Minutes:
Chair said that a fact sheet with useful contact numbers had been circulated but it’s good to explain from an agency point of view what powers they have and how they engage with the homeless. How groups like St Mungo’s work with the homeless on often multiple issues.
Eammon Edgerton from St Mungo’s Street Population Outreach Team
Eammon said that St Mungo’s is a housing association that has been working with homeless people for forty years. They provide housing for about one thousand people every night. We aim to work assertively to assist people’s recovery from the streets and back into being active members of the community.
In Southwark St Mungo’s has a couple of hostels, a shelter and also a big employment and training team. I’m here to talk about the outreach services that Southwark has funded. There are three outreach teams.
There is the SMART (St Mungo’s Assertive Response Team). They work with street-drinkers and drug users. There is also the Diamond Team, a multi-agency team involving the Police, probation service, prisons and some voluntary sector agencies. They work with people having sentences of less than a year. I manage the Street Population Outreach Team. We reduce rough sleeping in the borough and associated activities.
One of the important aspects of sleeping rough is it can happen to anyone. We have worked with a number of people who grew up in Southwark and for a variety of reasons have ended up rough sleeping. Quite often mental illness or traumatic events such as bereavement or relationship breakdown have led to them being on the streets. The longer someone is on the streets the more complex their problem tends to be. The sooner my team realise someone is there and start working with them the better. Living on the street becomes a state of mind and people start building barriers around themselves. We don’t believe that anyone should be sleeping rough and work hard to stop vulnerable people reaching that point in the first place.
There is a lot of anti-social behaviour connected to rough sleeping. Street-drinking, drugs, urinating and begging. As a team we challenge this and work with partner agencies. We look to get people into training and work as long-term this will help them move forward. We also work with the anti-social behaviour unit, the Police and the Wardens and help with enforcement where possible.
We work with East Europeans who have language problems and no access to public funds. We have two Eastern European members on our team. The stark choice is street drinking decline or give up and get back to work or return home to social projects in Poland/Czech republic. We also look at enforcement with the UK Border Agency. If people are not fulfilling their treaty obligations and just living on the streets they may be moved.
What can people do? We need for you the residents to be our ears and eyes. If you see someone scared and traumatised or just a problem to you, let us know. The sooner we know about it the earlier we can help.
Contact via Email: info@mungos.org or Tel: 020 8762 5500
Chair thanked Eammon and said during the break there were three sets of Safe in the City presentation slides that show crime categories during the last twelve months in Borough and Bankside. There is a comparison with figures for the previous year and hotspots for the particular crime being committed.
A resident said they live in Nelson Square and see homeless who are hard core and do not seem to want to alter their way of life around drink and drugs. Is there a code of conduct at St. Mungo’s?
Eammon said yes, all the hostels have serious rules, regulations, expectations and neighbourhood contracts. We tailor behaviour contracts to specific people if they have particularly complex problems. We also work with Southwark Anti-Social Behaviour Unit (SASBU).
A resident promoted the ROBES project which operates in the winter. It is an emergency night shelter run by local churches. We are able to offer hospitality and a bed for the night for some of these people with lower support needs. Last year there was a very good rate of getting people re-housed. They asked people to support the ROBES project.
They added that homeless problems are often shifted along to a new venue rather than solved completely. Also where can we suggest people go in the afternoons?
Eammon said there is a place in the East End called Crisis Skylight open 2pm -10pm. There is a magazine called The Pavement which lists available options.
Re the moving of people along, the easier it is to rough sleep due to available food and help the easier it is for someone to become entrenched. But we very much look at the long-term solution of helping people into work and accommodation. We do face a big problem though assisting the Eastern Europeans and at the moment we don’t know how it will pan out.
A resident asked about the Webber Street service.
Eammon said it was open Monday to Thursday 8.30am – 12 or 1pm.
The resident said someone, previously in a bad way, was now working there and telling people his story. Eammon said it was great that the person was now back in society helping others.
A resident said they had recently met a young man from another country who was in a desperate state and we should all do more to help people in such dire need.
