Clearing homeless in Windsor for the royal wedding

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WTAF? I remember fences were built to hide the ‘ unsightly’ townships in South Africa when they hosted the World Cup. I truly can’t believe this, heaven forbid the royals should see real life which might offend their sensibilities. As the old joke says the queen thinks the whole country smells of paint as there are people running around ahead of them sprucing everything up. Yes, we mustn’t present Windsor in an unfavourable light must we, nobody needs to be bothered by those pesky homeless.

I don't think you can say that all homeless people are homeless just because of government policies. Some of it is poor personal choices too. Eg just before Christmas, when it was absolutely freezing, I offered a homeless man outside the station his choice of breakfast and hot drink from the cafe which I would have brought out to him if he didn't want to eat in.

He said he didn't like hot food.

So I offered to go into m&s and get him whatever he wanted instead.

He looked at me and said absolutely bluntly but perfectly politely thank you, but he was only interested in money because he needed drugs, not food.

Someone like that isn't going to want to be housed in a shelter unless/until they are ready to give up drugs.

Not that it makes it remotely ok to shoo away homeless people like pigeons (or to deter them with spikes, come to that). But it's a bit too simplistic just to blame it all on government policies IMO. There have been homeless people under every government and there will continue to be homeless people until we change a lot more than the colour of the flag over Downing Street

Are there any good links to this story (i.e. Somewhere between the DM and the canary!)? Would be good to see if it's a policy to remove the homeless or if it is about targeting begging and aggression.

@runningoutofchange I have heard of homeless not wanting to be rejoined before, but I can't imagine why, I am in Manchester and it is so cold, why would anyone choose to sleep on the streets. And in this day and age why are there people on the street. We are a first world country!

Really running? My experience of the homeless is that most are desperate to avoid homelessness and to get out of it as quickly as possible if it happens to them. There are a core of rough sleepers that won't/ can't engage with services effectively , often due to drug/alcohol problems and/or mental health issues. Usually though the problem is lack of capacity to help people.

Exactly Alice. And regarding the man who didn’t want food but ‘needed drugs’ perhaps that says something about helping vulnerable people with the root of the problem, not the symptoms, so more rehab and support for addiction

I also found it shocking that the councillor in question chose to make his letter an "open" one. He clearly sees nothing wrong in asking the police to simply remove people whose only "crime" is having nowhere to live.

And I'm sure the police in Windsor have quite enough to do without trying to deal with social problems. The council are far better placed to do something about it than the police.

Savvy, if you’re not the queen maybe you’re the daily fail

I suppose you can't lump all homeless people into one category. They will all be in that position for different reasons.

The chap on the news yesterday charged with stealing from the arena bombing victims being a case in point. I recognised him when he was first hailed a hero as I had given him £10 a few Christmas's ago when he was lying on the pavement begging, with badly deformed legs and crutches. Saw him the next day skipping down the steps at the back of Harvey Nicks as I limped past with my stick.

The government was removing ‘homeless’ immigrants back to their countries, but I believe the usual bleeding hearts got this stopped. No one wants to have violent criminals aggressively begging or people sleeping on the streets.

Under the EU I believe people can be removed if they are not working, but we know there are many problems with drug abused etc. With Bexit hopefully the professional beggars, run by organised crime can be removed and not allowed into the country in the first place.

Ah it should be "They don't do anything not they do nothing.

Thats what you call a double negative, is it not.
Sorry thought were having a pop because I don't adore the Royals.

Personwithhorse wins the Godwin price for bringing up brexit.

I hope that scumbag gets a very very lengthy sentence. I mean stealing from the living is bad enough, but from the dead dying and seriously injured that's corrupt.

@ Cotswolds Homeless charities running outreach work, soup kitchens etc tend to be based in big towns and cities. Your best bet is to google help + homeless and the name of the place where you live, that should bring up any organisations operating in your area. Volunteering at somewhere like CAB can often help as a lot of the work they do supports homelessness prevention.

The only homeless charity in my area is something set up by a group of local churches who lend homeless people money for rent in advance and deposits so that they can get somewhere to live. The project I work for is funded by social services and health, and the job isn't something that can easily be done by volunteers because of the huge amount of training that is involved (it takes about a year for a new worker to get up to speed with all the statutory stuff, safeguarding etc).

