I live in North London and work in the city centre. There are homeless people everywhere, although obviously more in the centre. I would say that in any given week day, I will encounter (and buy that I mean walk within a metre of a homeless person) at least once, probably more. There are shelters and organistaions dedicated to helping them, and we have something here called the big issue, which is a magazine that homeless people can buy and then sell on at a profit, and I think that helps because it allows them to work their way out of homelessness with dignity, but of course there are still your standard beggars in piss-stained trousers and it’s really quite awful to see, especially now that winter is setting in, but what can you do? I often give spare change and often a few minutes of my time for a chat, but I’m not superman, I can’t make it better. London has a big homeless problem, but the worst place I have ever been is San Francisco (and I have travelled all over Europe, and some surrounding nations such as Turkey and the Czech republic. There is nowhere worse in my experience than San Fran.