Retiring Grocer Donates All His Fruit And Veg To The Homeless

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A greengrocer who has served his loyal customers through six decades has finally called it a day at the age of 81 – and donated his remaining stock to local homeless people.

Rodney Hutchinson has run the Service Stores since 1960. Rodney’s niece, Ruth Richards, said he has decided he can no longer carry on running it due to ill health. She said the outpouring of love for him since the shop, which is going to be refurbished before being sold, closed up last week has been ‘very touching’.

Ruth said: “He’s been running it on his own. During really busy periods such as Christmas he has had family members going in to help out. He didn’t want to give it up but his health had been deteriorating. We told him numerous times ‘you need to sell up uncle Rod’ and he said he wanted to carry on.”

“He woke up last Wednesday and he just said it’s time to give up now. We have given all the fruit and veg to the homeless. He wanted it to go somewhere where it would be used.”

The mum-of-three, of Peel Brow, Ramsbottom, said Rodney had worked in a fruit and veg shop in Ramsbottom for a couple of years from leaving school and then bought his own shop in Bacup town centre. She said: “He used to set off every morning for the wholesalers in Bolton and then went from there to Bacup. He was well known for his delicious pot herbs. He’s always made them right from scratch. He is a legend in Bacup.”

Rodney said: “I would like to thank everyone in Bacup for their loyal support and their custom over the years of me having Service Stores. A big thank you.”

Messages of thanks and goodwill to the grocer have poured in on social media from grateful customers, and traders have also set up collection boxes for Rodney’s ‘retirement fund’.

Fining Rough Sleepers? It Doesn’t Add Up

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A council was criticised after warning rough sleepers they could be fined up to £2,500.

But a review found that council staff acted “appropriately” when notices threatening homeless people with fines were issued in Oxford. It found they were used correctly against rough sleepers on five occasions last year. However, the Green Party said independent legal advice contradicted the finding.

Oxford City Council was accused of trying to “intimidate” homeless people when community protection notices (CPNs) were issued on belongings in July last year. At the time, the authority said they were blocking fire exits and lockers were available people who sought help. Nonetheless, a review by a senior council officer was subsequently ordered in October.

It found “informal approaches” were made before action was taken, council policy was followed, and their use was appropriate. It added, in each instance they were tackling an “element of risk”, which included blocking pavements, fire escapes, or public services like bus shelters.

But Oxford’s Green Party said George Molyneaux of Blackstone Chambers had examined a CPN from 19 July 2017 and believed an appeal would have succeeded. His advice said it instructed the person not to leave belongings unattended on any land which was not theirs without written permission. In his view, this was a requirement of “extraordinary breadth” and it was “very likely” a court would have found it “unreasonable”.

Responding, Oxford City Council said Mr Molyneaux had not seen all the case papers and it believed its actions were “reasonable” and “lawful”. No appeal was made and the CPN was complied with, it added. Separately, board member for community safety, councillor Tom Hayes, said the council “has not, will not, and never will” issue CPNs to somebody because they are homeless or sleeping rough.

It would seem that the irony of fining rough sleepers two and a half grand was lost on the council.

New Licence Arrangements For Sefton Landlords

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From March 1st landlords who privately rent out their properties will be required to obtain a new licence from Sefton Council if their properties are located within selected areas in the borough.

Sefton Council approved the implementation of two new housing licensing schemes last September in separate areas of the borough. Both schemes will run until the end of February 2023. Sefton designated an area of Bootle as being subject to Selective licensing (all privately rented properties) and has designated parts of Seaforth, Waterloo, Brighton-le-Sands and Southport as being subject to Additional licensing.

Additional licensing requires all houses defined as a house in multiple occupation (HMO) to apply for a housing licence. Mandatory licensing for larger HMO properties is currently a national requirement. A full list of all streets affected along with further details of the schemes, licensing conditions and fees are available on sefton.gov.uk.

Landlords will be required to meet a range of licence conditions, and show that they have appropriate management arrangements in place. It is an offence, which can result in fines of any amount, if the landlord or person in control of the property:

  1. Fails to apply for a licence for a licensable property.
  2. Allows a property to be occupied by more people than is permitted under the licence.
  3. Breaches any of the licence conditions.

All landlords or persons managing a property within the areas of the designation are advised to check whether their property will require a licence and ensure that they apply for one per property.

Landlords can apply for a reduced fee for either applying within the first 3 months of the scheme, being accredited or when a Sefton accredited managing agent is appointed by the landlord to be the licence holder. Further details of the reduced fees are available on the Council’s website.

