Benefits Street has rats as big as cats, is strewn with rubbish including nappies in gutters and the road has ‘got worse’ since Channel 4 filmed its ‘poverty porn’ show a decade ago, residents told today.
People living in James Turner Street in Birmingham say it is ‘filthy’ and ‘not fit for human consumption’ with homes infested with vermin inside and out so owners are bringing in more cats.
New pictures have captured the shocking state of the road made famous by the 2014 documentary series that made household names of White Dee, Black Dee, Fungi and 50p Man.
While the stars of the show have either left, ended up in jail or tragically died, those still living there told how they struggled to get jobs, had abuse and eggs hurled at them and plagued by ‘gawkers’ filming them in public. Even house and car insurance has rocketed.
It came as the show’s producer, Kieran Smith, admitted that there was a lack of aftercare for its stars and he shouldn’t have named the street because it tarred its reputation. White Dee said in January she wishes she had never appeared on the show – despite a £50,000 Celebrity Big Brother appearance that followed.
Mother-of-four Angelina Fosu, who has lived in James Turner Street since 2017, said: ‘The dirtiness and the rats are too much – inside the house, in our rooms. They need to clean the streets.’
One pensioner in her 80s, who has lived on the street for more than a decade, added: ‘You would think that, with the programme, there would be some assistance to the homeowners or generally to try and improve the area. But instead it’s got worse. It’s not fit for human consumption. There are rats running round and they are as huge as a cat.’
Residents of Channel 4’s Benefits Street say their lives were plunged into misery when the controversial documentary series aired and they still face discrimination ten years on.
Dean Oakes, 37, has lived on the street all his life and said that he turned down the chance to star in the reality series. He said the aftermath was ‘horrible’ for locals, adding: ‘People would drive to the street just to shout insults, thinking everyone was on benefits’.
New and exclusive photographs have captured the shocking state of the road made famous by Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street
A nappy in a first floor gutter of one of the houses on James Turner Street. Ten years ago it was at the centre of one of the most controversial docu-series ever
A fridge dumped in James Turner Street in Birmingham
Dean Oakes, 37, has lived on the street – just round the corner from HMP Birmingham – all his life and said that he turned down the chance to star in the reality series. He said the aftermath was ‘horrible’ for locals
Residents Razia Bibi and Haddy Ceesa said they didn’t like how the show portrayed this area or this city
Residents claim the street and houses has become infested with large rats
The number of people on benefits remains approximately the same 10 years on from the documentary
White Dee became one of the stars of the show. She made cash afterwards and moved out of the area – but said that the show’s producers took advantage of them
James Turner Street in Winson Green, Birmingham, became the focus of the popular five-episode series documenting the lives of several residents in 2014.
Channel 4 said that 90 per cent of those on the street were said to be on benefits, with the controversial documentary portraying their dependence on welfare payments.
The number of people receiving state handouts in the area was 367 last August, almost the same as the 371 figure in February 2014.
The show’s producer, Kieran Smith, admitted he shouldn’t have named the street because it tarred its reputation
Producer Kieran Smith told the BBC that in hindsight the street’s name should have been withheld and that he felt ‘regret’ for tarring all residents with the same brush.
He said: ‘I do have sympathy with people who say ‘listen that’s tarred our street’ or ‘we’ve got a reputation we didn’t ask for’. I do regret that.
‘But it wasn’t our motive to do that.
‘Our expectation was this would be a series that would fly under the radar. It turned into something much larger.’
Despite the show’s controversy, Mr Smith believes a version could be made again.
‘You probably couldn’t call it Benefits Street because the title has become toxic and people wouldn’t be happy to be called that again,’ he said.
‘But filming a group of people again who live on the same street… who have something in common. So another version of a Benefits Street is possible I would imagine.’
That is scant compensation for those still living on James Turner who continue to put up with cruel jibes, distrust and sky-high house and car insurance, which rocketed after the five-part series began in 2014.
They revealed how yobs would drive to the inner city street specially to target those living there while crazed fans would push food and cigarettes through letter-boxes.
The attention became so intense when the TV cameras stopped rolling that street signs had to be removed and the stars of the show, which followed the lives of several locals struggling on the dole, soon moved away.
James Turner Street (pictured) in Winson Green, Birmingham, became the focus of a popular but controversial Channel 4 show documenting the lives of several residents on benefits in 2014
Tyres, paint and car parts hurled at the bottom of James Turner Street
Bins in the road along with a fridge-freezer
The area at the bottom of the road has become a magnet for detritus
Litter piled high on James Turner Street
B;ack bags of waste pile up. Critics say the street is attracting rats at a time when the council has axed street cleaners
An alley behind the houses also is full of waste
Ibrahim Adams and daughter Sharon. He told : ‘James Turner Street has given us a safe home. There are people living here from around the world. We are happy’
Many of the social problems remain as bad or worse as a decade ago, the number of people receiving state handouts is almost identical and rubbish remains piled up, attracting rats at a time when the council has axed street cleaners
Fly-tippers continue to dump sacks of rubbish and debris as they did a decade ago but the street cleaners have been now been axed and bin collections are due to change to a fortnightly collection as bankrupt Birmingham City Council seeks to fill a £300million black hole.
