Brighton and Hove may become the first city in the country to adopt the “Homeless Bill of Rights”.
The bill was devised by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless – known as FEANTSA – in November 2017.
It has been adopted by seven European cities, including Barcelona, and will be considered by Brighton and Hove City Council’s Housing and New Homes Committee in September.
The “bill” sets out people’s rights to housing, shelter, use of public space, equal treatment, sanitation, a postal address, privacy and the right to vote.
Campaigners in favour of the “bill” held a demonstration before a full council meeting at Hove Town Hall this afternoon (Thursday 25 July) to highlight the needs of homeless people in the city.
They featured portraits by artist Dinah Lee Morgan of the faces of 20 people who were either killed by another homeless person or had died on the streets. The 20 portraits were laid in front of the town hall entrance.
The acting chair of Brighton and Hove Housing Coalition Barry Hughes presented a petition signed by 2,475 people.
He said that the coalition started campaigning for the council to adopt Homeless Bill of Rights last year with support from FEANTSA and human rights group Just Fair along with councillors and all three of Brighton and Hove’s MPs.
Mr Hughes said: “Some time ago when Jim Deans, of Sussex Homeless Support, launched his first bus to shelter the homeless, he told me about the happy sound that was the bus with a full complement of guests aboard.
“Safe and sound in their bunks, a happy gentle snoring filled the air as the guests could sleep soundly, safe in the knowledge that no moron would be urinating over them or kicking them or setting fire to them.
“Jim had given them the human rights that we all deserve – at least for a time.”
Mr Hughes said that he realised there would be financial and legal implications in adopting the “bill of rights” but urged the council to send a strong signal to the world that it was taking the situation seriously.
Brighton and Hove has one of the highest levels of homelessness in the country and is in the top ten council areas for the number of rough sleepers.
Labour councillor John Allcock, who chairs the Housing and New Homes Committee, said: “Home is the heart of all our lives.
“It is the foundation for our families and the bedrock of our dreams.”
He said that the dramatic rise in homelessness was symbolic of social failures.
Councillor Allcock said: “There are thousands more people living in tents, cars, boats, hostels and emergency and temporary accommodation.
“There are thousands more people living in tents, cars, boats, hostels, and emergency and temporary accommodation.
“All people, homeless or not, are free and equal in dignity and rights. But in truth, rough sleepers are treated at best as a problem and at worst as a nuisance to be cleared away.”
Green councillor Amy Heley said that it should be a priority for all councillors to eradicate homelessness and the need for especially rough sleeping.
She said: “Adopting a bill of rights for homeless people seems an obvious and practical way of showing our commitment to ending this crisis and a mechanism to show our solidarity and support for our residents that are homeless.
“It will also provide a further framework for the council’s work over the next few years.”
Conservative councillor Mary Mears said that the party would support putting the bill of rights to the Housing and New Homes Committee but cost would have to be considered.
She said that she had focused on housing for her entire political career and added: “We must address this problem without encouraging peopel to come to the city when we cannot deal with our existing problems.”
Councillors voted unanimously to support taking the bill of rights to the Housing and New Homes Committee.
The Additional Licensing Scheme designation for smaller Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) that now operates in 12 wards of the city has deprived the city rental stock of over 100 small bedrooms for rent in shared households. The smaller, single, 3rd bedroom in 3-bedroom houses were traditionally the cheapest to rent in share houses and were affordable for people on housing benefit. Wiping out this stock of 3rd bedrooms is more likely to have impacted homelessness rates than rising house prices… people sleeping rough need somewhere affordable to RENT, usually in a shared household, not to BUY….they are not candidates for purchasing properties and are at the bottom of the rental rung of the ladder. With this HMO legislation, these smaller 3rd bedrooms in traditional 3-bed terraced houses are now unoccupied as it is illegal to rent them as the house is not eligible for an HMO licence because a bedroom is less than 6.5m Sq. They now appear on letting agents’ sites as 2-bedroom house with a study. The substantial “under-occupation” of these houses rented by sharers will continue and it is a major driver of homelessness in the city. Another ill-conceived initiative by BHCC that is CONTRIBUTING to homelessness and rent increases in this city. BHCC just puts their heads in the sand and pretends it is not happening. There should be incentives to rent out cheaper, smaller bedrooms, not obstacles. Crazy, short-sighted and avoidable.
It’s says it all that there’s only 2 comments on this item. It’s because no-one cares less.
What has caused the sudden appearance, in the last 5 years or so, of increasing numbers of visible homeless people? It’s happening in every part of the UK and it’s not simply because they like to sit in doorways and beg for drug money, instead of committing more difficult and risky crime.
THERE IS NO HOUSING FOR THESE PEOPLE. They’re not eligible for public housing and private landllords, particularly in Brighton, won’t touch them. Mental health problems and entrenched behaviour from their time on the streets means they have little chance of sustaining a tenancy if they could possibly get one. The only pathway is being moved around hostels or back to the streets.
COMMISSIONED SERVICES TO HELP ROUGH SLEEPERS ARE POORLY RESEARCHED. THERE IS NO LONG TERM VISON TO ALLEIVIATE THE PROBLEM. FUNDING ISN’T SPENT EFFECTIVELY.
Many staff lack the training to deal with vulerable, often extremely difficult or potentially violent clients.
Mental health and detox facilities locally have been savagely cut back. Profit-making companies are commissioned to provide services. They don’t work effectively with statutory services, and often seem lacking in basic knowledge of the client group.
STOP NORMALISING HOMELESSNESS – A BILL OF RIGHTS ISN’T THE ANSWER, NOR IS DISTRIBUTING TENTS/SLEEPING BAGS TO INDIVIDUALS
The ‘Street Community’ are being insideously formed into a new cultural demographic; an equalities monitoring tickbox. Also they are still citizens, and supposedly have the same rights and legal protection as everyone else. Why do they need a seperate Bill of Rights? This reinforces the marginalisation of the ‘Street Community’.
This disingenuous and cynical euphemism is now being applied to the insecurely housed, hostel residents, rough sleepers, chaotic drug and alcohol users, care leavers, runaways, prison leavers, rehab deserters or evictees, single parents in emergency or temporary accommodation… people who already experience prejudice and exclusion, reinforcing their rejected status pusing them further away. Do we now have to start Bills of Rights for Bangladeshis, The Transgender Community, 50+ White English Males, Upper Middle Class Young Mothers?
STOP NORMALISING HOMELESSNESS AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION. IT’S NOT A CHOICE.