Councillor Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, said: “We have areas where many properties currently fail to meet the required homes standard, which can have a terrible impact on the health and welfare of their tenants and their wider communities. The schemes we have introduced aim to reduce that by making sure private landlords meet satisfactory standards of tenancy and property management.”

“But it is also about tenants behaving in a way that does not blight or impact on their community and shows respect for their neighbours. If you are a landlord renting a property in any of the designated areas, you must check whether your property will need a licence from March 1, 2018.”

Early application for property accreditation is encouraged. Further details of Sefton’s property (and managing agent) accreditation schemes are available here.

Homelessness Harms Health

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According to last week’s editorial in the esteemed British Medical Journal, the number of people officially recorded as sleeping on the streets of England rose from 1768 in 2010 to 4751 in autumn 2017. Charities estimate the true figure to be more than double this.

The most common reason, the BMJ says, is falling into arrears with housing payments. Living in damp, cold, or overcrowded housing leads to greater physical risks to health, and strains on mental health occur though insecurity and personal debt. Associated health effects include respiratory conditions, depression, anxiety, unintentional injury, excess winter mortality, and skin irritation. At the extreme end, when last calculated (for 2001-09) single homeless people had an average age at death of 47 years, compared with 77 years for the general population.

The recent rise in homelessness has its roots in welfare reform and the housing market. It is almost entirely accounted for by an increase in families losing their privately rented housing. Between 2010 and 2016 the number of households accepted as homeless by English local authorities rose by 16,780, from 42,390 to 59,260; the number becoming homeless because of losing a private sector tenancy tripled from 6,150 to 18,750.

Despite having greater health needs, homeless people face barriers to accessing primary healthcare, leading to a higher rate of attendance at emergency departments. This has prompted the development of some specialist primary healthcare services for homeless people, such as Oxford’s Luther Street Medical Centre.

What is needed is a comprehensive strategy that improves support services for vulnerable people, an increased supply of affordable housing, more security of tenancies, adequate cash benefits to cover the rising cost of housing, and more efficient use of our existing housing stock.

You can read the full editorial here.

Kingsway House Homeless Shelter Under Fire From Locals

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Liverpool City Council is to look into concerns raised about Signature Living’s Kingsway House homeless shelter after complaints from local businesses and residents.

According to a report in the Liverpool Echo some of those living and working around the Hatton Garden centre – which was opened by the hotel firm in December – say they have regularly been targeted with abuse and aggression by residents and claim street drinking and drug taking has become a major problem in the vicinity.

Commenting on twitter, a representative from The Excelsior pub in nearby Dale Street said: “Something needs to be done about Kingsway House. All week staff & myself have been subjected to verbal abuse & threats of physical violence for not allowing them use of pub toilets. The few that have used the toilets are using them for drug use.” The same twitter account claimed that ‘open drug taking and drinking’ in the area has made it a ‘no go area for customers, tourists and residents.’

Grace Boyd, who lives nearby, was in full agreement with the pub’s management. She tweeted: “Couldn’t agree more, I live 5 mins away, the area is now full of aggressive, threatening drunk drug takers who are willing to follow people home if they aren’t given money. Has to stop.”

Another local business owner got in touch with the ECHO to complain about what has been taking place in the area since the shelter opened. The owner – who did not want to be named – said: “We have had stuff stolen and pubs in the area have had to kick people out of their toilets as they have been doing drugs.” He also claimed there have been “mountains of rubbish” left at the back of the centre. He added: “I’m all for helping the homeless but Signature Living need to step up and take responsibility.”

Liverpool Council says it welcomes anyone who wants to help support the city’s vulnerable people – but says it will look into the complaints. It also urged people to direct rough sleepers to its professionally staffed shelter at Labre House in Camden Street. City Centre councillor Nick Small said he welcomed efforts to support rough sleepers – but confirmed he would be looking into complaints made about Kingsway House.

He said: “I was out with one of our street teams last week and there were people on the street telling me about some negative experiences related to Kingsway House. I have been contacted by a local business as well and I will be taking up these complaints with officers. We welcome the work that Signature Living are doing around homelessness and we are not knocking it but the council has opened Labre House which has professional services and I would urge people to go there and get the help they need. We welcome people getting involved but we are talking about some very vulnerable people with complex needs who require professional services.”