As a result rats and mice have swarmed to the street but pest control charges are to be introduced next month, residents say.
Nurse Haddy Ceesay, 49, moved into her terraced home opposite White Dee just as filming was wrapping up.
She said: ‘There was serious problem of fly-tipping when the street was on TV. You could see how dirty it was.
‘It’s still a big issue, mainly from people driving from other streets to dump their rubbish but unlike ten years ago we don’t have the street cleaners anymore and the bin collections are going to switch from weekly to fortnightly.
‘Rats and mice are always about. A few residents have bought cats to deal with them.’
Haddy continued: ‘This part of the street has retained some of the community spirit of 2014, I know most of my neighbours.
‘White Dee used to live opposite me but she’s long since moved away. She was lovely and very close to Black Dee who lived further down the street but they fell out after the show. It was a shame but I suppose fame can do that.
‘When Benefits Street first aired I gave it a miss, I wasn’t interested in it at all. But we’d have people drive her especially to call us ‘scroungers’ and shout foul-mouthed abuse.
‘It got so bad that the council actually removed the street sign so people wouldn’t come here. That’s stopped now thankfully and life is much quieter now.’
Dean Oakes, 37, has lived on the street – just round the corner from HMP Birmingham – all his life and said that he turned down the chance to star in the reality series.
He said: ‘The programme makers asked me if I wanted to be in Benefits Street but I turned them down because I knew just how it was going to pan out.
‘At the time I was working anyway, for a local gym, but I could sense that all they wanted to focus on was the negative aspects of life on this street.
‘They weren’t interested in someone taking a birthday cake up to their neighbour but they were interested in filming someone brandishing a hammer chasing the TV crew up the road.
‘They were here filming for about 18-months but aftermath of the show was horrible for us. People would drive to the street just to shout insults, thinking everyone was on benefits.
‘You’d see people drive up and down the road, sometimes filming us on their mobile phones and shouting stuff like ‘do you want something to eat!?’ Others would egg houses.
‘A few gawkers still come down, now and again, filming us from their cars. It hasn’t gone away but it’s obviously a lot less than it was.
‘I would go to the job centre a few years after filming ended and whenever I gave my address as James Turner Street, you’d get a funny look and I never got work. That still happens to people even today.
‘Whenever I tell people where I’m from, I still get the smirks and then questions like ‘are you mates with White Dee?’ or ‘weren’t you on that show?’
Deirdre Kelly, AKA ‘White Dee’, as she appeared on Benefits Street alongside daughter Caitlin
White Dee in a scene on Benefits Street, alongside James ‘Fungi’ Kelly – who died of a cardiac arrest in 2019
She went on to appear on Celebrity Big Brother, for which she was paid a repored £50,000
‘We were all tarred with the same brush. I worked, my family all had jobs and so did both neighbours either side. We were hard-working people but to the rest of the country we were just layabouts.’
Dean, who now works in a local bus garage, said the original working title for the series was The Community Spirit of James Turner Street.
He said it was one of the residents and stars of the show – James ‘Fungi’ Clarke – who actually coined the name ‘Benefits Street’.
Former crack cocaine addict and alcoholic Fungi sparked hundreds of complaints from viewers when he was filmed shoplifting to make ends meet.
He was forced to flee James Turner Street to Cardiff to escape all the attention but tragically killed himself in 2019 after being diagnosed with cancer.
Dean blasted the way programme makers treated Fungi as well as other residents including Deirdre Kelly – known as ‘White Dee’ – Samora Roberts – ‘Black Dee’ – Stephen Smith – nicknamed Smoggy or 50p Man – and couple Mark Thomas and Becky Howe.
He fumed: ‘They were all used and abused and spat out. We all were, especially Fungi who was at a particularly low point in his life.
‘The production crew whisked him to rehab in Wales but didn’t tell any of his family who had no idea where he was. They left in such a rush that his front door was left wide open.
‘I called Fungi’s nephew who had to come round and put a lock on it. People would come round and push food and cigarettes though his letter box. It was too much.’
Such was the negative fall-out of Benefits Street that Dave, 55, who lives a few doors down from Dean declined to give his full name.
But he said: ‘The show started off with good intentions but it turned into something I didn’t like and wasn’t a proper representation of the street.
‘My kids got a hard time at school because of it and just after filming both my house and car insurance increased significantly.
‘The street has a lot more homes occupied now, ten years ago there was a lot of empty properties, but most people don’t really mix as much as they did back then,
‘James Turner Street did have that togetherness to it 10 years ago. It’s a bit safer now and much quieter because residents tend to keep themselves to themselves more. There’s also a higher turnover of people moving in and out now so it’s lost some of the community spirit it once had.’
