An anti-homelessness campaigner has criticised Brighton and Hove City Council for failing to support a woman who faced being left out on the street.
The council said that its record of events differed somewhat but extra measures had now been put in place to provide additional support should a similar situation arise in future.
The woman contacted Jim Deans, from Sussex Homeless Support, having been made homeless after her abusive partner failed to pay the rent.
Mr Deans said that the woman, a South African national, was in the process of returning to her home country.
She had money from her family to stay at a hotel but weekend rates more than trebled the price and she had to leave.
He said: “I rang the out-of-hours switchboard and asked for a housing officer to ring me back. I never got a call.
“I involved police who confirmed the domestic violence case. They called (the council) out of hours and spoke to a (housing) officer. I was present.
“They were told, ‘yes, she qualifies for emergency (support) but nothing is available.’ Even the police could not believe this.
“Police organised a check every two hours on her. Street Pastors, who I alerted, visited late Friday (25 October).
“I went again even later Saturday morning with supplies. She did as she was told to remain there. In fact, she could not move as she has so much luggage.
“No one other than our volunteers attended to her. On Saturday, a donation paid for a room back in the Ibis as we and she gave up hope. On Sunday, we paid again for her room.”
After receiving support from volunteers, the woman was able to fly back to South Africa on Monday 30 October.
Mr Deans said that the woman lived in Brighton and Hove for 18 months and had secure immigration status until she lost her home.
He said: “Should something similar happen in future, I have asked that discretion is used in the future to fund interim accommodation for people in such vulnerable circumstances.”
Mr Deans plans to raise the issue at the next meeting of the full council which is scheduled for Thursday 19 December.
The council’s cabinet member for housing and new homes Gill Williams said: “We are aware of the situation although our recorded version of events does differ somewhat from those being presented to the media.
“We were not contacted directly by the individual involved to request support at any stage over the weekend and were also unable to contact the resident who emailed us to raise their concerns.
“The individual was being intensely supported by two voluntary sector organisations working in the city.”
Councillor Williams added: “Our policy is not to discuss individual cases so we will not be commenting further on this person’s circumstances.
“We acknowledge there are always lessons we can learn from situations like this one and additional measures have now been put in place to provide additional support in such situations.”
How come this woman found money for a plane ticket back to South Africa ? Another foreigner who wants this and wants that I’m sure there are other women on the street with a sob story if the hostels are full they’re full
Perhaps by then the woman had money sent by her family. Perhaps she had the ticket already, but couldn’t ask her family for more. Learn to have a little compassion.
Women should not be on the street, women and children should be first to be taken off the streets. As a ex homeless person myself, I have seen how woman are treated on the street when the sun goes down. Not good,
Absolutely, it is also why there are female-only projects around the city. Additional vulnerabilities.
God bless Jimmy dean, and his helpers,
Michael and Barry it says in the article she was helped with donations.. no woman should be on the street its dangerous for them in nighttime . Extremely Where she came ftom.is irrelevant thank you Jim Dean and the sussex homeless support 👏 🙏
Jim and so many others want a homeless triage hub, a sanctuary where services and groups can band together not only to end the visible homelessness but also help people recover. ATM and its citywide, but addition is a big stain, as is a lot of unresolved trauma. It seems a humanist approach will hopefully stop these occurances. Lets hope we dont need to keep waiting, its been years and years of asking, getting local support in petitions. Through workshops. Conferences. The work has been done, its down to the administration to deliver this now. Praise to all in the community who speak out, far too many organisations take the money and zip it!!