As Big Issue turns 35, our mission to terminate homelessness is unchanged

This week’s magazine travels back to the past, specifically to September 1991, and the world Big Issue was born into. There was recession, high interest rates and inflation. But a few momentous cultural moments too. 

It was the summer when (Everything I Do) I Do It For You had its epic reign at number one. So it’s supremely fitting that Bryan Adams, top of the pops at the time we hit the streets, is announced as a new Big Issue Ambassador. He’s got a lot of history with us, having photographed one of our award-winning covers and also a series of vendor portraits. Find out why some of the things he’ll do, will be done for Big Issue in this week’s issue. 

In other September ’91 music milestones, Primal Scream’s Screamadelica was released. Bobby Gillespie and the band, as well as Sony, have kindly agreed to soundtrack a birthday video that celebrates the continuing work of Big Issue. Their song Movin’ On Up is an anthem that echoes the ‘hand up’ ethos Big Issue has always had. 

Since 1991, more than 110,000 people have taken that hand; £162 million has been earned by those who need it most. Read about the magazine’s original, chaotic genesis in this week’s issue.

In last week’s magazine, John Bird wrote about being interviewed on TV while wearing sunglasses, looking like “the lead singer of a ska revival band from the ’70s or a saxophonist from the ’50s”. Another figure jumped to my mind, due to my 1991 fixation. 

Top of the box office in the week Big Issue launched was Terminator 2. The film is about travelling back in time to prevent future events. What would have had to be done to address rough sleeping in the past to give people a more certain future? 

Read more:

• Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie: ‘I had a young family – children and hard drugs don’t mix’
• Act now to stop Terminator future, says ethicist William MacAskill
• Here’s what Andy Burnham can do right away to address homelessness and NEETs crisis

Then the sunglasses gave it away. Perhaps John Bird was sent back in time to terminate homelessness. Perhaps by a new PM who has made that big issue his top priority. Because if you did want to improve the lives of tens of thousands of people, Big Issue has proven to be one of the most effective ways to do it.

Homelessness is a complicated, complex problem. One that’s in many ways inevitable and unavoidable. What can be tackled is improving support systems so that a crisis someone faces isn’t compounded by the risk of losing a roof over their head, and that when all is lost, there are opportunities to help people take back control of their lives. 

Maybe time travel doesn’t exist, but changing the future is possible. That’s what every vendor you see is doing: improving the circumstances for themselves and their loved ones by selling the magazine. That’s what the wider work of Big Issue beyond the magazine does, Big Issue Invest empowering changemakers across the country, Big Issue Recruit dismantling barriers preventing people getting work. 

In 1991, Big Issue set out to tackle rough sleeping in the UK. Entering office 35 years later, Andy Burnham pledged to do the same. He tells us more about his plans this week, in an exclusive interview. The ambition is admirable and long overdue. By setting Christmas as his deadline, Burnham made Christmas Day his Judgement Day. I’ll be back (not just me, the entire dedicatedly determined Big Issue team) to make sure his mission is accomplished. 

Steven MacKenzie is Editor of Big Issue. Read more of his writing here. 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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