But Signature bosses have hit back and said that such issues were far more prevalent before the Kingsway House shelter opened – and said the city council was slow to react to them before. Owner Lawrence Kenwright said he believes his centre is “filling the void” left by the council by opening the centre.

He also said he had received no complaints from local businesses and the shelter had only been met with support.

He said: “Beneath Kingsway House has always been used as a place for dug abusers to congregate and yet the Council did nothing to eradicate the situation and in fact it is due to this very reason that we opened the centre. Let me be very candid, we are actually filling the void that has been left by our Council. If they would use the £12m pounds (spent on homelessness issues) more effectively we would as a city not be in this position.”

He also pointed out that a group of homeless guests at Kingsway House are carrying out weekly clean-ups of the city centre, adding: “We have also reacted to requests from local businesses to clean their streets by organising a team to clean pavements outside of Tesco’s Victoria street and Castle street weekly. Local businesses have offered our homeless guests jobs and accommodation.”

You can read the full article here.

Rough Sleeping Increased By Three-Quarters In Three Years

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The number of people sleeping rough in England has increased by 15% annually, with 4,751 people sleeping on our streets on any given night in 2017. This figure represents a 73% rise in rough sleeping over the past three years.

According to a report by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), this is a 15% rise; up by 617 from the autumn 2016 total of 4,134. The figures came from local authorities’ counts and estimates on a snapshot night in autumn last year. Of the total figure, 1,137 rough sleepers were in London. This is an increase of 18% from the 2016 figure of 964. In 2017 London accounted for 24% of the total England figure, compared to 23% in 2016 and 26% in 2015.

Of the 4,751 rough sleepers recorded, 653 (14%) were women. In 2016 women accounted for 12% of the total number of rough sleepers. There were 760 (16%) EU nationals from outside the UK sleeping rough in autumn 2017 compared to 714 in 2016. Westminster local authority had the highest number of rough sleepers with 217 people recorded, although this was a decrease of 17% from autumn 2016. Brighton and Hove recorded 178 rough sleepers – an increase of 24%. The largest spike in rough sleepers was in Camden, which had 17 in autumn 2016 but rose to 127 – a 647% increase – the following year.

The government report noted: “Within London, there are rough sleeping communities that move around boroughs. This leads to larger across borough movements in numbers than the change across London as a whole. Across the 33 boroughs of London 19 or 58% of local authorities reported increases, 11 or 33% reported decreases and 3 or 9% reported no change in the number of rough sleepers since 2016.” There were 3,614 rough sleepers in the rest of England – an increase of 444 (14%) from the 2016 figure of 3,170.

Homeless Link’s Chief Executive, Rick Henderson, commented: “This rise in rough sleeping is appalling, with a saddening growth in the number of people without a safe place to stay, and at risk of deteriorating mental and physical health. We have a long way to go if rough sleeping is to be eliminated altogether, and as a member of the Rough Sleeping Advisory Group, we will be working with Government and others to ensure a strategic and coordinated response is put in place and effective action taken. Our members – homelessness and supported housing services – are doing some excellent work; they also need to be recognised as part of the solution, and continued investment in these vital services is critical.”

“A key part of this will involve guaranteeing that the future funding model for supported housing provides the necessary certainty, stability and sustainability – something we do not believe the current proposals will achieve. These services provide a lifeline for thousands of vulnerable people and it is imperative that they are protected if we are to ensure that everyone in our country has a place to call home.”

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “No one should ever have to sleep rough. That’s why this Government is committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027. To break the homelessness cycle once and for all, we are providing over £1 billion of funding, supporting rough sleepers with the most complex needs through a new Housing First approach and bringing in the most ambitious legislation in decades that will mean people get the support they need earlier. In addition a new cross-Government taskforce supported by a panel of experts will drive forward a new strategy that will make life on the streets a thing of the past.”

You can read the full report here.

Homeless Help To Clean Up Liverpool City Centre

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Fifteen homeless people who are staying at the Signature Living Kingsway House shelter in Liverpool have volunteered to go out into the city centre and help clean up the streets.

Daniel Bolshaw, one of the homeless guests who is staying at the shelter approached Signature Living’s Chairman Lawrence Kenwright – who was at the shelter himself volunteering – with the idea. Daniel asked if he could get a group of the homeless guests together at the shelter to go out and help to clean up the streets of Liverpool each week.

