Homelessness groups say well-meaning food distribution harms those it aims to help
Charities and councils have called on the public not to distribute food to homeless people this Christmas.

Jeremy Swain, chief executive of rough sleepers' charity Thames Reach Bondway, said restaurants and well-meaning members of the public who gave food to rough sleepers were encouraging them to stay on the streets.

Instead, he urged them to volunteer for homelessness charities.

The Salvation Army, the Simon Community and Westminster council also urged the public to volunteer for charities rather than handing out food.

There are currently 59 regular soup runs in the capital each week, but Swain estimates that the amount of food available goes up by around a quarter at Christmas as people hand out sandwiches from the back of their cars and restaurants provide free meals.

He said: "You may have someone who has got off the streets and into a flat who goes to a soup run and meets their friends who are sleeping rough.

"They sleep rough that night, then for two nights, then two weeks and so on. My experience is that they would have got off the streets more easily if they weren't getting this soup."

He stressed that he was not criticising the tea run organised by homelessness charity the Simon Community, or Crisis' Open Christmas project, as they help rough sleepers to find permanent accommodation.

Julie Jones, Westminster's director of social and community services, said: "Soup runs in London are at a very high level compared with everywhere else and we do want to see this reduced or stopped if possible."

But one Hertfordshire church, which does a weekly food and clothes run in central London, said there was a need for the service.

Pat Walton, who coordinates the scheme for Stanborough Park Church in Watford, said it was a valuable service for people turned away from hostels. "They still need our help. We are not a hindrance.

"They may not be homeless but something has gone wrong in their life. We give them a suit or shirt and they can go to a job interview and that is a great help to them."

She said the church would continue its soup runs in Waterloo and Lincoln's Inn Fields for as long as they were needed.

Source

Housing Today