INSIGHT: Homeless beggar Michael Herrington, 35, tells reporter SHELLEY WRIGHT about life on the streets of Blackburn

BEGGAR Michael Herrington has a bone to pick with the people who criticise him for making money the only way he knows how.

Michael, who has been homeless for five years, is a familiar face in Blackburn town centre where he regularly sits begging for enough cash to live while, at the same time, deflecting a barrage of insults and abuse from passers-by.

He says: "I sit there very subdued most of the time and let people say what they want because it's a free country with free speech and I don't think the street is the place to have a debate. But I sometimes wish people would take their anger out on someone else.

"They walk through the subway on their way back from the newsagents or the shop and take their temper out on me.

"More often than not I try to smile, whether I feel like it or not, but you get it day in day out and it is hard."

In his time on the streets Michael says he has been beaten up and robbed as well as being subjected to daily abuse.

His experiences prompted him to write to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph recently - a letter which earned him £10 for Letter of the Week.

He said: "I wrote the letter because it gets me very angry when I hear people talking about beggars, especially when they say we are aggressive and things like that.

"I have never been aggressive. I do this because it is the only way I have to get money and once I have enough to survive until the next day I leave." On a typical day, Michael said he gets up at 9am or 10am and heads into town to beg.

Once he has £10 or £20 he goes home because he believes it is too dangerous to be out on the streets at night.

He said: "There are plenty of spots to beg in Blackburn but some are better than others and so people do fight over them.

"The other day I was attacked because someone wanted to sit where I was but I'm not going to argue over a pitch. I just don't need the aggravation.

"I get enough money to buy a newspaper, some candles and food and drink and then I leave. I don't beg at night because it's not safe."

Like many homeless people Michael claims he never planned to wind up living on the streets but says he found himself with no alternative after "a run of bad luck."

After leaving school he lived with his mother in Longridge in the Ribble Valley and found work as an apprentice diesel fitter but left the town when he lost his job and went travelling around Britain busking.

On his return he set up home in a terrace house in Blackburn but was devastated when a fire there destroyed everything he owned. For a couple of months after the fire, he stayed with family and friends but said he eventually ran out of floors and is now living in a derelict terrace in Blackburn.

"I was devastated after the fire," he said. "Everything I had was in the house. Now I just survive.

"I live in a house which is boarded up so I have to see by candlelight and it's like something out of the 17th century.

"The ceilings are falling down and there are rats but it's somewhere to stay, until it is sold.

"All I want is some secure accommodation - that's all I dream and hope for.

"Once I have that I can start building my life again and hopefully become an asset to society.

"At the moment I don't qualify as a citizen, I have no powers or rights and so cannot have an opinion on how other people should be.

"But they should remember - begging is an alternative to stealing. A beggar could not steal any more than a thief could beg."

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