Begging could be rendered acceptable – as could tents on the street – under the “Homeless Bill of Rights”, according to Labour and Conservative councillors.
Peter Atkinson and Mary Mears both spoke out as a Brighton and Hove City Council committee debated formally adopting the Homeless Bill of Rights.
A final decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the full council on Thursday 25 May.
Councillor Atkinson told the council’s Housing Committee that, even though it was an aspirational document, some aspects worried him.
At a virtual meeting of the committee yesterday (Wednesday 17 March), he said: “It is aspirational. My concern is we need to be careful about legitimising begging or tents.
“It is such a universal document that it can’t mention the local requirements we have for offering people long-term accommodation.”
Conservative councillor Mary Mears said that her party had been happy with a Housing Committee report on the subject until a Green and Labour amendment looked to strengthen the status of the Homeless Bill of Rights.
Councillor Mears said: “It’s really sad that this joint amendment has come forward from the coalition … when there is no need for it.
“There is a very clear recommendation in this housing paper to take it to council, where it needs to go constitutionally. I think you’re overstepping it now.
“You should have left it as it was and we could have had our conversation at council.”
She said that it was “bizarre” that the Housing Committee was hijacking the process which should be left to the full council.
Labour councillor Gill Williams said that the Homeless Bill of Rights had been “knocking around for a long time”.
It had been brought before the council by the Brighton and Hove Housing Coalition in 2018, with a petition supported by all three political parties – the Green, Labour and Conservatives.
Councillor Williams said: “It finally gets us to commit to it meaningfully and significantly. This is the important part of it.
“It finally gets us to show the world our commitment to the aspirations of the spirits enshrined within the Homeless Bill of Rights.
“It is very clear that it is an aspirational document that we should all be proud to sign up to and adopt.”
Assistant housing director Martin Reid said that it was the standard that his department followed in its policies and practices.
Green councillor David Gibson said: “All the amendment does is make the recommendation clearer.
“The recommendations are about using the Homeless Bill of Rights as an aspirational standard by which we will measure our practice.
“The values to which we aspire are enshrined within the homeless strategy we have all voted for.”
Councillor Gibson said that the amendment was intended to make clear that the council was going beyond using the Homeless Bill of Rights as a standard and, instead, adopting it.
If adopted by the council, the Homeless Bill of Rights would commit the council to ensuring the right to
- housing
- shelter
- use of public space (to move freely and rest)
- equal treatment
- a postal address
- sanitary facilities (running water, toilets, showers)
- use of emergency services
- a vote
- data protection
- privacy
- survival practices (to seek support through begging or foraging)
- respect for personal property (to have tents and sleeping bags left and not removed or thrown away)
- life
No…. No to tents. NO to begging. NO to drugs. NO to street crime and shoplifting.
Yes…. Yes To personal responsibility. Yes to rehabilitation. Yes to temporary supervised housing. Yes to prosecution for crimes.
Brighton is a city that is dependant on tourism for 20% of jobs. After a terrible pandemic what about the rights of normal citizens to live in a town centre where there is zero tolerance to begging and tents in the city and all public spaces. Shop workers should not be expected to pick up needles and wash away human excrement left on their doorsteps every morning.
I was born in Brighton and have lived in th area all my life, and I have never known it to be in such a pathetic state as it is now. Over the past few years it has become an ugly dump, epitomised by the hideous, costly (and loathed by most of us) i360, with beggars along the streets, and outside every supermarket, graffitti all over the place, drug dealing and taking out in the open, cyclists riding dangerously along pavements, and now this crazy proposal by these idiotic do-gooders, who are totally out of touch with the needs of the law abiding residents. It is a wll-known fact that most beggars are out there to feed their drug habit, so why should the rest of us being supporting their dealers? And do we really want to see tents anywhere and everywhere around the city, instead of outside it? Are those people in the picture living on another planet? There should be a Bill Of Rights for those of us who want to go about our lives in a clean, safe, crime free place, in a city of which one would be proud and not ashamed.
Unfortunately a common sense approach such as that is not permitted in thos council.
Is it any wonder that after 40 odd years of ‘ there is no such thing as society’ or ‘greed is good’ or ‘the market will regulate itself’ or ‘ trickle down effect’ ‘ or ‘lets de-regulate all financial institutions’ or lets steal 55 TRILLION $$ from the bottom 90%, and give (via tax relief) to the top 10% and let the devil take the hindmost, we end up with with a mental health crisis, towns and cities looking like a they have been starved of investment ( guess what, they have), a pandemic that was forecast as inevitable 15 years but the NeoLibs ignored the warning because ‘ the market would deal with it’ and if we ask why are there people begging on the streets we are told they must be feckless ,lazy drug addicts so quick! grab the pitchforks… never mind we will soon be back to NoRmAl.
Normal people work hard, engage in society, stear clear of hard drugs, drink in moderation, take care of themselves and their family and look after them parents.
They don’t sit in doorways off their trolly on drugs and booze. They don’t steal, abuse themselves and others, cause the majority of crime.
NORMAL people are fed to the back teeth of the situation in this city and the council that is so inept they’d rather debate ketchup and barbecue than sort out the rampant criminality we all suffer from.
Well said/written.
Normal people try to be well adjusted in a dysfunctional world but judging by your comments you seem to have become well adjusted to a dysfunctional world. You don’t, obviously, see that as a failure. Fortunately others make a more realistic judgement.
Normal people try to be well adjusted in a dysfunctional world. Judging by your comments you seem to be well adjusted to a dysfunctional world, most people will see that as a failure. Just because you struggle to empathise with those who have been dealt a rough hand I hope you will never need to access the (to few) facilities available to those most in need and if you do I hope you never meet someone of your ilk.
Tch Software
Once the rest of the Uk sees what a mess the Green party has made of Brighton,no one will ever vote for them anywhere in the country.Basically the Green party and their
admirers ,the Labour party will be no more.No self respecting ,hard working,tax paying,family orientated,law abiding voter will ever vote for them again.Boris must change the voting laws and make all students only vote where their main residence is.
Times they are a changing and the decent law abiding voters have had enough.
Too right we have had enough!
It would seem as if all respect for our city has been taken away.
I am not renewing my red card as I have lost respect for politics.