Return to the Homeless Hotel
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 22 June 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A year after rough sleepers were given emergency accommodation during the first coronavirus lockdown, has the unprecedented operation had a lasting impact?
In March 2020, Simon’s life was transformed, from sleeping in shop doorways in Manchester to an en suite room at the Holiday Inn. He was one of thousands of homeless people across the country offered somewhere to stay as the Covid-19 pandemic reached the UK. The highs and lows of Simon’s experience were captured in Radio 4’s The Homeless Hotel as he dealt with the challenges of his addictions, illness, and the fear of ending up back on the streets.
In Return to the Homeless Hotel, reporter Simon Maybin asks where Simon is now. What’s happened to the hotel? And has the radical approach to accommodating people who are street homeless resulted in a radical reduction of rough sleepers - or a return to the status quo?
Reporter/producer: Simon Maybin
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hi there, you're listening to Seriously from BBC Radio 4 and I'm your host Vanessa Casule. |
| 0:46.5 | This podcast finds the world's best audio documentaries and puts them all in one place. |
| 0:52.4 | You've never heard anything quite like this. and puts them all in one place. |
| 0:52.5 | You've never heard anything quite like this. BBC Radio Manchester. |
| 1:04.0 | Manchester. |
| 1:05.0 | The government has written to local authorities in England asking them to house all rough |
| 1:10.6 | sleepers by the weekend as part of their efforts to control the sport of the |
| 1:15.0 | lives. |
| 1:16.0 | I don't ever been old child once before. |
| 1:18.0 | I'm calling here and I anyway fainted. |
| 1:21.0 | I thought I was walking to my dream. I thought wow. My eyes like up, it was just nice. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.