. Basically, they put you on benefits, so you get, say, £60 [$92] a week to live on. Twenty-five pounds [$38] goes to your local hostel, so you have £35 [$54] to pay your bills, eat, and live on. Then they give you appointments to go to medical assessments in places like Liverpool, so you have to spend the week's money on traveling over there.
The assessment services need to change drastically. The hostels that people stay in need to clean their act up. Absolute shitholes. You know silverfish [A small insect]? You can have a thousand of them under your feet, you turn the light on, and it's just "Urgh!" No washing machines or dryers, but you've just come off the street and you need that stuff. They just stick you in a building.You've repeatedly described the Ark as not a protest, but isn't there a political aspect to it for you?
It's made me more… aware. To me, this is personal. I'm not a political person; that's for people in suits and ties to fight over. I used to judge people. My opinions used to be a lot different. But from just talking to everyday people, people giving me the time of day, asking questions or being curious, it's changed for me.If the land possession order is carried out, would you start all over again?
If we're not here, we're going to be cold and wet… I built this… to see it get destroyed—you're crazy.Follow Fin on Twitter.