Homeless to have tents banned

If a row of tents was pitched outside my house I’d be extremely concerned for the people inside. They’d be in a field miles from help, and in a very unsafe situation. In reality the reason people pitch up in city centres is because very few people live there. Rural homelessness is less immediately obvious, more likely to involve sofa-surfing, or pitching up in farm buildings or the woods away from houses. A farmer friend of ours had someone living inside a disused grain silo on their land for years.

What is needed at a policy level is support, not punishment. But the Tories don’t do support, as we’ve all seen for the last 13 years. Hence this.

Support for homelessness is wider than that as well of course. People who have a sense of belonging to some club or group are less likely to become homeless. So anyone who helps run a sports club, social club, local group of any kind may in addition to the volunteering they do also be contributing to a reduction in homelessness.
On the reverse, anyone who defunds support for young families, education, the criminal justice system, health service and so on is contributing to homelessness.

I have observed something that I think is really interesting on this thread.
Last night when I went to bed most of the posters were condemning Braverman's words.
Those who have posted since then have mostly been supportive of her.
Why is the demographic of posters in the middle of the night so different from that in the evening?

I have been a fundraiser for Centrepoint for years, I took part in a Centrepoint 'sleepout' for their charity some years ago, and I successfully pushed for the charity to be the chosen charity (with commensurate donations) of the bank I worked for at the time, but most importantly I have tried to understand the problem and looked at what works.
As an 'armchair lefty' to an 'Igorant Tory bigot' (since you seem to like tedious insulting tropes), can I ask what you have done, other than vote Tory and spew bile?

My council has "homed" homeless teenagers with tents and a (temporary) pitch at a campsite...

www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwall-council-left-teenage-boy-2161719.amp

Of course they wouldn't. All these arm chair lefties do nothing but spout hatred of Tories but do nothing to go and help these people . Nothing .

Lifestyle choice my arse

Read the article 🙄

"we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice."

In my area a homeless man died last November of the cold. He slept in a doorway. A tent may have kept him alive. Lifestyle choice my arse

@Soapyspuds no one wants to see these things. What people want is actual realistic policies to minimise homelessness, not soundbites to advertise party leadership ambitions.

So quoting from the Article itself

“What I want to stop, and what the law-abiding majority wants us to stop, is those who cause nuisance and distress to other people by pitching tents in public spaces, aggressively begging, stealing, taking drugs, littering, and blighting our communities.”

"Unless we step in now to stop this, British cities will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug-taking, and squalor"

I am behind her 100%.

But this is an internet forum so that means the article will be used to peddle more hatred for the Tories and ignoring the real issues.

Incidentally I wonder how many of those up in arms on here would be happy with a row of tents pitched up on the pavement outside their house. Would you be happy to live next to that or get on the phone to the authories and complain?

She’s truly disgusting. And in some ways, very stupid. The Tories have been trying to punish people out of being sick, disabled and poor for 13 years now and it still hasn’t worked. When do you think the message will sink in?

its not a message to sink in, tories use poor, sick and dying as propaganda to deflect from giving their chums hand outs and tax breaks - look over there at those poor people taking your money, whilst we really give 200x that to the rich

She is right though that we don't want our cities to go the way of San Fran and Los Angeles and that's the way they are going. Democrat run cities in America are shocking.

However, large quantities of homeless people shows a collapse in society and that's what needs addressing. What the Tories don't like about the tents is it highlights problems they've caused.

It needs repeating as some posters do not seem to realise that there are so many empty homes.

What we have and should be talking about is why there is a housing distribution crisis and what could be done to start to address it, not demonising the homeless, refugees or any other group.

These people do exist. Several people were kind enough to support my uncle I've already posted about. He spent a year in a farmyard and a winter in someone's garage that was offered after they found him sleeping in a shop doorway.

Sorry I was trying to reply to someone further up thread who asked about how homeless people can get an address for benefit purposes etc but the reply button hasn't worked.

Yes

the old people could die during covid and now the homeless feckless can die to

e en the Victorian would be shuddering with disbelief at the callous attitude

She’s truly disgusting. And in some ways, very stupid. The Tories have been trying to punish people out of being sick, disabled and poor for 13 years now and it still hasn’t worked. When do you think the message will sink in?

Of course as some of the replies on here show, in other ways she isn’t stupid at all because no matter how appalling the policy is, someone will support it if it gives them a sense of superiority over someone else worse off than themselves. They’d never end up living in a tent because they’re so much better than those people. The same mentality that had crowds at public hangings, just retooled for the 21st century.

I used to work in homelessness and many homeless day services offer a 'care of address' to allow individuals to apply for benefits and have an address for housing purposes etc.

If they're outlawed then there needs to at least be an option of a warm bed for homeless people. With homeless people there usually is and they don't take it (often as homeless shelters might have their own issues).

There's no need for tents though. Town centres should not look like bloody Glastonbury.

After thirteen years of the Tories in charge so many people in Britain are sleeping in tents that it has become a problem in our cities.

We really need a new government.

Jeez, I've heard it all now. What a small minded comment. Hope neither you, or anyone you care about never falls on hard times.

Reminds me of a film I watched a long time ago called Cathy Come Home. We are all only a few steps away from hardship.

Taking away tents isn't an answer. Fix the support services, get the govt to invest in social housing (and not just the more palatable options such as shared ownership), and start adopting compassion.

These headline grabbing Twitter posts are so divisive and so damaging. Hoping SB gets a lot of tents for Christmas- preferably piled outside her front door.

Long term, compassionate solutions need to be in place to manage homelessness in the UK. The charity Centrepoint does amazing work with young people with the aim of weaning people off addiction, getting them into work or education and getting them into safe stable accommodation. They have a very impressive success rate.
Braverman's solution however is to punish the homeless in order to enable middle England to pretend the problem doesn't exist.

Her actions show both her failure to even try to understand the problem, and her utter moral bankruptcy in her solution

This.

Spoken like a true blue tory.

Maybe all those offering support could have a tent in their garden . The homeless person has a safe space and the homeowner could deliver a cooked meal each evening . A win win .