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The rough sleepers who stay out of sight

Many rough sleepers seek out quiet corners away from hassle.  With rough sleeping increasing, Sophie Barnes discovers what this means for outreach workers and councils.  Illustration by Wesley Merritt.  Photography by Rex Features

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Our deputy news editor @Sophieevebarnes writes about the rough sleepers who keep out of sight #ukhousing

In an east London market at 10 o’clock on a cold midweek night, Hussan and David are bedding down for the night in a toilet cubicle.

The cubicle is barely big enough for one person to stand in, but if they huddle side-by-side on the toilet seat they can both just about squeeze in. The hand dryer provides a burst of warmth when the temperature drops.

Inside Housing is spending the night with outreach worker Elisa Del Chierico from homelessness charity Thames Reach to learn more about the desperate measures rough sleepers are resorting to for a safe and warm place to sleep.

Rough sleeping rose 15% last year to 4,751 people, according to government figures.

Those numbers have been going up steadily for seven consecutive years. The official statistics come largely from street counts carried out on a single night. Thames Reach says rough sleepers are finding spots away from the noisy life of the street.

They are gravitating towards parks, accident and emergency departments and police stations.


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A week after our visit, Ms Del Chierico says another four rough sleepers were found in a south London A&E, prompting a meeting between homelessness charities, local authorities and others to find a solution.

Meanwhile, councils are taking on new responsibilities under the Homelessness Reduction Act.

From April, councils will be expected to help all homeless people find accommodation for a maximum of 56 days (see box), a big shift away from current legislation where only those considered to be in ‘priority need’ received help to find accommodation.

However, as councils are expected to step up their homelessness prevention work, the rise in rough sleeping means a growth in areas, like A&Es and toilet cubicles, where people are looking to stay. This makes the job of outreach workers such as Ms Del Chierico all the more crucial.

For Hussan and David, the toilet cubicle in the market provides a little more warmth than the street outside.

Hussan looks to be in his early 40s with a thick black beard and a gentle demeanour, and has been sleeping here for around three weeks, he says. He was previously in a hostel but left to visit his uncle without telling the staff where he was going, and lost his room.

Hussan moved to the UK from Somalia in 1993, and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the violence he witnessed as the country was wracked by civil war.

He has been homeless since 1999, sometimes sleeping on friends’ sofas, sometimes out on the street. “This is not good to be here,” he tells Inside Housing, referring to the cubicle, his calm voice belying his uncertain situation.

Quiet corners of the capital are rare, but offer sanctuary to some. As we make our way through the pitch black of a north London park, the slumped shadow of a lopsided tent comes into view. Gee, a young Egyptian man, is huddled in the unzipped doorway, heating coffee on a small camping stove. He works full time as a bike courier but is still forced to sleep rough because of escalating private rents in London.

“I sleep here so I won’t be hassled by people,” he says. Gee has been staying in this spot for 10 days and is adamant that he’s not cold. He is trying to save some money to get a room in a flat and wishes he could have a toilet and shower. But he insists he doesn’t need any help and will not apply for benefits. “I’m not willing to ask the government for help,” he says. It’s unlikely he would be eligible anyway, given he’s not from the EU.

Despite his precarious position he is polite and friendly; as we start to walk away he calls out, “Next time you come back you can have coffee and juice!”

Rough sleeper in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, shortly before the camp was closed down in 1993

Jeremy Swain, chief executive of Thames Reach, says there is a difficult balance to strike for the charity because rough sleepers pitching tents in parks can cause tension locally.

“The problem is there is an issue around public expectation and having encampments in a park. As a responsible homelessness charity we have to think – primarily of course about the people we’re working with on the street – but also about community needs,” he says. “If encampments are going to be closed down… we should be pushing the local authority to make offers for people in the process of it being closed down. It always feels like a failure if all you’re doing is displacing somebody into a new place.”

Back in 1993, a rough sleeping camp at Lincoln’s Inn Fields was closed down and a homelessness charity agreed to help Camden Council move the people out in return for guaranteed accommodation offers. Mr Swain says he thinks charities should be pushing for a similar deal now. “In those days the councils regarded themselves as having few options and under enormous pressure, too. We have to be much more bullish in striking the deal,” he argues.

