Homeless in Leeds

From a comment on a local chat line"

There is a guy sitting in the rain because he can't shelter under the
Arndale because he gets moved. Where can we tell these guys to go sit to keep dry. He's only a teenager, he's well turned out not intimidating. How heartless are the owners if the
Arndale and what can we do? I have given him some money for a coffee so he
can sit inside somewhere but it's not a solution

 

This is Joe Kent's detailed, informative and, I think, encouraging response:

"It is certainly a complex and difficult situation, I have worked for many years (too long unfortunately) supporting homeless people and trying to find solutions - here is some information and what I have found out over the years that I hope will help with this dilemma:

If you see people who are sleeping rough then there is a great reporting tool you can use called Street Link. http://www.streetlink.org.uk/

You can download it as an app on your phone and report straight away - this will get your sighting and report sent to the Leeds Rough Sleeper outreach team within less than one working day
Despite cuts to the council (really massive cuts - I think it is up to around 50% of their budget since 2010 now) there is still a Leeds rough sleeper team - and it is a good one too. It is run by CGL / Change Grow Live ( they used to be called CRI) and they have some really good people working for them.

That team will go out in the evening and very early morning to find people and connect them to services such as the Crypt. They respond to reports on Street Link.

The other key place to go to is Housing Options in the city centre - they can pay deposits and get people into private rented accommodation very quickly.

http://www.homeless.org.uk/ is a national directory of hostels you can search
There is also an outreach team run by BARCA-Leeds who work with the top cohort of people in the city who have insecure housing, addictions, are re-offending and mental health illness. This is very challenging work and the team re-establish connections with services and stabilise people to improve their situation (Don't refer to this one, they work in partnership with other agencies and target people with most complex issues)

There is still a network of supported accommodation / hostels in Leeds, but this has been cut severely and next year will see further reductions. This is secondary type provision that acts as move on for people from various situations including from the Crypt.

There is no doubt that rough sleeping is rising - there is an annual rough sleeper count by most councils (and most councils do interim surveys) to check numbers seen sleeping rough. These are independently invigilated and they do provide a very good annual benchmark of the numbers of people found on the streets. The methodology was set up by Shelter in around 2002 I think and Homeless Link provide independent invigilators.

Many agencies and politicians complain that these figures are not accurate as you can never find everyone because people hide away (there was one on the radio today) which is true. But by doing the same method every year you have a good indication of the trends. And also reporting is very good from a range of agencies to find people hidden away - the rough sleeper team know most spots around the city.

A good estimate is to consider a ratio of around 4 to 1 - for every one rough sleeper counted in a snapshot count there were around 4 people in insecure situations who might have been on the street that night.

So in Leeds, the figure has recently been around 15 - 20 people. This probably means that they are in a larger group of around 60 - 80 people in Leeds who are in and out of the streets. They just happen on the night of the count to be on a friends settee, in temporary accommodation such as the Crypt, in prison, back temporarily with their family, etc.

Leeds manages this situation really well - Manchester rough sleeper counts are usually around 10 higher than leeds over the years. In recent years they have shot up to over 80 whilst Leeds has remained largely steady - this is for a number of different reasons including the disbanding of a team centrally and other factors.

There are now huge numbers of people in tents in Manchester, people may have noticed that there was briefly a tent city in Leeds. The story behind this is rather surprising - it was part of an organised protest by a very angry man who has a house in Harrogate. He started off through a Facebook page criticising everyone and building a network of supporters.

In September they set up tents outside the Town Hall, they brought in people from Sheffield, Nottingham and other places. Some locals were from Leeds. They drove off the rough sleeper team, attacked the Crypt and other services and ended up moving to the old site of the swimming pool. The object seemed to be self-publicity and there were live Facebook feeds.

It all ended in horrific circumstances, a group of men attacked the camp with baseball bats and the camp dispersed. We suspect it was a drug debt from someone in the camp. The same people have now moved on to Hull and started the same pattern again.

From talking to people who lived on the streets for many years, a common theme is that the distribution of tents and food can trap people in a lifestyle on the streets rather than other services that are linked into solutions that lead people off the streets and back into housing. I can see that the tent city in Leeds did briefly offer people a community and this is an important issue.

A key factor now happening are the high levels of extreme poverty in our society - the foodbanks in Leeds are now serving people who are in work as well as people on benefits and the many people who are now sub-benefits due to either dropping out of the complicated system altogether, or being suspended from benefits - the film I Daniel Blake very accurately shows how this can happen. The new system of Universal Credit is gradually replacing the current benefit arrangements, this is very concerning for many reasons which is clearly recognised by he Government because it is being introduced very gradually. Almost by stealth.

A foodbank in South Leeds is in danger of running out of food which just offers staples and basics
The whole situation (i.e poverty on a mass scale) has seen a rise in begging associated with desperation and hunger (in my opinion).

From my previous and current work all surveys in different parts of the country showed that around 70% of beggars are not homeless despite what props or stories they may use. Unfortunately from the story here I have to conclude that the young man in the Arndale was not homeless and was begging.

A large proportion of beggars also have addiction issues - either alcohol or drugs. The majority of others, particularly in good spots for begging will be part of a network (often a small one) and will be paying a fee to others who will drive them off unless they do so.

The story of being made to sit in the rain does not ring true - is there now security monitoring the pavements at the Arndale? And the Crypt has only ever housed single people since the 1930's - they only have very small single rooms and are not kitted out for families or children, including managing the safeguarding issues. There is no exclusion of people without dependants.

Also, there are not any hostels in Leeds that will charge an entry fee or deposit.
There is no doubt that people are driven to begging by desperation, but there will be a dual narrative running here - the life history of that individual that has put them in this situation (there will be something around neglect and abuse for the young man you encountered, I have no doubt) most likely to be combined with a current situation of addiction and/or exploitation. There is a need, but what is the solution? It is not simple unfortunately.

I hope that this helps with some understanding. I have worked in this field for too many years, I wish there was a straightforward solution because I am sick of what happens. I, too, have been caught out many times with giving money to people who were scamming me, but in the final analysis I don't really mind, it is a human and kind thing to do, and it is fantastic that people on this network and in our community do care. What we need are better solutions."