London Begging - it’s changed

[Stupidbonfire]

So I’m the first person to admit I’m a complete country bumpkin so please forgive my naivety here.

ive just returned from a wonderful weekend in London. Haven’t been for about 5 years but used to visit regularly and my sister lived there for 10 years. So it’s not like we’re strangers to it. But where there used to be plentiful big issue sellers outside the tube stations and the usual homeless people with clear alcohol or substance misuse issues begging. They seem to have disappeared. We didn’t see one big issue seller. And whilst there were still the occasional doorway sleeper in a winter coat with a sleeping bag with a sign etc, there was also a new kind of beggars I have never seen in the uk before.
clearly very vulnerable individuals just plonked in the middle of the pavement on regent street. Dressed utterly in rags. And not worn out modern clothing. Complete rags. Like flour sacks. It’s was almost Dickensian. He was shaking and loudly begging for help and money. Similar Romanian looking women, really loudly begging for help. Like I’m extreme distress. Rather than just huddled in a doorway. And obviously everyone walks on by. I am assuming that these people are trafficked and there are minders watching them. The man on regent street was clearly severely disability and would have in no way managed to get himself there.
what can we do to help. These don’t look like clientele for shelter or big issue, which is what I would normally donate to or purchase to support. What if anything is being done?
It reminds me of the gangs in India sending the poor street children out.

It's been like this since at least thr mid 2000s. It's organised crime/people trafficking but nothing is ever done. There used to be a man outside Marble Arch who had no legs and played a whistle.

I have no idea if it's allowed to carry on because the police can't get evidence of the trafficking or done care.

Gosh I haven't seen this, I was in London a year ago and only remember seeing poor and homeless individuals in shop doorways not as you are describing.

This is awful and surely there must be something that can be done?

Buttons, I recall the Marble Arch man.
This is honestly different.
I’m my sister said it was like this is Paris when she went in the mid noughties. But I’ve been to London several times a year from 2005 until 2018 and never seen anything like this.

Same around Euston station.

There were many, many more Romanian beggars in the 90s when I first arrived, usually women, wrapped in colourful shawls, with a child in tow. It is as it ever was, on the whole, I think.

Organised crime. Much like prostitution and drugs. If you give them money, you are giving it to the gang masters.

I live/work in london lol! I have no idea of the facts so it may well have increased but i haven't noticed it. Very sad and abusive towards the people with disabilities

You do get Big Issue sellers, there is usually one near Kings College on the Strand.

But where I live outside London you get fake homeless people - they come to our town because they think people are a soft touch. But they are not homeless and they don't have genuine Big Issue licences. I don't think they're organised crime though, just a big family who've worked out where to go to con people.

It's not just London. Same story here in Bristol. I have no idea how any of us can help these people but I refuse to be drawn into supporting trafficking gangs. I've seen groups of 20+ all putting their money into a big pile after midnight in Bristol city centre and one or two take the lot of it and throw a few coins at the people actually begging. It's grim.

Those women are crafty. If you say no, they’ll surround you and before you know it your pockets are picked. See them all the time in european cities.

There are a group in Clapham junction- as I have the misfortune to have to get there at 6:15am in order to work, I see them set up camp, or still camping from last night, I don’t know. They used to be under the arch outside TK Max but there’s scaffolding there now so they’re over the road outside Santander. About ten, huddled round smoking and with mattresses and pillows and filthy duvets etc. they all disperse during the day as I seen them begging separately. So maybe they are homeless?

I have never and will never give to a single one, nor the tube tissue sellers, nor the crackheads that say they’re trying to raise £12 for a train ticket to attend an appointment- because I see the same faces every day.

There's an increase in tube beggars - although they are well dressed in Adidas clothing. Leaving tissues on seats with a message about having a one-year old to look after and can't afford rent. Annoying when you see them in £100+ trainers.

Rather than give money to someone begging you for money on the street, you may as well just give the money to the local drug dealer yourself.

I don't mean someone with a sleeping bag in a shop doorway or something, sleeping rough, but aggressive beggars. It's just drug dependency or trafficking.

I've watched them be dropped off and picked up in a nice BMW to vauxhall station. I've never given to anyone begging since then.

This is why people shouldn't ever give money to homeless people. Buy food, give them conversation, donate to outreach centres but giving money is funding the exploitation of vulnerable people. I've seen people who are clearly learning disabled, probably half drugged, dressed in rags and told where to sit and what to do. They sit dressed in rags in all weather's whilst their gang master sits watching then when the shops close for the night they collect them.......they aren't even allowed to keep the money. This miserable life is being funded by do-gooders.

People who give money to them really annoy me. One because you're fueling organised crime. Two because it enables them and creates a business knowing they can get money off people in the street. If nobody gave them money they'd fuck off hassling people.

We reported a couple using a baby to beg a few years ago. It was deliberately kept underdressed in cold weather, police came and just moved them on. They didn't take the child.......poor kid will no.doubt end.up doing the same thing to survive in a few years. What a shit future he or she has.

If there's someone you are concerned about, can you speak to them and ask if they are ok? Are they safe? Are they getting any housing support? Can't they speak English? Can they read? If they can read, drop them a card with a few numbers on - woman's aid, local charities, DV charities, asylum charities, modern slavery charities etc..

If they do not speak English or can't read, try and find out what their language is. Go back a few days later with language appropriate material. Speak with local homeless charities to ask if they are aware of this person, is there anything they can do.

And obviously everyone walks on by.

Because they know better than to stop. As others have said, it's organised crime.

Some with apparent disabilities- ie on a crutch, shaking - feigning possible Cerebral palsy? Are not disabled. You can see by the fact that their supposed unusable limb is not wasted and they are well fed. They usually come up to cars at junctions and move away pretty fast once the traffic starts flowing. I drive around London each day and I know exactly what you're talking about OP. It's organised begging and anything you give them will be passed along to gang masters.

The most worrying thing I saw was a young boy, no more than 8 or 9, playing a guitar and dancing on Piccadilly Circus - we stopped because my dd absolutely loved the movie "Coco" and this young boy was the imagine of Miguel - same style of singing and dancing, he was so talented. You look around though and there is a very tough looking "minder" stood nearby, keeping an eye on things. How did that boy come to be here? - he couldn't speak any English. Worries me what the sequence of events was for him to be on Piccadilly Circus playing to tourists.

@ToooMuchToDo thank you , this was helpful and informative.
of course we didn’t give money, we knew it would fuel the traffickers, but we weren’t sure what we could / should do.

Where as previously we would have bought the big issue (well I do in our nearest city)

I agree. Went to London recently for the first time in nearly a year and was surprised by these beggars. Like OP says dressed in rags. One woman sat in the middle of one of the pedestrian bridges over the Thames, literally wailing. All with similarly worded signs about how they are starving and signed off with “god bless”.

Increase in begging on the tube as well. There is one man I've seen regularly, he walks up and down the tube when I'm travelling home from work. He does a little speech about being homeless and needing help, can anyone spare him some food or money. Then I've seen him just dump the given food on the tube platform and of course keep the money.
I saw one big issue seller this summer but otherwise not seen one for a long time. Perhaps covid stopped the flow of sales?

This.

I still see big issue sellers at Waterloo.

The Romanians are tobeavoided. Those people didn't get to the U.K. by themselves, nor did they chooseOxford Street, that's managed, as are the rags.

Your money will go to organised crime. It sounds hard hearted but giving money will result in more trafficking.