It's not nice, asking the public for money.
Young people of Manchester have had enough.
We're not getting any fucking help.
I'm a land pirate and I stole your building.
If you want it back, take me to court and get it back.
Cover your face! No-one's happy around here.
You look out of your window right now in Wythenshawe,
you see a nine-year-old kid throw a brick through your car window,
what do you do about it?
Phone the police? Police won't come out.
Would you go out and try and grab hold of him?
If you touch him, that's assault on a minor,
the police will definitely come out for that.
Would you go and see his parents?
There might be drug or alcohol problems.
If you go outside again there might be a gang of them.
They might come back the night after do your car in, do your house in.
What would you do? Nothing. You do nothing about it.
What makes that social scenario worse,
worse than the fact that you would do nothing about it?
The fact that the kid knows there's nothing you can do about it.
Hey, welcome to Wythenshawe.
POLICE SIREN WAILS
Greg lives on Wythenshawe's Benchill Estate,
a place made famous when David Cameron was accosted
by a lad waving gun signs.
Wythenshawe is a very large geographical place.
Very defined gangs, you know, you'll see the tags.
If we could unite the estates, if we could do that, why don't we?
So we did.
So what do you call it?
United Estates of Wythenshawe.
Greg used to run the doors around Manchester,
a pretty rough profession,
but for nearly 20 years he's run his own gym
helping get local kids off the street.
Why a gym? Because gyms speak a common language, don't they?
You've got swathes of kids that won't be seen dead in a youth club
and the cool kids stay away,
so if they stay away, it's not a cool place.
I remember coming with my dad,
and just bit by bit I used to start training myself as I got older.
Greg's gym has helped take local lad Jimmy from scrawny youth
to Commonwealth boxing champion.
Trained there for like a lot of me big fights.
It toughens you up,
cos in winter it's bitter in here, you get what I mean?
You grab an old cold bar, it puts hairs on your chest, doesn't it?
Do you want to jump in with me or..?
I'll jump in with you, if that's all right. Jump in with me.
Jump in with me for the day.
Right, I'm off mate. Right I'll see you in a bit. See in a bit.
See you later.
After starting training at Greg's gym,
Jimmy quickly rose through the amateur boxing ranks
before turning pro and getting a shot at the world title,
aged just 23.
'Bravery is keeping him upright!
'Down he goes.
'And then the white towel is coming in.
'They know that should've been a knock down.
'He holds the white towel out and the fight is all over.
'Kelly sportingly congratulates Liam Smith.'
In the 14 months since his defeat, Jimmy's had surgery on an elbow,
and fought a handful of low-key fights
as he tries to rebuild his career.
With the money from his world title fight, he's bought a house,
got married and had a kid.
Don't know your boys name yet. Oh, Jimmy. Jimmy Junior.
Jimmy, of course. Real men call their kids after themselves.
I'm Jimmy, my son's Jimmy, my dad's Jimmy,
my son's son will be Jimmy because I'll get him in a headlock if not.
My grandad's Pascal, but his brother is called Jimmy
and my grandad's grandad is Jimmy.
So yeah, there's a fair few of us.
Let me find this little monster and I'll bring him down.
Jan? Yeah? Are you changed? Hang on, just changing him.
Has he sharted?
Do you want to see the biggest head on a baby you'll ever see?
This is pure Irish and good breast milk for you.
This is what you get.
Who's that?
Tonight, Jimmy's fighting to get back on the bill
at the 21,000 capacity Manchester Arena.
Good boy, aren't you?
You're due a sleep, though, aren't you? You're getting a bit naughty.
They were too small for him when he was first born
so he can wear them now, can't he?
Yeah, pop them on over his little babygrow. Yeah.
It's a chance to get his career back on track and secure a major payday.
All right, babes. See you later. OK! See you later.
For him and his young family.
Have you got folks at home? Do you live with your parents?
What do they say about what you're up to?
What does your dad say?
We've only inherited it from them. What do you mean?
How you doing? All right, man. Mind if I join you? No, no.
How's the grafting going today?
Shit. Why's that?
Not made anything really.
Spare change please.
Excuse me, sir, do you have 39p?
Yo, bro! Don't do that here, mate.
I'll give it to you, come here, and I'll give it to you.
Just take it in copper, bro.
So sorry. Sweet, bro.
He's a fucking knobhead.
Seen him around? Yeah, I've seen him around and that, yeah.
