“THAT’S a figure plucked out of his head.” Jenny Edwards, chief executive of the charity Homeless Link, is talking about the assertion by John Bird, founder of the The Big Issue, that 90 per cent of homeless people have uncontrollable drink and drug problems.

Bird, who has been homeless himself, recently launched a London mayoral bid, attracting widespread publicity for his criticisms of what he calls the “homeless industry”.

He is on record as saying that the problem of homelessness cannot be addressed by charities or the public sector, but should be treated like a mental health issue, with the homeless cared for by the mental health system, “behind bars if necessary”.

“John’s had his own life story, he’s put a lot back, and all that is really valid. But his experience is now quite a long time ago and things have moved on,” says Edwards, who says the drink and drug addicted are the “sharp end” of homelessness. Not all homeless people are rough sleepers or addicts: “The figure of 90 per cent is just off the top of his head. He was talking about people whose lives are completely chaotic.” She says a more realistic figure, based on research by Homeless Link, is 58 per cent — the proportion of homeless people with combined mental health problems and drink and drug addictions.

“A lot of people are homeless because they have been bereaved, because they’ve come out of the Armed Forces, for example, or they have had a mental illness, but it’s not something they need compulsory incarceration for.”

Edwards has been in private contact with Bird and she says that he has agreed to take part in a public debate with her, although no date has been fixed. Whenever the two meet, though, it is clear that sparks will fly. Edwards’s take on homelessness is very different from Bird’s, and she’s keen to show how things have moved on: “People still have some very old-fashioned ideas about hostels. I’m not saying every hostel or every homeless service has got everything sorted. But what really made a difference, about five years ago, was a requirement that if people got money they had to involve the people who used their services.” Edwards admits that these initiatives may have started off as tokenistic, but she enthuses about projects that have had good results, including Solas in Newport, which uses volunteer tutors to give homeless people skills.

“We’ve had car mechanics, people who’ve written epic poems in Welsh. Whatever it is, if it’s organic farming or pet care, they will do it because they believe that finding something that interests somebody and really touches them inside is the first step in getting them to engage in all those other practical things.”

Edwards says she has always been interested in social justice, and much of her enthusiasm stems from her background in the arts. “Homelessness is about more than making sure that people have a roof over their heads,” she says, adding that dealing with the issue is about “travelling with optimism”. But her positivity doesn’t mean that her eyes are closed to the problems: insufficient housing supply; a lack of funding for services; and rough sleeping among citizens of the states that joined the EU in 2004. “If we don’t respond very quickly we will build up a much deeper social problem,” she says of the latter, pointing to the increase in rough sleepers from Ireland and Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s.

Above all, she says, services need to be readily available, with more government spending channelled to innovative projects. The charity has set a challenge: to end rough sleeping by 2012. “No other country in the world could get as close to doing it as we can.”

Born: December 26, 1954, in Bristol

Education: Girton College, Cambridge, MA Cantab in archaeology and anthropology

Career: Director, National Campaign for the Arts, 1993; director, external relations and development, Arts Council of England, 1998; chief executive, Homeless Link, 2004. Is on the Mayor’s London housing forum and other advisory roles.

What she says: “It’s really irresponsible [of us] if we don’t keep asking until we get what’s necessary”

Little-known fact: If you want to meet Jenny, head to Second Life, the virtual world, where she goes by the name Geni Figaro and runs a group to end homelessness

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