Westminster council has boarded up an area in the London borough to keep away rough sleepers, with campaigners warning that local authorities and police are pushing homeless people “out of sight and out of mind”.
Large white hoarding has appeared outside McDonald’s in Victoria Street, which homeless people and campaigners say is part of a wider effort to remove rough sleepers from the borough with the largest street population in England.
Rough sleeping in London reached an all-time high of 8,855 people for the 2018-19 calendar year, an 18% annual increase. There were 5,529 new rough sleepers on London’s streets last year, equivalent to 15 people a day, more than a third of whom had lost private rented accommodation, according to the new figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network.
One homeless person in Westminster said: “They put it up to stop us sleeping there. They talk about antisocial behaviour but often that is not always linked to us.”
Westminster council confirmed it had put up the hoarding but said it had no “measures in public spaces specifically to deter rough sleepers”.
The councillor Ian Adams, the cabinet member for public protection and licensing, said the hoarding was a temporary measure while the local authority worked on longer-term designs for the location.
He said the structure had been put up in response to antisocial behaviour, which had left residents feeling “increasingly unsafe”.
He said the council had taken a balanced approach between “providing help for those in genuine need, as well as taking tough action on unacceptable criminal and antisocial behaviours”. He said additional outreach workers would be in the area to help rough sleepers access services and hostels.
But Stephen Robertson, the chief executive of The Big Issue Foundation, said it was important not to conflate antisocial behaviour with issues affecting homeless people.
“Criminalising or otherwise temporarily removing homeless people in order to improve the image of a city is not the solution … Excluding people from one space most often means they move elsewhere but the problem does not go away.”
A number of rough sleepers in Westminster tube station have been issued community protection notices (CPNs) by the police, threatening a maximum fine of £20,000. The orders are used alongside the 1824 Vagrancy Act, which criminalises begging and rough sleeping in England and Wales.
One homeless man, who asked to remain anonymous, was threatened with a penalty for “positioning himself for begging”. Another rough sleeper, who also wanted to be anonymous, was given a notice for “loitering” and was woken up and searched under the “terror code”.
Quick GuideRough sleeping and homelessness in the UK
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Is rough sleeping getting worse?
The government claims rough sleeping in England fell for the first time in eight years in 2018, from 4,751 in 2017 to 4,677. But the body that oversees the quality of official statistics in the UK has said the number should not be trusted after 10% of councils changed their counting methods. Rough sleeping in London has hit a record high, with an 18% rise in 2018-19.
The numbers of people sleeping rough across Scotland have also risen, with 2,682 people reported as having slept rough on at least one occasion.
Shelter, whose figures include rough sleepers and people in temporary accommodation, estimate that overall around 320,000 people are homeless in Britain.
What’s being done about rough sleeping?
The government’s Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which places new duties on state institutions to intervene earlier to prevent homelessness has been in force for more than a year, but two thirds of councils have warned they cannot afford to comply with it. In 2018, James Brokenshire, the housing secretary, announced a one-off £30m funding pot for immediate support for councils to tackle rough sleeping.
How does the law treat rough sleepers?
Rough sleeping and begging are illegal in ENgland and Wales under the Vagrancy Act 1824, which makes ‘wandering abroad and lodging in any barn or outhouse, or in any deserted or unoccupied building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or wagon, and not giving a good account of himself or herself’ liable to a £1,000 fine. Leading homelessness charities, police and politicians have called on the government to scrap the law.
Since 2014, councils have increasingly used public space protection orders to issue £100 fines. The number of homeless camps forcibly removed by councils across the UK has more than trebled in five years, figures show, prompting campaigners to warn that the rough sleeping crisis is out of control and has become an entrenched part of life in the country.
Is austerity a factor in homelessness?
A Labour party analysis has claimed that local government funding cuts are disproportionately hitting areas that have the highest numbers of deaths among homeless people. Nine of the 10 councils with the highest numbers of homeless deaths in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017 have had cuts of more than three times the national average of £254 for every household.
What are the health impacts of rough sleeping?
A study of more than 900 homeless patients at a specialist healthcare centre in the West Midlands found that they were 60 times more likely to visit A&E in a year than the general population in England.
Homeless people were more likely to have a range of medical conditions than the general population. While only 0.9% of the general population are on the register for severe mental health problems, the proportion was more than seven times higher for homeless people, at 6.5%.
Just over 13% of homeless men have a substance dependence, compared with 4.3% of men in the general population. For women the figures were 16.5% and 1.9% respectively. In addition, more than a fifth of homeless people have an alcohol dependence, compared with 1.4% of the general population. Hepatitis C was also more prevalent among homeless people.
Sarah Marsh, Rajeev Syal and Patrick Greenfield
The Metropolitan police said that in Westminster the police, council and outreach teams were working together to engage with people on the street and try to help them access services.
A spokesperson said: “It would be wrong of us to refuse to play our part in a partnership effort to prevent people sleeping rough on London’s streets. Where enforcement is required, the Met does have a duty to act.”
Sanctions can include arrests, cautions, warnings, penalty notices or CPNs. “Officers will assess what is proportionate in each circumstance,” the Met said.
But Rosie Brighouse, a lawyer at the human rights organisation Liberty, said using CPNs to give homeless people fines for being homeless is “cruel and counterproductive”. “It does nothing to deal with the underlying causes of homelessness and instead makes it more difficult for rough sleepers to improve their situation,” she said.
The government has been accused of driving those on the streets out from the underpasses next to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, with a pass-activated gate now installed where rough sleepers used to stay.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, wrote to the House of Commons commission and serjeant at arms about the issue. She wrote: “After a homeless man was found dead in Westminster station … it concerns me that parliament is acting in this seemingly harsh manner … We must avoid an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality.”
One homeless man said: “They have put the boarding up to stop us with a gate on … One workman said it is temporary and another said it is permanent but either way we just go through anyway.”
Parliament said the gate had been put up “to better manage the area for those entering the estate”.
This year it was reported that a group of homeless people had been forcibly removed from the public tunnels in that area. One man claimed he was told by a police officer that an MP had complained about their presence.
The issue of homelessness came into sharp focus after an homeless man, Gyula Remes, died in the underpass just outside the Houses of Parliament in December 2018.
A spokesperson from the Labour Homelessness Campaign said that, by working with the rough sleepers of Westminster, they had seen the constant official harassment people had been subjected to.
“They are not being offered the housing they need, and some are denied all support because of the government’s cruel hostile environment policies. On the steps of Westminster, MPs walk straight past the homelessness crisis they created, and now there is a concerted attempt to push rough sleepers out of sight and out of mind. ,” the spokesperson said.
Explaining the newly installed gate, a parliament spokesperson said: “We … have installed a pass-activated gate to better manage the area for those entering the estate. We continue to engage with partners on addressing the difficult issue of rough sleeping in and around the station constructively and sympathetically.”