Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

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February – March 2025 : Time READ ONLINE

the Pavement

the Pavement is the free magazine for the UK's homeless people

We are committed to publishing objective reportage, tailored to a homeless readership, and to publicising the complete range of services available to homeless people, to reduce hardship amongst our readers and to enable them to guide their future.

We believe that drives to produce homogenous services for homeless people are misguided, and that a range of service types and sizes are the only way to cater successfully for our diverse readership.

We believe that sleeping rough is physically and mentally harmful; however, we do not preach to those who chosen to, nor do we believe that all options to get off the streets are necessarily beneficial to long-term health and happiness.

DOWNLOADS

Your rights

The Rights Guide for Rough Sleepers outlines your rights around arrest, stop and search, answering police questions, move-ons, no-drinking zones, sleeping rough, taking a pee in public and highway obstruction. It was put together by the Pavement, Housing Justice, Liberty and Zacchaeus 2000.

If your benefits have been sanctioned (cut off or reduced) and you feel this is unfair, you can appeal. Print this letter and hand it in at the office where you sign on. If you feel you need more advice about sanctions, contact   Zacchaeus 2000 or your nearest Citizen’s Advice Bureau. And let us know contact@thepavement.org.uk at the Pavement!

VOLUNTEER

If you are a journalist with some free time to research and write stories for the magazine, please contact us web@thepavement.org.uk. For other volunteering opportunities, please approach organisations listed on our Services pages or your local volunteer centre

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IN THE LATEST ISSUE

The matter of time
Star Trek, the must watch sci-fi drama of the ‘70s and ‘80s for any young kid, started with this booming voice: “Space, the final frontier,” and sure, yep, space is a big one. But, of course, if you’ve dropped acid or done DMT or tripped yer balls off...
The gift of time
Homelessness remains a pressing issue in the UK, with time playing a pivotal role in shaping the lives of those on the streets. The longer individuals endure homelessness, the more profound the impact on their physical and mental health, often leading to a shortened lifespan. Recent statistics highlight...
Trans and homeless
Trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people are more susceptible to homelessness than...
Life's sweet
Over the Christmas period, if you have been homeless or currently still...
Solid as a rock
“He’s my bro”, “She’s my sis”, retort Lyndon and Jill in unison....
Listening, the key to visibility
For the last seven or eight years my professional life has been...

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Streets Kitchen offers FOOD DAILY in various London locations.
Mostly evenings (plus the Sunday dinner project, Camden)

Want to talk?
Mind, a mental health charity
www.mind.org.uk or 0300 123 3393
 To discuss your mental health over message,
text “SHOUT” for free to 85258


NEWS about coronavirus COVID19
Useful protocol guidance from
Housing Justice:
homeless.org.uk/connect
covid-19
07 March 2018
Our team of peer journalists from the 'From the Ground Up' project talk about perceptions of homelessness.
09 February 2017
Our Glasgow Word On The Street project went so well that we are now running it in London. Véronique Mistiaen, lecturer and human rights journalist, led the second session, 'How to tell your own story'. you can read more about the project on her blog, The Right Human. Check out the trainees' blog to follow their progress from newbie to news hound.
23 June 2015

Will you use your admin ninja skills to help a unique small charity working to support homeless people?

23 June 2015

Do you want to use your fundraising skills to support a unique small charity working to support homeless people?

23 June 2015

Will you donate your a journalism or photography skills to help the homeless people we work to support?

04 November 2014
Our Glasgow-based Word on the Street team of reporters and photographers – along with London guest writers, who also have experience of the homelessness – has been working hard on a special edition that tells it how it is: benefit sanctions, a cartoon about hostel life and how football can change the world, for starters. The WOTS team is: Iain Alan, Brenda Brown, Brian Dobbie, Jason Kelly, Peter Kelly, Jim Little, Caroline McCue, Alex McKay, Patrick O’Hare and Roddy Woods. Thanks, team!
19 August 2011
Wow. The Pavement’s Homeless City Guide, which appears in every issue of the magazine, has made it into New York’s Museum of Modern Art. 

