Ex-paratrooper Stuart Griffiths was homeless and living in a hostel when he began to take this series of remarkable portraits of former comrades down on their luck.

People like a soldier, his name was Richard, who chooses to stay on the streets, was medically discharged from the army. "I was very sad when I left," he says. "It was like leaving my brothers."

People like Michael, he left the forces in 1994 after five years in the army. He went travelling but ended up homeless when he returned to England with little money. Now he lives in a centre in London.

Many ex-forces personnel came from difficult family backgrounds, were institutionalised in the services and ill-prepared for civilian life.

Richard Cousins and Michael Harris

At the moment how many people are homeless and living on the streets with no family in Tower Hamlets?

Whereabouts would you find distressed, homeless people in Tower Hamlets?

What kind of service do homeless people receive if they go to Providence Row?

How many people have you seen lying homeless outside tube stations?

Who started Providence Row and how long has it been running?

Do you know someone that helps homeless people?

This man who is now homeless was in the war.

Keith Tyrer, served in the first Gulf war, in Bosnia and Kosovo, he was "gutted" when he was discharged after being shot. He travelled around and ended up on the streets. Stuart says: "I took this picture of Keith in Soho. He struck me as oddly comfortable with life on the street."