Guernsey Press

‘I only want one room to sleep in’: Homeless tell of life on the streets

Rough sleepers in London were critical of a lack of support and the actions of the police for moving the homeless on.

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Sitting near Leicester Square in central London trying to scrape together £9 from passers-by in order to get a hostel room, Steve is just one of thousands sleeping rough on England’s streets.

Homelessness figures
Steve, 39, lives on the streets in Westminster (Federica De Caria/PA)

Both men were critical of a lack of support and the actions of the police for moving the homeless on.

Homelessness figures
Steve has been arrested several times while living on the streets (Federica De Caria/PA)

“It’s a crime to be homeless in this country – literally,” he added.

Alex, from London, who also declined to give a surname, started sleeping rough 12 years ago after falling out with his family when he was 15 years old.

Homelessness figures
Alex has been homeless since he was 15 (Federica De Caria/PA)

Alex then started squatting in empty buildings.

“I landed on the street and I was so cold, so I broke into a building to go to sleep,” he said. “I then got to know some people who told me more about squatting. And that was that.

“Now I move around as much as possible.”

Homelessness figures
Alex feels the current system to help homeless people is not working (Federica De Caria/PA)

“You just end up getting put through the same system, you get the same result and you end up back in the same place.”

When asked what he thinks would help improve the situation, he replied: “A building. A room. The clue is in the name ‘homeless’ – just give them a home. There’s hundreds of thousands of empty buildings. Just put us in empty buildings and then problem solved. You can deal with the other things afterwards: drugs, mental issues and other stuff. That’s the easy part, because we deal with them every day – we handle them really well.”

Steve explained how settling down in one spot is often made difficult by the Community Protection Notices which enable police to move the homeless on if “the conduct of the individual or body is having a detrimental effect, of a persistent or continuing nature, on the quality of life of those in the locality”.

“I have been banned from Westminster,” he said. “If [the police] see me walking through Westminster, sat in Westminster, doing anything in Westminster, they will arrest me.

“I only want one room to sleep in. Failing that, I only want a bit of concrete to sit on – and I can’t have that?”

Local authorities estimated there were around 4,751 rough sleepers on a single night in autumn 2017, according to data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

At 217, Westminster had the highest number in England.

Councillor Rachael Robathan, Westminster Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, said that because of the lire of the West End the authority faced “unique pressures” because most rough sleepers came from outside the borough.

She added: “We continue to spend more than any other local authority on doing our best to ensure rough sleepers find a route away from the street.”

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