LATEST STORIES

01 February 2025

Council failure

Brentwood Borough Council in Essex has gatekept homelessness services
from people requiring them, according to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The council closed 216 cases over a six-month period, despite the applications all qualifying for inquiries into whether to supply interim accommodation. Furthermore, the ombudsman determined that council staff had set arbitrary time limits to people’s applications for homeless support, demanding far more information than was necessary from applicants. Ombudsman Amerdeep Somal told BBC News the findings suggested the council "has been artificially restricting numbers by putting unnecessary barriers in the way".


Funding boost

The government has tripled emergency funding for people sleeping rough in freezing temperatures in England. Labour had pledged £10m towards the rough sleeping winter pressures funding scheme late last year, but following an ice-cold January, has increased the funding to £30m. Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali told the Big Issue the additional funding for councils will “help the most vulnerable into safe and secure housing with warm beds, hot meals and specialist care. This cash will go even further to support frontline workers who provide life-changing services on the ground.” The Labour government has also set up an inter-ministerial group focusing on tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.



A closed down pub in north London. © the Pavement
A storm is brewing: Early in January an open letter was signed by a number of organisations and charities connected to the homeless community, calling for answers and change to a controversial Camden Town Brewery policy. The brewery had cancelled an event featuring the Hampstead Chamber Choir raising money for Street Storage held at Camden Beer Hall in December 2024. Its reason for calling the gig off was that it is “not able to work with charities that may be linked to alcohol abuse, which, sadly, homelessness, in some respects, could be.” Street Storage says dialogue has been absent, leading to the open letter being written. The letter states Camden Town Brewery’s reason for cancelling the event, “reflects a serious misunderstanding of homelessness and perpetuates harmful stereotypes”.


Looks like a duck

People will show you who they are. Donald Trump is president of the United States once again and has homeless people in his sights. For years now Trump has promised the demolition of so-called ‘tent cities’: large numbers of tents sheltering rough sleepers. Trump has previously suggested he would like to put the people staying in these tents in encampments. According to NPR, influential people in team Trump want to scrap all housing first initiatives and funnel funding towards drug addiction programmes.


Displaced

Analysis by the Guardian has revealed English councils are paying millions to move homeless families out of big cities, often into already deprived communities with no extra support. More than a dozen councils are paying firms that facilitate moves to cheaper parts of the country. These firms consider the people they move permanently rehoused, meaning the council washes its hands of them and making it very difficult to return to the location they called home and were moved from.



A picture from the 2024 Koestler Awards show. © the Pavement
Deadline: The 2025 Koestler Awards are open for submission now. The deadline for entries is 11 April 2025 and this year’s theme is ‘Wings’. Anyone in a criminal justice setting can submit work to be featured in the awards show, which is held in London every year, usually at Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank. Specifically, anyone in custody in a UK prison, young offender institution, secure training centre, secure children’s home, immigration removal centre, high or medium security psychiatric hospital or unit, any current client of the National Probation Service, a Youth Justice Service, the Scottish Criminal Justice Social Work Service or their equivalents elsewhere in the UK can enter the Koestler Awards show. It is a multi-artform show, meaning you can submit works in a range of different forms and mediums, such as painting, writing, animation and craft and design. Learn more: koestlerarts.org.uk/get-involved/koestler-awards/enter-the-koestler-awards


Grab your coat

Glasgow-based Finnieston Clothing is running a ‘jacket for jacket’ campaign for the colder months, encouraging customers to bring in their old jackets when purchasing a new one, and in return their old jacket will be donated to Homeless Project Scotland. During January, customers taking part in the scheme would receive 20% off their new jacket. Colin McInnes, CEO of Homeless Project Scotland, was quoted in Scottish Housing News lamenting the need for the scheme: “It’s extremely disheartening in this day and age that businesses are having to step in to help people who should be supported by our government at both a local and national level.”