Razia Bibi, 52, lives with her taxi-driver husband and her 22-year-old daughter who is studying to be a veterinary nurse.
The school lunch lady has rented her three bed house for the last five years and said: ‘I did watch Benefits Street when it was on TV and at the time I was living a few miles away.
‘I’m a proud Brummie born and bred and I didn’t like how the show portrayed this area or this city. I think they encouraged the people on it to act in a crude manner to entice the viewers in.
‘I like living here, it’s a friendly street. People have time for you. Not everyone can find work and there are still those on benefits but not everyone is getting hand-outs, there’s a lot of working people here.
‘I’d say the biggest problem currently blighting James Turner Street is the amount of litter everywhere and the drains are blocked up by leaves so when we have a lot of rain the road has a lot of surface water build up.
‘The council don’t really do much about it.’
Another relative newcomer to the street is father-of-four Ibrahim Adams, 42.
He was living in Udine in the north east of Italy in 2014 and has never seen Benefits Street.
Clutching two-year-old daughter Sharon, he said: ‘I like it here, it’s nice and we’ve had no problems since we moved in 2018.
‘I work as a cleaner and I don’t like all the litter. The street is on a slight slope and the rubbish blows down and a lot of it catches on the fence by the railway line.
‘But James Turner Street has given us a safe home. There are people living here from around the world. We are happy.’
came of the stars of Channel 4’s Benefits Street?
DEIDRE KELLY, AKA WHITE DEE
Benefits Street star White Dee said her ‘street family’ was ripped apart by the TV show – and she left the area.
The reality TV star, whose real name is real name Deidre Kelly, moved away from James Turner Street in Winson Green and the neighbours she grew to love.
After the success of Benefits Street , Dee went on to make TV and magazine appearances and then made Handsworth her new home.
White Dee no longer sees those featured in the hit Channel 4 programme first aired back in 2014 – such as Black Dee and 50p Man.
In the show, Dee had a heartwarming relationship with lovable rogue Fungi who struggled with homelessness and drink and drugs. He tragically passed away in 2019.
Dee said in 2018: ‘I haven’t spoken to anyone shown in the documentary though I do still speak to people on the street.
‘It is the one sad thing. I do think it was one of the biggest regrets ever. We were like one massive family.
‘But how it was portrayed by the TV editing ripped us apart.
SAMORA ROBERTS, AKA BLACK DEE
Benefits Street star Samora Roberts, who used the moniker Black Dee, was jailed for seven years in 2016 for keeping live ammunition in her home – where she ran an ‘open-all-hours’ drug business.
Roberts, 39, was found in possession of over £5,000 of Class A drugs as well as bullets which she hid in a pink trainer under a washing basket.
She admitted seven counts of possessing cannabis with intent to supply and was found guilty of possessing crack cocaine and heroin.
Roberts was also found guilty of two counts of possessing 11 .38 Smith and Wesson cartridges without a firearms certificate.
Judge Philip Parker QC jailed Roberts for seven years at Birmingham Crown Court where he accused her of running an open-all-hours’ drug business from her home on James Turner Street, which was better known as the location of Channel 4’s Benefits Street.
Samora was one of the first Benefits Street residents to hit out at Channel 4 producers for ‘exploiting’ locals when the show aired in January 2014.
She later had a public spat with former pal White Dee, claiming she was a ‘sell out’ for appearing on Celebrity Big Brother.
STEPHEN SMITH, AKA 50P MAN
Door-to-door salesman Stephen Smith, became affectionately known as ’50p Man’ after selling cut-price household wares to the residents of Benefits Street.
His entrepreneurial spirit captured the attention of millionaire and Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins, who offered him a £10,000 deal to open a 50p discount store to rival Poundland.
Unfortunately, they fell out and the business venture did not happen.
Mr Mullins claimed he could have become a millionaire and blamed ‘bad advice from people around him’ for the deal falling through.
JAMES CLARKE, AKA FUNGI
Fungi died in July 2019 at the age of 50 after a heart attack sparked by a suspected drugs overdose.
While stars like White Dee made a fortune and became celebrities, Fungi struggled with addiction, lost his job as a Big Issue seller and ended up sleeping rough in Birmingham.
He quit drink and drugs after a viewer paid £11,500 to put him through rehab and he looked to have turned his life around in 2016.
But the father-of-four was unable to beat addiction and found himself back on the streets, spending his benefits on 10 cans of super-strength cider each day while also taking crack cocaine.
He moved into a hostel for addicts in his home city but was found dead after the family said they hadn’t seen him for six months.
His ex-partner Donna, who brought up his daughter Kirsty, took to Facebook after his death and posted: ‘Death leaves a heartache no can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal’.