The glaring lights and constant frantic activity of a hospital might not seem the most obvious place to try and get some sleep.

What changes are coming with the Homelessness Reduction Act?

  • Everyone who approaches their local council should be given free advice on homelessness, finding accommodation and other organisations that can help.
  • The period in which someone is classified as “threatened with homelessness” will be extended from 28 days to 56 days.
  • All people found to be homeless or threatened with homelessness should be given support.
  • Councils should help homeless applicants create a personalised plan, including what accommodation they need and how they can be supported to find accommodation and stay there.
  • Public bodies will have a duty to refer someone they think is homeless or threatened with homelessness to the local council.

At midnight, the waiting room of one A&E in south London is relatively quiet. A few people sit absent-mindedly looking at their phones as they wait to be seen, while others are curled up on the chairs asleep.

One woman we speak with says she is not homeless and declines the offer of help, but the receptionist confirms she is a rough sleeper who comes to the department most nights. Across the hall, we approach a young man who is bundled up in a thick padded jacket and starting to nod off. He doesn’t appear able to communicate, and seems disorientated and confused when Ms Del Chierico tries to ask him if he needs any help.

Mr Swain wearily states: “It has come to this – people sleeping rough in accident and emergency; it’s not good.”

Mr Swain says rough sleepers are “being more imaginative” about the places where they sleep, and could be choosing these unusual spots because of threats of violence from both the general public and other rough sleepers.

“It has come to this – people sleeping rough in accident and emergency; it’s not good" Jeremy Swain

“There are risks of people being on the receiving end of behaviour from members of the public, but also from other rough sleepers. So some people like to sleep rough, and a police station is ideal, as is A&E, where there are other people around who can help out if anything happens,” Mr Swain says.

There is a danger of falling back on the stereotype of rough sleepers as “always the victim”, Mr Swain points out, adding that sometimes rough sleepers are keeping away from homelessness hotspots because of other rough sleepers.

“In south London we’ve got a situation where people are sleeping rough in a garage where there’s a young Lithuanian man who’s being sold for sex to other men. But the people selling him for sex are two other rough sleepers. That’s the kind of messiness of rough sleeping – it’s never straightforward.”

Other homelessness charities have spotted an uptick in rough sleepers bedding down in places like A&E departments but don’t want to be quoted because they don’t have any figures to back up their observations.

For homelessness outreach workers, the first contact with a rough sleeper is often not the last. Outreach workers frequently have to visit people time after time until they build up a rapport with them and can properly assess what they need.

If rough sleepers choose hidden-away areas it makes it harder for the workers to find them, but the charity’s arrival at a tucked-away spot is not unwelcome.

On the night Inside Housing goes out with Thames Reach, every rough sleeper we visit is friendly and seems grateful for the chance to chat.

Under a flyover in Newham, there is evidence of a large rough sleeper camp, with clothes, blankets and sleeping bags dotted about. Most of these rough sleepers have been moved on now by the road management service, but one couple remains.

They are in their early 40s – a Bulgarian man and a Portuguese woman. They’ve been sleeping under the flyover for a few weeks but plan to move into a squat down the road the next day.

"If rough sleepers choose hidden-away areas it makes it harder for the workers to find them"

Again, they refuse the offer of support, adamant that soon they’ll head to Bulgaria. When Ms Del Chierico returns after our visit she finds a high-security padlock on the gates leading down to the flyover, and the couple are nowhere to be seen.

A few weeks after our outreach night, Inside Housing asks for an update on the other people we met. Hussan and David, who shared the tiny toilet cubicle, were booked into the mayor of London’s scheme No Second Night Out, but both checked out a few days later and Thames Reach workers are now trying to find them again.

The charity has been asked by the police not to visit the north London park at night for the time being, so the workers haven’t been able to find out how Gee is doing.

Mr Swain is clear that helping rough sleepers off the streets can be a slow process. “What we have to convince people of is that having met them that’s the start and not the finish, and that ongoing contact is really important. A lot of that work is done once we know more about the person’s situation, where we can advocate for them and make a plan that works for them.”

For outreach workers, tenacity is a crucial character trait. As Mr Swain puts it: “Never giving up on people – they very strongly adhere to that.”

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