Safe space

The UK’s first drug consumption room opened in Glasgow in January. The facility, known as The Thistle, had been due to open in October 2024, but has faced several delays. Drug consumption rooms are spaces allowing people to take illegal substances under medical supervision. They are proven to reduce the risk of overdosing, cross-contamination and drug-related deaths. The Thistle is on Hunter Street and will operate daily from 9am to 9pm, 365 days of the year. In 2023, there were 1,172 drug-related deaths in Scotland.



Picture © the Pavement
Happy to help: don't let it be said that the Pavement isn’t a valuable resource. Whether it’s finding a warm meal or sorting out a wobbly table, this magazine has you covered. The above picture was taken at a day centre in London. Send pictures to the editor of other ways the Pavement has helped you in a jam: editor@thepavement.org.uk

News in Brief 153: December 2024 – January 2025

01 December 2024


Refugee crisis

Research by Naccom, the umbrella organsiation representing numerous charities and organisations working with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, revealed in November that refugees experiencing homelessness in the UK has risen by 99% in the past year, up to 1,941. Meanwhile, the figure jumps to 4,146 when factoring in asylum seekers and other migrants, reports The London Economic. Bridget Young, the director of Naccom, said: “Our research shows that thousands of people each year are needlessly pushed into destitution as they go through the asylum and immigration system. Urgent change is needed to ensure that the system doesn’t keep driving up levels of homelessness.”


Far from home

According to the Manchester Evening News, homeless families are being relocated from London to Manchester, often with little say in the matter. MPs heard numerous such stories at the parliamentary inquiry into children living in temporary accommodation, held on 5 November. Dr Laura Neilson, CEO of the Shared Health Foundation, which supports homeless families in Greater Manchester, told the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committe: “I've seen families arrive up North from all over the country. I know that, as an area, we've also sent families. We had one family who were homeless in Oldham and got sent to Hastings for some bizarre reason. The distances are huge. But we don't have a national picture because we don't collect the data.”


© Rey Trombetta
Streetwise Opera, the opera company working with homeless people across the UK, is facing a fight to survive. The company needs £120,000 to guarantee its future and has launched an emergency appeal. As Rachael Williams, chief executive of Streetwise Opera, explained: “This emergency appeal is vital to ensure that Streetwise Opera can continue to support people experiencing homelessness as they rebuild their lives. Every contribution will help to sustain our work providing life-changing opportunities that empower individuals and challenge the way society views homelessness.” streetwiseopera.org


Man with a plan

London mayor Sadiq Khan is aiming to end rough sleeping in the capital by 2030. To help achieve this his office is running a Plan of Action, asking for feedback from people in the city on how to structure the framework of reaching the project’s desired goal. Although the feedback form is open to everyone, the mayor’s office is particularly keen to hear from people with lived experience of homelessness or rough sleeping and from people working with the homeless community. The feedback form and call for evidence closes on 3 December 2024.


Law breakers

Homelessness charity Centrepoint has recorded 564 instances of English councils breaking the law by turning young people away when they ask for homeless support. The figure is for the year 2023-24 and includes cases of young people with children or were pregnant being turned away by their local authority. Under the Homelessness Reduction Act and Housing Act, it is incumbent on local authorities to provide homelessness assessments and temporary accommodation to vulnerable people. However, councils complain of a lack of funding to carry out this duty. Paul Brocklehurst, Centrepoint’s senior helpline manager, is in agreement: “The blame can’t just lie with councils,” he told the Guardian. “Decades of chronic underfunding from central government have forced many to make impossible decisions around who gets what support.”