The move comes after Liverpool’s street cleansing teams have been under pressure to deal with the increased issue of litter across the city that is being blamed on homeless people. The homeless guests will be starting at Castle Street and then each week across the city helping to clean the streets of Liverpool. They can be identified by their high-vis ‘Signature Shelter’ tabards.

Mr Kenwright, Chairman of Signature Living who opened Kingsway House to give a temporary shelter to the homeless told Click Liverpool: “This was an idea by one of our homeless guests who genuinely wanted to go out into the community and put something back by helping to clean up the streets in the city. He and many others at the shelter wanted to pay something back now that they have a shelter to stay in and are not on the streets. Now that these homeless guests have a roof over the head and somewhere safe to stay this merely reinforces the need for a joined up thinking and approach to how we tackle homelessness.”

He continued; “ If you give a homeless person shelter, a roof over their head, and an opportunity to work and get clean from substances, then we are half way there. This not only restores that person’s dignity and pride, but gives them a sense of purpose and a reason to re integrate back into society. Many of the homeless people I have met on the streets and in our shelter are not there by choice and are often in that position through circumstances out of their control.

“This situation can happen to any one of us. With austerity measures in place and councils being required to slash tens of millions of pounds from their budgets, it’s time that the private and public sectors collaborated. We want to work hand in hand with the local councils, outreach services and agencies to tackle homelessness and its wider social issues.”

The Signature Living Kingsway House Shelter opened its doors on the 8th December receiving 16 homeless people who required shelter and within days this had risen to over 82 men, women and dogs. The response from the homeless people at Kingsway House follows on from recent media coverage in the Echo about the state of and scale of the litter problem in Liverpool city centre.

A spokesman for Signature Living said; “ As a result of the coverage in the Echo about the scale of the problem in the city centre our homeless guests at the Kingsway House shelter wanted to do their bit. They wanted to show the people of Liverpool that even homeless people care about their city, the streets have been home to many of them. They want people to know that they too can be selfless, despite the bleak outlook of their own lives and personal situations. Many of the homeless people at our shelter never expected themselves to be in the situations they are in today and homeless.

Tory Council Tries To Hide The Homeless

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A homeless charity says it was asked to close early to avoid embarrassing dignitaries visiting the nearby town hall.

A Torbay councillor made the request to Humanity Torbay, the charity’s Ellie Waugh said. The charity received two similar requests in the last month to remove the homeless.

“We were told the council had some important visitors and they did not want to see the homeless,” said Ms Waugh. The request came from a councillor who Ms Waugh has declined to name. It happened in September, but Ms Waugh has only just spoken out about it.

She said the charity complied because “we had only been there for a couple of months and we did not want to fall foul of the council”. She added: “We were astounded, but we wouldn’t do it again.”

The charity regularly gets between 60 and 100 people outside its premises, she said. It is “regularly” asked by council officials and councillors to remove homeless people, Ms Waugh said. “They moan about us all the time. But we are looking after the homeless. That is the nature of a charity like ours. What are we supposed to do?”

The Conservative-led Torbay Council said it takes its responsibility towards the vulnerable in the community “very seriously” and that it works with a range of organisations to address homelessness in the area. It said it carries out “a range of activities” to help the homeless, including providing places for them to sleep and offering support and advice.

Homeless Games Founder: “It All Started At Bosco, For Me.”

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Ex-Bosco House resident and former committee member, Dave Morton, was interviewed by Independent Liverpool about how the Homeless Games started.

“Means more to me than any man in Liverpool this fella, smallest man I know but the biggest to me”. Dave says this to Eric and shoots him a shot of affection I’ll probably never comprehend. Eric and Dave met each other in 2008 and Eric ended up saving his life. And not in a born-again, spiritual kind of way – in the literal sense.

Dave was referred to as a ‘poly-drug user’ – in other words meaning if it offered an escape, he’d inject, sniff, digest, inhale or find a way for it to float through his blood stream. After decades of frequent heroin use a doctor sat him down and told him it wouldn’t be long before he lost his legs if he kept injecting. It didn’t hit home until Eric, his best friend and saviour he met at Bosco House, told him how serious it was. It was that very moment Dave cut the drugs out of his life and not only has he not looked back, he’s influencing others now to do the same.

Dave explained: “I must admit, I was in a bad way when I got into Bosco House. But that’s where it all started for me. Bosco saved my life. That’s where I met Eric. He was an ex-resident who had got himself together and gone on to be a support worker. So he kind of inspired me. I thought ‘well, he’s been there and overcome his problems, if he can do it so can I.’ So, I turned myself around at Bosco, too.”

