Homeless City Tours

[landpirate]

So in Bath, UK they have set up a social enterprise where homeless people give guided tours of the city. I've heard about it happening in London too. Perhaps a way to make some cash?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/d...less-city-tours-A-primer-with-extra-guts.html

Bath homeless city tours: "A primer, with extra guts"

A new tour of Bath started last week, led by people who have been homeless. Sarah Baxter went along for an alternative perspective of the Georgian city.

Alex Kirzsan delivered the tour of Bath with brio Photo: Sarah Baxter

​

By Sarah Baxter​

8:31AM BST 18 Apr 2013​

​

1 Comment

"Sod the tour, this is an unofficial stop. I’d like to show you something.” Alex halted by Bath’s last chunk of medieval city wall; his dog, Harley, rested on my toes.​

“Look up – can you see the relief?” He ignored the ancient rampart, gesturing to the pediment of the building opposite. “It’s the Good Samaritan. A guy helping a poor guy who’s been hard done by, regardless of faith, creed, colour. That sums up the spirit of being homeless. This story is right in the centre of Bath, but it’s up there – no one sees it.”​

Until now. Secret City Tours is a new social enterprise aiming to reveal a different side to Bath. It was set up by Luke Tregidgo, of the University of Bath Enterprise Unit, who was inspired after experiencing Unseen London, a similar project in the capital. Secret City Tours, which hopes to provide meaningful employment for the homeless, offers strolls around Bath’s Georgian niceties – Assembly Rooms, Circus, Royal Crescent – with someone who’s lived on these very streets.​

​

Alex is a natural performer​

Alex Kirzsan was homeless in Bath for three years. He now lives in a hostel run by charity Julian House, and is Secret City Tours’ head guide. He has no guiding credentials (“though selling Big Issues helps my public speaking”) and is no historian. However, Alex is a natural performer. I joined what was only his second tour and, while a few facts may have been forgotten, it was delivered with brio.​

​

“I’m not that bad am I?” he ad-libbed as a screeching child pierced his opening Abbey spiel. “No surprise: in 1793, where that kid is screaming, many were screaming. There was a banking crisis, not unlike today...” So began our two-hour loop – a fine Bath primer, with extra guts.​

Aptly, the city’s class-divided nature was a recurring theme. From the fancy Abbey, we headed for the old artisan quarter of Walcot, once a rough neighbourhood outside the medieval walls. En route, Alex shepherded us across roads, mindful of his new responsibility – though, as we passed a parking meter, he instinctively checked the slot for change.​

Via tales of Haile Selassie and Jane Austen’s parents, we arrived at Walcot’s Paragon, an elegant sweep of listed Georgian houses. As Alex explained that the area was once an open sewer, Harley demonstrated all too literally... Unfazed, Alex declared his tours interactive and scooped up his dog’s doings.​

“Very well-off people used to live here,” he continued. “Now there are three hostels, and some social housing. Who knows how long that’ll last before the government moves them out, but hey, let’s not get political.”​

Occasionally he couldn’t help it, though. There were asides on class and anti-social behaviour laws – mostly related to alcohol. Bath, he declared, has always been a boozy city. As we approached the Royal Crescent, Harley bounded ahead. “He knows the way,” Alex grinned, “I used to drink near here.”​

Alex’s perspective is alternative. For him the Crescent is “Bath’s most boring place”; his own highlight is the ‘Great Grate’, a hot-air vent opposite the Theatre Royal. “In winter, when your fingers are like ice and it’s hard to busk, it’s beautiful.”​

​

The Crescent: “Bath’s most boring place”​

With Julian House predicting that the level of homelessness in Bath will rise 20 per cent in the next few years, the grate could get more crowded. Secret City Tours hopes to help; its aim is that, in six months, there will be daily tours and, ultimately, the homeless will run the whole enterprise.​

Alex is certainly eager to see what opportunities might spring from this new career. But while he’s future-focused, some things never change: “When I look at a city, I still look with homeless eyes. You see things in a completely different way.”​

More information​

For more information and to book, go to secretcitytours.co.uk. Tours cost £7/5 adult/concession. Maximum tour size 15 people.​

 

[rideitlikeyoustoleit]

That is such a good idea!

 

[keg]

in hawaii we have these people that are not even from hawaii that wear yellow shirts and tell tourist how to get places.but i have yet to see one who knew anything.when i am flying a sign i help and the tourist most of the time kick down to me.i know every inch of this island and like to help the tourists because they must be let down when they come here cause hawaii is just citys with lots of green.if they did not come there would be know one to get leftovers from.i never ask locals cause we all poor.