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.

I was at a bus stop in Croydon a while ago and there was a possibly Roumanian woman begging, holding a baby. The woman next to me in the queue announced that she was a social worker and if the beggar was caught begging with a baby by the Police then the baby would be taken off her - and the beggar slunk off.

I live close to Dublin and sometimes when I get the bus in, I see a family of about eight kids and adults, all Romani Gypsies, get on to head into town to beg. They are housed but they treat begging like their day job and diligently go in to do it. Obviously they're getting all the benefits they're entitled to as well. It's the same everywhere. I very rarely give money to beggars because it's nearly always a scam or else it will go straight into their arm.

@barndancebilly I work in central London and walk or get the best near Hanover Square and know exactly who you mean. A couple of weeks ago the police were there moving them on because of a massive fight and this was before 8am. I see them regularly on Regent Street but refuse to give money to them.

I haven't been to Marble Arch recently but there was a pretty large camp of them living in tents on the traffic island a couple of years ago. I was appalled but I imagine they make a lot of money from tourists.

People used to say the same about the few homeless people in my town, too.

They were talking bollocks though, as 3 of the 4 were clients of the homeless project I worked for and they were genuinely homeless.

I was approached by a man asking for money to buy a train ticket. I offered to walk with him to the station and I would buy him a ticket. He suddenly disappeared and didn't need a ticket anymore......

There is an organisation called Streetlink which have an app and a website where you can inform them of someone who is sleeping rough. Just let them know where you saw them and they will send their navigators out to try and find them.
Homelessness is a very complex issue, very rarely a simple case of not having a home.
There are loads of organisations in London that can support people so they don't have to sleep on the streets, however, that can often feel less safe for people, so for them the streets are a better option.
Organised begging gangs are definitely on the rise with vulnerable people being trafficked and being used to make money for the corrupt.
Please do report anyone you see begging, as this enables organisations to target the support where needed and at least help some people onto a better future.