Strayside Sunday: We are treating the homeless as human cargo, fit only for containment

Last updated Dec 22, 2020

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party.

The housing and homelessness charity Shelter has been in the news this week. They have gathered data that shows that 253,000 people in the UK will pass this Christmas season without secure housing.

During the first lockdown, swift and decisive government action virtually eradicated homelessness in our country by housing people in utilising otherwise deserted hotels, boarding houses and vacant rental properties. As a result of the “Everyone In” initiative, many of the most vulnerable in our society could at least face the threat presented by Covid-19 certain in the knowledge that they could do so with a roof over their heads and have beds on which to sleep. An issue that has taxed and stumped policymakers for years was solved with an alacrity that betrayed the repugnant and rank inaction of successive and previous governments of all political persuasions.

Last week, the Stray Ferret reported that Harrogate Borough Council has provided emergency accommodation for local homeless people for the ‘festive’ season. This under the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) that obligates councils to provide cover and shelter during the inclement weather conditions of the winter months. So they should.

However, in their infinite wisdom Harrogate Borough Council has installed 3 bright yellow (“look everybody, homeless people!”) shipping containers in the Tower Street Carpark. They are chain-link fenced in and, unless alterations are to be made to them, are windowless and appear ill-ventilated. This is truly shameful. The idea that in a wealthy, albeit resource constrained, Covid-stymied civilised society, that we should think shipping containers provide appropriate shelter for anyone at any time of the year passes understanding.

What of compassion? What of humanity? What of simple human decency? As the occupants exit their steel, aluminium or fibre-reinforced polymer (which are the materials from which shipping containers are apparently made) billet, they will look across the street at the local Travelodge; now open for business, as our national government seeks balance the need to keep the economy moving, with the possible health risks posed by Covid. I doubt very much that it, or indeed any hotel in Harrogate is currently operating at full occupancy. But surely it is not beyond the wit of man or woman to manage occupancy across the borough to meet both private demand and the needs of those living on the streets. Especially in circumstances in which private enterprise has benefitted hugely this year from the wonton largesse of (taxpayer, our children and our grandchildren) funded loans, grants, furlough schemes

All housing developments these days come with a requirement for an element of social housing. Or they should – it turns out the North Yorkshire County Council’s housebuilding company Brierley Homes is under criticism for avoiding having to build affordable dwellings at their developments in Bilton and Pateley Bridge. None the less, perhaps we could ask the same of larger hotels; that they provide a small number of rooms for the socially disadvantaged?

The uncomfortable truth of course is that business does not want to co-mingle the homeless with paying guests. The even more uncomfortable truth is that you and I would think more than once about patronising a hotel in which we might bump into the homeless in the corridor. We’re alright jack and anyway our consciences, pricked as they are by this and other injustices, don’t tend to compensate for any compromise of our own comfort or hotel “experience.” Our fear-fuelled prejudices of the smelly, drunk and drug addled dispossessed don’t add to the ambience of a stay away.

Harrogate is often named as one of the most desirable places to live in Britain. It’s a reputation of which our council is rightly proud. If an appeal to HBC on the merits won’t make them do better by the homeless then how about this? Harrogate risks damaging it’s reputation. It will become known as the kind of affluent and selfish place that wants to hide the fact that it has the same knotty and mucky problems and challenges that inner cities face. It is in danger of becoming known for hiding its homeless in plain sight, for thinking so little of its least fortunate charges that it seeks to make them human cargo, fit only for containment. It doesn’t make me proud to live in a borough whose council would do this.

At our holidays and high-days visits to church in the days to come we will bask in the warm and sentimental candle-lit glow of self-satisfaction that follows. They tell us that this is the time of year for peace and goodwill for ALL men (and women and children). We will all agree with that and likely walk swiftly by the Tower Street Carpark on the way home, heads down. Let’s demand better of each other, of our local authority and of national government.

Bottom line, we should get our homeless inside, in real accommodation, for Christmas – and make sure they can stay there

That’s my Strayside Sunday. I wish you all a very Happy Christmas.

Paul is taking a break over the Christmas period. Strayside Sunday will be back on January 3 2021.