Street homeless people are the most challenging group of clients. Their primary problem is often addiction or mental illness, and they tend to have real issues when it comes to accepting help. And it's distressing for staff, you need to be very resilient.

It's lovely that you want to help, and I hope you find a way of doing that.

It doesn't sound like it's the actual 'homeless' people who are the problem

It's the beggars. Professional beggars who have homes

I don't think you can say that all homeless people are homeless just because of government policies.

It's much harder for people to get help with addiction problems, mental health etc, which often lead to people becoming or remaining homeless because services have been cut to the bone. That's down to government policies. And addiction often follows becoming homeless: rough sleepers resort to alcohol or drugs because life on the streets is so grim. It's a coping strategy, albeit a very misguided one.

If the intention is to get them off the streets and into housing then no problem. I suspect, however, that the intention is to make them someone else's problem.

@lakie Thanks!

From my experience (nhs worker) a lot of long term homeless dont want to be housed. Very understandable as its a public event with alot of people attending.

Barbarianmum....sometimes someone whos homeless comes into the hospital and ive witnessed on several times new clothes (strangely always from marks and spencer) and shoes ready and accommodation set up and support offered to have it thrown back at us. Several times self discharge against medical advice and new clothes left on bed.

Not saying that happens ever time though.

Wouldn't it be nice if Harry and Meghan thought, I know - why don't we share our day with the people who are fucking paying for it?

Pretty sure the homeless aren't contributing to the Royal Wedding....

As long as they're putting them somewhere they can be spoken to & looked after (if they want to be) and are not just firing them out of Windsor in a big cannon I don't see a problem with it.

I thought most towns had blitzes on homeless people that were sleeping rough every now & then anyway?

Someone on Twitter ( the link given upthread) said he went out on xmas day..... there were 12 rough sleepers on the high st

It's not them who is the problem. Funny there were no 'beggars'

When I was in my late teens (now 49) - I was shocked to see homeless people for the first time on a trip to London. I keep checking my memory since I don't recall seeing homeless people in towns and cities back then (other than London) - I really don't. I studied in Sheffield and visited Leeds and Manchester around that time and I don't recall it. Now this problem seems ubiquitous

I'm sure there are many agendas within this story but i suspect the driving force is wanting Windsor to look as if it hasn't got a homeless problem going on around a lived in castle. It's positively medieval.

Thanks for pointing those things out LakieLady. I've always thought that there must be more to it than just deciding to live on the street for the hell of it. These people are extremely vulnerable in lots of different ways, they didn't just lose their jobs in the last round of banking redundancies.

I recently got a few looks from my school about those shoe boxes they want us to fill. Without trying to sound mean, I refused to fill a shoe box with £25 worth of stuff for some elderly person in a country I cannot confidently pick out on a map. Last time I did it I had to step over numerous homeless people to get into the relevant shops to buy the goods. This year I flatly refused and asked them to consider supporting a homeless charity which went down like a lead balloon.

hmc It has definitely got worse. I've lived in my town since 1991 and never saw people on the streets until 2-3 years ago. I live in a pretty, historic, affluent town in the south-east - it just wasn't a thing here until relatively recently.

All the south-east coastal towns have a big homeless problem now. There are also people sleeping rough in rural areas. My colleague had a client who was sleeping in a sort of den he'd built in a secluded area of woodland, another was sleeping in a shed on a disused allotment on the edge of a village.

Some people who are statutorily homeless are desperate to be rehoused. Some don't want the 'hassle' of managing a tenancy, they just want somewhere to go as and when it suits them. There are lots of scenarios between those two points of view.

Street homeless, as has been said, are notoriously hard to help due to their personal preferences/addictions/choices. I live in a city where there is quite a variety of help. A centre where food, clothing, showers and help with benefits is available daily; Several hostels; A centre for street drinkers; Even some available housing. And yet there are still street beggars.

The local authority homeless team do outreach work, they get to know the street homeless, many of whom have been around for a long time, have had all sorts of help and support, but drift back to the streets.

In some areas, London and surrounds in particular, many street homeless will have no genuine local connection. That means the local authority has no statutory duty to house them. Particularly difficult for EU citizens (and other immigrants) with no means of support in the UK. And lastly, there are beggars who appear to be homeless but aren't.