Chair asked if there was contact with Lambeth’s services given the issues in and around Waterloo station.
Eammon said yes, there is a lot of displacement and there are different ways of tackling the issues. We work together and discuss how best to move forward.
A resident said that in the park near Pilgrimage Street there is a problem with street-drinkers during the day. Also there is a group of East Europeans that drink on Great Dover Street and the Tabard. There was an altercation recently at the community allotment on Manciple Street.
Eammon said they were aware of some of the issues as they do street shifts both early morning and during the day with a foundation that runs programmes in Poland of abstinence. We feed issues back and Southwark has an alcohol co-ordinator. Please do keep advising of these issues. The more information we receive the better we can manage our resources.
OTHER – A resident said that a crater on Hankey previously reported at a meeting had been worked on. However the work had not been done well. It needs to be looked into properly. There needs to be accountability for work done.
Chair asked officers to look in that.
A resident asked about the increase in Southwark’s dog population and the safety of our children. He said we need to look at the issue.
Chair said that is something we could cover under the subject of parks and green spaces which had been a very popular choice among residents in the feedback forms completed at the June meeting.
Cllr Morris said that dangerous dogs and dogs running around parks and the issue of mess needed discussing.
Dave Simpson from SASBU said that dog related nuisance was one of their priorities. He would be happy to follow up on any related issues. The Council has Operation Bark which monitors the situation.
A resident asked about licensing and the restrictions on numbers in pubs plus what responsibility exists for people drinking outside.
Richard Lee from Licensing said there were very few public houses in Southwark these days with capacity limits. It is down to managers to ensure their premises are safe. There are clear regulations about not serving to underage children and also to people that are drunk. The licenses given out are about points of sale rather than areas of consumption. Licensees do have some responsibility in ensuring that customers don’t cause a nuisance to the public. Smokers who now go outside of pubs to have a cigarette with their drink should not spoil the enjoyment of local residents. Please let us know at Licensing if there is a problem with premises near you.
A resident said that on Building Schools for the Future, they are for community use. If people live near either of the schools, they should go along and make suggestions to improve the scheme for local community use.
Re housing, Southwark officers need to be reminded that interventions should or could be made to prevent people being left without housing. They gave an example of an elderly Southwark resident who had recently slipped through the net following eviction. With the pending cuts there is likely to be more such cases in the future.
A resident asked, if the Council still had dog wardens and how many people are fined for not picking up dog mess. Also can we name and shame offenders in the local press?
Dave Simpson said he would ask the wardens manager about those statistics and have that for next time.
Melissa Pepper from the Metropolitan Police Authority
Melissa explained that she was a research analyst at the MPA. We are the body that are responsible for overseeing the Metropolitan Police Service.
Each year we carry out a consultation to inform the Police in the London Business Plan. This document focuses the Police work for the following year. As a Police authority we have to consult with the public to put this document together and the Police must have due regard to the views of people in their area.
People feel safer and are more confident in the Police in their area when they feel that the Police are dealing with issues that matter to them.
I manage the consultation. There is an online questionnaire and I have brought along paper copies. You can also complete the form over the phone by dropping me a line and listing your priorities. We do a number of community events and ask people where they would allocate Police resources.
We also have questions in the public attitude survey of 20,000 people across London.
The top 4 priorities last year were:
Anti-social behaviour
Gun and knife crime
Accessibility and visibility of the Police
Drugs and drug related crime
People were also very concerned about traffic related incidents including cyclists on the pavement and bad driving.
I read through all the responses to the consultation. Following analysis I put together a report that goes to the Strategic and Operational Policing Committee. The senior officers of the MPA discuss the report and these committees are public so you can attend. We also send a newsletter to every single respondent and explain how we have utilised their response.
Please complete the forms and write whatever you want.
The deadline is 26 November 2010.
Contact 020 7202 0063 for further information and all contributions are welcome.
Chair thanked Melissa and encouraged residents to pass on their views in the freepost envelopes provided.