I can understand why companies install uncomfortable metal "nodules" around buildings to deter rough sleepers but spikes are imho a step too far....
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/homeless-spikes-manchester-homelessness-rough-sleeping-a7551136.html
Someone falling on the ones shown in this article could really injure themselves! How did they get approved or past any sensible risk assessment!?
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They do look a bit brutal.
In Bristol we had some bollards fitted to deter rough sleepers, but public outrage resulted in swift removal
metro.co.uk/2016/02/25/homeless-spikes-removed-from-doorway-in-bristol-5717688/
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The OP article says they were on private land. We don't know the extent of the problem which led them to that action. If I had people sleeping in my front garden every night I might be inclined to do something about it. I'd try to come up with a solution which didn't have the ability to harm but not sure what I'd do if I were at my wit's end.
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>>, but public outrage resulted in swift removal
How many of the outraged offered their own front gardens as an alternative for the homeless?
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>>Homeless Spikes
I ass-umed you meant dosshouses. There was one in Peckham, sowf lunden called The Spike.
Another one was in Deptford, also in sowf lunden (what izzit about S. London??) where my friend Lauri the leather craftsman (up on Bodmin Moor) spent some time during the '70's.
Ere tis: www.olddeptfordhistory.com/2012/02/carrington-house-mill-lane-deptford.html
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In my town the council are building a new place to accommodate thirty homeless folk. This is a purpose built new building. I reckon it'll just attract more homeless to the town and exacerbate the problem. We already have three hostels, but many of the homeless refuse to use them because they're 'dry'.
Meanwhile the council are making cutbacks and proposing a 15% council tax hike for the care of the old.
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"the spike" was a term for the workhouse, the casual ward anyway (looked that bit up).
Dosshouses were private enterprises, cheap lodgings. A cheap sleeping option was to sit on a bench and lean over a rope to sleep.
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Homelessness is always going to be a problem as some don't qualify or even want to stay in hostels.
In these situations it is always difficult and I have no problems with the normal "bumps" that properties have. The actual sharp spikes though are another matter altogether and potentially dangerous.
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Usual problem of trying to address the symptom and not the cause. No-one should be homeless to start with. Isn't the UK still the fourth or fifth wealthiest Country in the World? Disgraceful that anyone's forced to sleep outside.
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>> Usual problem of trying to address the symptom and not the cause.
The very description "homeless" applied to those sleeping rough is in itself an example of that view. The lack of a place to sleep is not the cause but a symptom of the problem. Nearly everyone sleeping rough has some sort of underlying issue that puts them in that position and those are the problems that need addressing It is normally drugs, alcohol or mental illness.
They are not helped by well meaning people giving them money directly which is invariably spent on drugs or alcohol.
The simple provision of a place to sleep does not in itself solve the problem. Norwich at the moment has a large number of rough sleepers, Local charities advise that around 50% of rough sleepers decline accommodation when offered.
I don't know what the answer is but it's not an easy one to resolve.
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I thought the subject line was about hedgehogs. Aaawwww.
There are quite a few rough sleepers in areas where I have worked, and a girl I know volunteered to help in a 'homeless persons shelter'. Often they would come in for food, a shower, some clean clothing, then go back outside and sleep rough because drug taking in the premises was not allowed. She no longer volunteers in the shelter after being involved in one too many fights between coke adled smack heads.
As CGNorwich says, she has no idea what the solution is, and was directly involved with these people.
Very sad
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Anyone interested in what a "spike" was like in the 1930s should read "Down and Out in London and Paris" by George Orwell. You won't want to eat in a smart Paris restaurant again either! :-)
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Yep - me too, years ago, so my recollection of it is dim.
What about "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist" ?
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What did you think of Orwell then Roger? Some sort of bleeding heart liberal I suppose.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 30 Jan 17 at 22:37
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As one who spent about a year officially homeless, I have mixed views on this subject.
I have total sympathy for anyone who's trying to get out of the situation,by doing something positive about it; much less for those who are more intent on playing the "homeless" card in order to scrounge either off the state or the public and who have no intention of changing their frequently anti-social ways.
Green thumb to CG Norwich who has summed the situation up far more concisely than I could.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Mon 30 Jan 17 at 22:48
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Read that too (I told you I was ill) back in the 80's when we lived in Mugsborough.
Have a hardback copy knocking around here somewhere or other.
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Theresa May's Government has announced additional funds:
www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-announces-areas-to-benefit-from-50m-fund-to-tackle-homelessness
However, the Governments attempts to help some homeless people have been denounced today, stating that they have been "placed in accommodation infested by rats, mice and insects".
The Home Affairs Committee called the conditions a "disgrace".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38799694
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>> Theresa May's Government has announced additional funds:
>> www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-announces-areas-to-benefit-from-50m-fund-to-tackle-homelessness
Hopefully it will be administered in a way that heeds expert advice and therefore succeeds. Rough sleeping was a huge problem in London and elsewhere in the nineties. The Major and subsequently Blair governments got on top of it with a properly focused scheme using carrots much more than sticks.
Coercing and threatening tends to be counter productive.
>> However, the Governments attempts to help some homeless people have been denounced today, stating that
>> they have been "placed in accommodation infested by rats, mice and insects".
>> The Home Affairs Committee called the conditions a "disgrace".
>> www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38799694
>
This is about accommodation provided specifically for those seeking Asylum and manged by companies like Serco and G4S. Tends mostly to be on run down estates in deindustrialized areas where the idigenes have moved on.
Disgrace is exactly the right word.
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Whole item on homelessness last night on the local bbc show inside out - they looked at Gloucester who are having a clampdown in the city. I was really surprised at the local council representation who are pushing people to not feed or give cash in an attempt to drive them out of the city. She claimed that cash is used for drugs / alcohol, but giving food is just as bad because that leaves more disposable cash for drugs / alcohol.
They also looked at Finland who have almost no homelessness - their approach is different in that they look to get people straight into a permanent home rather than transiting them through emergency accomodation
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>> They also looked at Finland who have almost no homelessness - their approach is different
>> in that they look to get people straight into a permanent home rather than transiting
>> them through emergency accomodation
Pretty much what Major and subsequently Blair, via local councils, did in mid/late nineties.
The Council rep needs to understand evidence based policy making.......
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Round here (W1) they are almost all Romanian immigrants. Sent out to beg by gangmasters - they all have the same wording on their bits of cardboard, and seem to work in shifts. Sometimes with accordians or violins.
They're (presumably) not homeless. Marylebone police reckon you can earn hundreds of pounds a day begging on the street here. The problem isn't homelessness.
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Homeless Spikes - mikeyb