Eric’s choice of poison was alcohol. He was an alcoholic for many years and any time life got tough, he turned to the bottle. Only to realise the answer wasn’t at the bottom of the bottle, hoping it might be at the bottom of the next. The way Eric got clean wasn’t conventional in any sense. It was through his love of football. He started playing with Homeless FC and ended up touring the world, competing in the Homeless World Cup. It was there that Eric felt like he belonged again and as humans, this is the simplest thing we all yearn to do: belong.

Dave, not a football fan in the slightest, got sick of Eric’s tales of 4-a-side-footy and asked him “Surely there’s a multi-sport we could get more people involved in?” It was that simple question that led to The Homeless Games, – a two-day, annual event at Wavertree Sports Centre, where homeless from all over the UK come together. To compete. To run. To play board games. To watch. But, most importantly, to belong.

The Homeless Games has been going for 9 years and the latest event attracted 500 people. Some from South Wales, some from Scotland, some from Oxford but mostly people from Liverpool. But they’re not happy there. They want to go European, they want it to be televised and they’re not going to stop until that happens. How can you not be inspired when two men who spent a good majority of their lives on the floor suddenly see that the sky is the limit.

The games include track and field, darts, pool, board games and just about everything you can imagine. Not everyone is medically fit to run around the field but everyone can play a board game. Sports, it should be mentioned, are just the attraction – it doesn’t stop there. There are health facilities, health and wellbeing stalls, educational stalls, social inclusion stalls, job centre firms, re-housing associations and more. “Being homeless isn’t a life, it’s an existence” Eric tells us and near enough everyone on the street is looking to escape. The Homeless Games provides positive escapism where people can focus, come together and exercise.

What is so beautiful about Eric and Dave’s story is that they went from the dark, once forgotten shadows in doorways asking for spare change to changing the world around them for everyone. It wasn’t enough for the duo to get clean and get off the streets – they couldn’t leave the others behind and their sole mission is to now pass the baton on to those who don’t yet see a way out of the darkness.

The next homeless games is in September. In the five years we’ve been writing about Liverpool, we can’t really remember leaving more inspired than when we met them. We’ll be working immensely close to them over the next few months to take their dream to the next level. We’d love it if you could help too. As well as the next Homeless Games they’re working on a sports shirt you’ll be able to buy all over the city with all the funds going straight to them to continue their valiant mission.

You can donate directly to them here.

Councils Advised Not To Target Rough Sleepers

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New guidance from the Home Office states that Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) should not be used to target people simply for being homeless or rough sleeping.

Since the introduction of PSPOs under the ‘Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014’, various groups and communities have expressed their concern over councils’ use of these powers. On several occasions, it was argued that PSPOs were being misinterpreted and used to unfairly discriminate against people who were homeless or sleeping rough. A notable example was the recent case of Oxford City Council warning rough sleepers that they must remove their possessions from doorways, or face fines of up to £2,500 for unreasonable conduct and causing an obstruction, although the council did issue a statement explaining its position.

Criminalising vulnerable people who are homeless or sleeping rough does nothing to solve the root causes of the problem, and orders such as PSPOs and Criminal Behaviour Orders have sometimes prevented people from accessing vital services and support that will help aid their recovery. In a move that should help to avoid the inappropriate issuing of PSPOs in future, last month (December 2017), the Home Office updated its guidance on the Orders. The new guidance now specifically states that PSPOs ‘should not be used to target people based solely on the fact that someone is homeless or rough sleeping, as this in itself is unlikely to mean that such behaviour is having an unreasonably detrimental effect on the community’s quality of life which justifies the restrictions imposed’.

It goes on to advise that councils should consider whether the use of PSPOs is the appropriate response to dealing with complaints about homeless people and that any Order ‘defines precisely the specific activity or behaviour that is having the detrimental impact on the community’. Importantly, councils are now directed to consider taking measures that tackle the root causes of the behaviour and consulting with homeless charities when considering restrictions or requirements that may impact on rough sleepers.

The changes to the guidance are welcome; Homeless Link and its members have always advocated for a multi-agency partnership working approach to ensure that people get the help they need to tackle any issues they may have and end their homelessness for good. This should include long-term strategies and solutions such as personal support, assistance into employment and increased availability of low-cost housing, and they will continue to support such approaches through their regional practice work and the sharing of best practice case studies.

The updated guidance document can be found here; the section about homeless people and rough sleepers is on page 51.