© Koestler Trust
Awards show: The Koestler Awards 2024 edition runs from 1 November to 15 December, held at Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank, London. This is the 17th annual awards show run by the trust, which features artworks created by people in the criminal justice system, such as prisons, secure hospitals, secure children’s homes and immigration removal centres, as well as those on probation, community sentences and youth offending teams. The 2024 exhibition is titled ‘No Comment’ and is co-curated by Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller and former prisoner-turned-artist John Costi. koestlerarts.org.uk


Hotel headache

Edinburgh City Council is moving hundreds of people out of unlicensed temporary accommodation, following an emergency housing committee held on 13 November. The move comes after the council was heavily criticised for breaking a law it put in place to protect people experiencing homeless. In 2024 it was revealed the council was using 700 rooms across 30 unlicensed homes of multiple occupancy to temporarily house homeless people. This went against a law requiring temporary accommodation to be licensed if it used for multiple occupancy. So, the council has moved to end its use of these homes by early December 2024, only, it hadn’t found appropriate replacement accommodation at the time the Pavement went to print in late November. STV News reported charities’ concern that the upheaval would cause stress to the people affected and that many will end up sleeping rough, due to a lack of suitable accommodation.


Footy corner

Celtic Football Club invited members of the public to sleep out overnight at Celtic Park, Glasgow, the team’s home stadium in November, managing to raise an impressive £50,000 for the Celtic FC Foundation. The foundation supports people experiencing homelessness, as well as local families facing poverty, refugees and pensioners. Glasgow Live reports more than 125 people took part in the sleep out, which saw fans brave freezing temperatures in sleeping bags and tents. Meanwhile, the Rangers FC Charity Foundation, which similarly supports vulnerable people, held its 7th annual sleep out event at the club’s Ibrox stadium. In those seven years, participants have raised a whopping £240,000 for the foundation. Rangers have gone a step further in their charitable endeavours this winter, gifting three points to whatever team is in desperate need over the festive period. The Christmas spirit is truly alive and well!


Scot free

Glasgow City Council service manager Lisa Ross has been offered an alternative to prosecution, having been arrested for hurling abuse at Homeless Project Scotland volunteers in August 2023. Founder of the charity Colin McInnes lodged an official complaint, telling the council Ross approached volunteers in an “extremely aggressive manner” and directed “derogatory slurs” and “offensive remarks” towards him and his team. Fast forward to October 2024 and Ross has avoided serious punishment. “I’ve seen people taken to court and hammered for less. I want an investigation into every inch of how that case was dealt with,” McInnes told the Daily Record.


New target

Wheatley Group, a housing, care and property-management group, is planning to build an additional 1,000 homes for council use to alleviate the homelessness crisis in Scotland. The group had already committed to providing 10,000 properties to homeless people by 2026. According to The Scotsman, more than 8,300 people experiencing homelessness have been provided accommodation by Wheatley Group since it started building the homes in 2021. About 60% of all new properties built by Wheatley Group in the country’s central belt are offered to homeless people, says a press release announcing the additional homes.

News in Brief 152: October - November 2024

01 October 2024


Housing first

The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, says he is committed to adopting “a housing first philosophy like Finland,” in his effort to end rough sleeping. Burnham made the announcement at an event marking the success of Manchester’s own housing first pilot scheme. The scheme has supported 430 people with experience of homelessness into housing. Lauding the scheme’s success, Burnham continued: “It actually saves public money to do this [housing first],” he said. “It’s not as if we’re just asking for something, and it’s another pressure. The bigger you do housing first, the more you’ll save.”


Storm brewing

A troubling new law came into effect in Florida, USA, on 1 October. The bill, signed by governor Ron DeSantis in March this year, criminalises sleeping in public spaces. The mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Dean Trantalis, has rubbished the law, saying it will provoke a “tsunami of lawsuits” while doing nothing to solve homelessness in the state. Trantalis went further, calling the bill a “draconian mandate” which gives cities in the state “an onerous burden.” From 2022 to 2023, homelessness in Florida increased by 18.5%. Trantalis’s lawsuit comment references a clause in the bill allowing legal action to be taken against any municipality that fails to reduce rough sleeping.



