Scott Mahoney was exactly like thousands of other young men - going to a decent job every day and living in a flat with his girlfriend and baby son. But he was thrown into turmoil as his life disintegrated around him. Scott tells Jan Winter about life on the streets.

SOME NIGHTS he managed to doss down at friends' houses, on others he went to squats or slept on the streets, at the mercy of passing drunks.

It was all very different from the life Scott was used to, where he had enough money and a stable home life.

An only child, he grew up in Leeds living with his mum after his dad left home. Scott went to school reliably, gaining several GCSEs, including English Language and English Literature.

"I was quite surprised at the grades I got for English because although I liked it, I wasn't that keen. I enjoyed subjects where I worked with my hands. I liked things like woodwork - that's still what I want to get into with a job," he said.

And since he started selling The Big Issue magazine, in Bradford city centre, Scott - now 24 - is optimistic that he will find permanent accommodation and get another job.

His life seemed on track after he left school and started a college course but he didn't enjoy it and began work in the warehouse at an electronics firm in Leeds. He was there for three or four years, receiving an annual shares bonus which could be as much as £1,000 and enjoying the life which comes with regular work.

When he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby, Scott started to borrow money to buy nursery equipment - and found it frighteningly easy to get instant loans.

But then he started to dabble in Drugs. A lot of young people fall into the same trap, he says, and it cost him his job - starting a domino effect which left him homeless.

"I got unreliable at time-keeping and got the sack from my job. When I lost the job I couldn't get another one because I couldn't get a decent reference because I was sacked for misconduct. So I wasn't paying my loans. Everything crashed around me," he says.

His girlfriend left him - and he lost contact with his son, which was partly what Scott wanted because he knew he wasn't a good role model for the boy at the time.

He moved in with his mother, who has always been supportive, but the debts caught up with him.

"Eventually they said I needed to pay this amount and said if I didn't pay this loan they would come to my mum's address and start removing furniture. The debt was up to £5,000 by this time.

"I love my mum to bits and I wasn't going to put her through that. So I left, with nowhere to go. It was very grim. Some nights I would be lucky and would manage to doss down at a friend's house."

Scott's three months on the streets were tough. "Some nights on the streets I would have people starting on me, drunks coming up to me. I'm not a fighting sort of person. If I'm in a fighting situation I would walk away."

A place in a hostel made all the difference - Scott has now been there for almost a year and selling The Big Issue almost as long. He has his own room, there is a canteen and there are shared bathrooms and laundry facilities.

"One of the lads in the hostel was selling The Big Issue and I went and said I would like to do it. I got my health sorted out so I didn't use drugs again and now it's a matter of staying clean, which I'm doing. Drugs were the hardest part of my life," Scott says.

Scott sees selling The Big Issue as a real job and is angry when passers-by tell him to get some work. "What I'm doing is no different from what the T&A sellers do, or the burger bars do, buying something and selling it on at a profit. Some people see us as trying to make an effort and others see us as scroungers, which we aren't."

Scott now sells the magazine in the city centre from about 10am until 5pm six days a week, travelling from his Leeds hostel by bus. He visits his mum every Sunday

"We homeless people are normal people who slipped into unfortunate circumstances. All right, it might be our fault sometimes, it might not be, but we are in that circumstance and we need help to get out of it. It gives me a lot of work. It gives a bit of structure to my life so I'm not just sitting around every day. There's something to get up for and you're meeting people."

He tries to dress practically - and needs sturdy footwear for the long hours of standing on the street in all weather. "A homeless person doesn't have to have a long beard and wear a coat with a piece of rope round it! I don't mind the cold, it's the rain. You get soaked and it's hard to get things dry," he says.

Making a living is the big issue

The Big Issue was set up in London by John Bird in 1991.

The Big Issue in the North, an independent company, allows homeless people to earn a legitimate living, by selling the magazine. Homeless people are badged up to sell the magazine, buying copies for 40 pence each and selling them on to the public at £1 each.

The aim is to produce a high-quality magazine which vendors are happy to sell and which the public wants to buy.

Vendors agree to stick to a code of conduct and are supported on the streets by distribution managers and sales support workers.

The Big Issue in the North is funded purely by sales of the magazine and advertising revenue. Profits are reinvested in the company and gifted to The Big Step, its registered charity, which was set up in 1996.

The Big Issue in the North started in December 1992 in a temporary building in Manchester.

An office in Liverpool opened in 1994 and one in Leeds in October 1995.

Now, 52,000 copies of the magazine are sold every week in 60 towns and cities in the region.

In the last 11 months, caseworkers at the magazine have seen 416 vendors and dealt with almost a thousand enquiries. The Manchester office now offers a wide range of help to magazine sellers, including part-time health care from a GP.Selling the magazine is not an end in itself but is seen as a means to an end.

The aim is for the vendor to develop the skills and confidence to move away from the Big Issue and into other employment.

Fundraising enquiries should be directed to Sarah Hockey or John Wallace at The Big Step on 0161 834 6300

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.