Stop targeting Brentwood’s rough sleepers
Stop targeting Brentwood’s rough sleepers
Why this petition matters
Being homeless in Brentwood is incredibly difficult. But now Brentwood Borough Council is targeting rough sleepers with a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) by removing their belongings and threatening them with fines of up to £2,500. Rough sleepers who keep their bags in doorways or around the church ruins are returning to find their bedding and personal belongings have been removed and destroyed.
Homeless In Brentwood feel that this move is an effort to target rough sleepers and that the council is failing to acknowledge the difficulties faced by rough sleepers. It ignores the wider issue of Brentwood’s housing crisis and the lack of adequate provision from homelessness services.
Brentwood Borough Council chose to cut the budget for homelessness services, and earlier this year Brentwood Foyer was closed, which was the only service to offer accommodation for single rough sleepers. From September 2018, Brentwood Borough Council approved the Brentwood Town Centre Public Space Protection Order, and effectively illegalised rough sleeping.
http://www.brentwood.gov.uk/index.php?cid=2858
Pubic Space Protection Orders are usually issued for "anti-social" behaviours such as graffiti and dog fouling. By issuing them to rough sleepers, Brentwood Borough Council is classing rough sleeping as an anti-social "choice", when in fact it is those with no remaining options who end up on the streets. We would like the council to issue an official statement confirming that they will no longer use anti-social behaviour legislation to target rough sleepers.
PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION TO BRENTWOOD BOROUGH COUNCIL, LEADER LOUISE MCKINLAY, AND MP ALEX BURGHART.
The homeless are often ignored or treated as an "eyesore", especially in afluent districts such as Brentwood. Criminalising them just makes their lives harder, and they eventually are issued fines they cannot afford to pay, which will merely increase the behaviour of "aggressive begging" which the council seeks to end.
For more information on Homeless In Brentwood visit https://www.facebook.com/TheDropInBwd/ or join https://www.facebook.com/groups/1682821032018821/
Decision-Makers
- Brentwood Borough Council
- Louise McKinlay
- Alex Burghart MPMember of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar