More than half of the rough sleepers and homeless people housed under the covid-19 “Everyone In” policy have moved into long-term accommodation but people are still begging on the streets.
Brighton and Hove City Council received £3.4 million from the government to rehouse those who were rough sleepers or living in dormitory-style accommodation.
They were given their own rooms last spring as part of the effort to try to contain the coronavirus.
However, during a meeting of the council’s Housing Committee yesterday (Wednesday 20 January), Conservative councillors raised concerns about aggressive begging on the city streets.
They virtual meeting was told that many people housed during the pandemic were still feeding addictions.
Conservative councillor Mary Mears said that the council needed to address the “elephant in the room” – quoting Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) chief executive Andy Winter – and deal with begging.
She said: “Until we do something about this, we are not going to change people’s lives.
“We are spending government money moving people on but we are not dealing with addiction in the long term and making no difference to lives.”
Another Conservative councillor Dawn Barnett said that she has spoken with people begging in her ward of Hangleton and Knoll, to understand their situation.
Councillor Barnett said: “Several told me they live in accommodation provided by the council, receive food and benefit, but continue to beg on the streets due to their addictions. They feel nothing will be done to stop them.
“Some of these beggars have told me they are getting more than £1,000 a month in benefits as well as getting their accommodation paid for.
“But they still beg because it’s not sufficient to sustain what they need. I feel rehab should be compulsory for these people.”
She asked how many people were begging on the streets, what was being done to end begging and she called for a cashless donation scheme.
Green councillor David Gibson, who chaired the Housing Committee meeting, agreed that many beggars were not rough sleepers but were people who had been housed by the council.
He said: “Addiction is a health issue. Certainly, during the pandemic, a lot of people have said to people who have got quite desperate, and maybe aggressive, when they say, ‘Can I have some money for a hostel?’ – well, the council is housing everyone, so they haven’t been given the money they were given in the past.
“There are fewer people on the streets and that’s made people more desperate. That is one aspect of the issue.
The biggest trouble with this council is there is way too much money wasted ‘talking’ about things and non-conclusive ‘research’ into the issues when a single rail fare home to their town/city of origin would save SO much TAXPAYER’S money.
Begging is illegal. The police should arrest and detain anyone begging aggressively. At the same time (and missing from the discussion above) is the use of beggars by organised crime. Begging gangs were reported on in the Argus in Aug 2019 following people reporting seeing beggars being dropped off by vans.
Perhaps it is time to make giving money to beggars illegal ?
They seem to have settled very nicely outside supermarkets, especially those with a cash machine outside.
Sainsburys in the centre of Western Road now has a new resident to welcome shoppers, a young woman who is happy to sit there, chatting on her mobile.One can only guess what the calls are about. And having finished her call, shouts out to passers by, begging for money.
And with them comes the bedding, the bags and the rubbish, even when they themselves are not around, The entrance to Waterstones now looks like something out of a war zone.
There is one drugged out-of-his-mind zombie, who parades around Castle Square and East Street, begging of course, while there are idiots who stop and give him money. Masks and social distancing? Forget it!