Just seems a bit weird that you're having to give him 39p.
Just to fuck him off cos otherwise he's going to fuck me up.
He's asking people, I could be getting that, know what I mean?
With such slim pickings, Jordan can't afford a hostel for the night.
Where have you been staying?
I'm staying in the squat, the Corner House.
The owners of the Cornerhouse Cinema
have won a High Court ruling
allowing them to evict everyone in the building.
In a couple of days, the squatters will be forced out,
whether they have somewhere to go or not.
I'll glue myself to the windows, I'll chain myself to the door,
I'll put a D-lock round my neck and round the inspector's neck,
and then put a chain around the bloody padlock on the building
and say, "Right, lock on, you're not throwing any of us out today.".
In an effort to reduce the nation's welfare bill,
benefits across the country have been cut.
Mikey thinks it's disproportionately affecting the poor
so he's running a voluntary drop-in for locals
who are struggling to make ends meet.
A lot of people are being kicked off the benefits unfairly,
so they are looking for a reason to sanction you,
they're looking for a reason to take the only money that you have
to pay for your accommodation, to pay for your food, your water,
gas and electricity, and to pay for your life.
And they're looking for an excuse to kick you off it.
People just give up and end up on the street, end up doing drugs,
end up with mental health problems.
You can't really come back from something like that.
What type of things have led you to be in this situation?
Like just...bullshit after bullshit really.
I was living with my mum and it was hard, you know,
to keep up with rent payments and stuff like that,
and she was drinking a lot so she went into a dry house, you know,
to try and get off the drink.
So I went to the hostel cos she was moving house.
There was issues in your hostel then?
Yeah. You'd been there for six, seven months?
Close to nine months.
And not moving you on at all? Not really.
So, tell me a bit about the hostel.
It's not nice. Got to keep your door locked.
If you go to the toilet, or whatever, you lock your door
cos you don't want to risk someone taking a load of stuff.
Someone had their trackies nicked the other day, just off a radiator.
Like an estimated 83,000 young people, Jack has nowhere to live.
Yes, he's been put up in a hostel,
but housing benefit only covers his full rent if he's not working.
I'm just on benefits at the moment.
I can't work cause my rent's £255.69 a week with a £10.30 service charge.
So your rent's 250 a week, £1,000 a month?
Over, just over, yeah. Plus a £10.30 service charge on top.
So a normal job pays on average about £250 a week,
and my rent's £255 a week, so even if I'm like working
for a full week, I've still not got enough money to cover the rent.
With the price it is in a hostel,
you've not even got enough money to save up to get out
to even go private, so you're forced into waiting for a council gaff.
So everyone tries to find their own way
of making a bit of money on the side.
What do you do? I do tattoos, me.
Just to make a bit of extra change really,
cos you can't really live off £10 a day,
or I can't anyway, it's too difficult.
It went pretty well.
Got £55 and a bottle of JD.
What will you do with the money?
I'll probably just get a haircut and a top up for my phone.
'The police have completely cordoned off Whitworth Street West.
'That means you can't get onto Oxford Road...'
After a High Court ruling, police and bailiffs are moving in
to evict the homeless and the protesters
from the Cornerhouse squat.
You can send me to jail all you want, you know?
Jail's like... It's more comfortable than this.
Has the Council come up with a plan for how to house
the dozens of homeless people who are living in this building?
The Council have no plan, other than passing the buck
and then throwing you to a private landlord.
Can you spare change, please?
Do you think you could cope with living on the street?
Not really. No, it'd do me in.
Mentally.
You're surrounded by everything,
drugs, alcohol, violence, loan sharking,
bullying, sexual abuse.
I know a lot of homeless people who'd rather be in prison.
When you're in prison, you've got a roof over your head,
you're getting fed every day.
You don't have people coming out of a pub in the middle of the night
pissing on you, and shit like that.
The streets is just the roughest place to be.
When the bailiffs kick the door down, when everyone gets kicked out,
where do those dozens of people go? Nowhere!
If you live in a city centre, just be honest with yourself
and look around and feel the guilt when you look at these people
because essentially it's our fault, you know?
It is, it's our fault because we allow it to happen.
There's a man who fights for people's rights.
There's a man who fights for people who can't fight for themselves.
For now, the Cornerhouse squatters have resisted the eviction.
Power to the people!
But the bailiffs will be back.
..bring home the bacon.
They all look down when they see me. They're all pussies.