[Hpn] UK Homelessness Tsar appalls clients & charity workers (fwd)

[Tom Boland]

UK `Homelessness Tsarina' appalls clients & charity workers (fwd)

FWD - UK

DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS A MAN MUST NOT GO

Nick Cohen
Sunday December 3, 2000
The Observer (London)

Many of our homeless customers will be picking up today's Observer in
the hope that it is a good duvet as well as a good read. For while the
rain tips down in the wettest autumn on record, there's not a bed to
be had in central London.

Centrepoint, St Mungos, the Bridge Project...all those charitable
hostels have spare places - one St Mungos' shelter had 19 free places
last week - it's just that they're refusing to give them to the
indigent.

Louise Casey, the Prime Minister's Homeless Tsarina, has demanded a
freeze. And the charities, which have allowed themselves to become
dependent on Government grants, have obeyed her orders. They knew the
price of defiance would be high. 'If you're taking taxpayers' money,
you have to buy into the Prime Minister's strategy,' explained Casey
in October.

Charity workers are appalled by the Tsarina and their supine
managements in equal measure. 'Clients are pissed off and are taking
it out on us,' said one. 'They're out there in pneumonia weather.
Their lives are at risk. This is a cynical, disgusting policy to make
Casey smell of roses; you couldn't do it worse if you sat down and
tried.'

The alleged cynicism works as follows. On 11 December, Casey's Rough
Sleepers Unit will have a count of people sleeping on the streets to
see if it is hitting the Government's targets to reduce begging. What
matters most to journalists and politicians in over-centralised
Britain is how many bodies are found curled up in the doorways of
central London .

In all likelihood, they will discover that a miracle has occurred and
the streets have been cleared. The homeless, who have pricked what is
left of the capital's conscience for two decades, will have
disappeared into the beds Casey has put to one side. Can you imagine a
sweeter Christmas story?

A spokeswoman for the Rough Sleepers Unit replied that it was filled
with altruists rather than opportunists. The Tsarina had saved up beds
so places could be found for the hardest cases who have resisted all
previous attempts to coax them into hostels, she said. What was wrong
with that?

But as workers with the homeless are asking, why is the sweep of the
streets being made just before Christmas and the official count of
rough sleepers? 'They'll be back again soon enough,' said one. 'These
are people with dogs or girlfriends or boyfriends on the streets; they
never stay in hostels for long.'

A few weeks ago, Casey announced that we must suppress all civilised
instincts and give money to charities rather than beggars. If homeless
charities aren't robust, independent organisations but Casey's
creatures, why should anyone waste a penny on them?

END FORWARD

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