Café Art’s
MyLondon calendar is available for pre-sale, after a Crowdfunder was launched in August. The MyLondon project sees 100 Fujifilm QuickSnap single-use film cameras given to people experiencing homelessness in the capital. Roughly more than 2,100 photos are taken in a seven-day period. A selection of 25 photos is picked from these 2,100, with 13 chosen for the 2025 calendar.

  • Learn more about Café Art and the MyLondon project on its website: www.cafeart.org.uk/mylondon


Tourist tax

A new tourist tax in Edinburgh will pay for the building of council homes, the city council claims. Councillors estimate the tax could raise up to £50m a year, which Cammy Day, the council leader, plans to use to ease the city’s housing crisis. Day has earmarked £5m of the annual income to be spent on borrowing £70m to build new council housing and other affordable homes. Overall, Day wants to spend 50% of the new tax revenues on housing programmes and improving public spaces.


Emergency again

Following the declaration of a national housing emergency by the Scottish government in May, councillors in Aberdeen have declared a housing emergency in the city. The council plans to write to the Scottish and UK governments to demand immediate support. The announcement arrived in September, following a meeting of Aberdeen’s housing committee. The action has been backed by homelessness charities and organisations, including Shelter. Gordon MacRae, assistant director of Shelter Scotland, told the BBC a “whole city view” was required to tackle the housing crisis.



From 7 August to 20 September 2024, the Saatchi Gallery in west London held an exhibition featuring artwork by artists with experience of homelessness. Homelessness: Reframed displayed works by artists from the UK and abroad. Promotional material for the show said the “exhibition will bring to life the breadth and complexities of homelessness across the country and give people an opportunity to engage with, and better understand, the stories of those with experience of homelessness.”


Gimme shelter

Campaigners have held a protest in Glasgow city centre against the closure of a homeless shelter. Homeless Project Scotland, based at 67 Glassford Street has been ordered to shut down by Glasgow City Council, though it has up until 18 October this year to appeal the decision. The shelter takes in around 35 people a night. The council claims it was forced to serve notice of closure after an unauthorised change of use of the building, as well as complaints from residents and businesses. The premises was apparently changed from an office to an overnight shelter without the requisite planning permission, according to the BBC.


Drawing a zipline

A 90-year-old Glaswegian pensioner ziplined over the Clyde to help homeless people in the city. Gladys Speedie was raising money for Glasgow City Mission, a Christian charitable organisation. Gladys told the Glasgow Times: “Having lived a long life I don't recall the issue of homelessness like I see it now. I only hope I can raise awareness of the need to give help now. Every little would help but more would be better!” Now, while the Pavement salutes her efforts, it says something about the state of funding for homelessness services and charities that a nonagenarian felt inclined to zipline over the Clyde…



The Museum of Homelessness (MoH)
was founded, created and run by people with lived experience of being homeless. Each year it publishes information on people who died experiencing homelessness, as part of the Dying Homeless project. They also hold a vigil for those who passed, usually around the start of spring. However, this year the vigil is being held on 17 October, outside Downing Street, London, to coincide with the release of the latest figures from the Dying Homeless project.


Lawmakers/breakers

Edinburgh Council is breaking the law by placing homeless people in unlicensed houses in multiple occupation across the city. The number of households in temporary accommodation across the city has risen to more than 5,000 from 3,570 at the start of lockdown in 2020, with around £50m a year spent on temporary accommodation, reports the Edinburgh Evening News. The council’s own regulations require houses in multiple occupation to be licensed to ensure the safety of residents, a requirement the council has ignored when sourcing accommodation for people experiencing homelessness.



StreetsFest, the annual day festival run by StreetsKitchen, took place on 12 September. The festival, run in partnership with a number of organisations and with the support of Haringey Council and Islington Council, was held in Finsbury Park, London, close to the Museum of Homelessness by Manor House station. The festival featured a variety of services for people experiencing homelessness, including health services, a hairdresser, showers, food and live music and entertainment.

  • StreetsKitchen runs several food outreach services across London. For more information, including where and when, see the List.

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