Westminster Cathedral ban heats up - Charity leaders challenge by-law that will remove rough sleepers and soup runs
Published: 11 March 2011
by JOSH LOEB
CHARITY leaders have challenged City Hall in the row over free-food “soup runs” and rough sleepers.
The city council is proposing a by-law which could prohibit rough sleeping and soup runs around Westminster Cathedral.
Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for society, families and adult services, told the West End Extra: “We have tried for a very long time to engage with these soup runs to either get them into our buildings or to get them to work with us and the vast majority haven’t so we have now had to take a different approach.”
But Alastair Murray, deputy director of charity Housing Justice and founder of the Soup Run Forum said Councillor Astaire’s comments were “rubbish”.
He said: “We’ve worked harder than the council to improve co-ordination between the soup runs and indoor services and the biggest obstacle to that has been Westminster City Council.”
Cllr Astaire said he admired the “charitable intentions”of people who gave out food but called soup runs “misguided”.
He said: “I can see exactly where they are coming from in the kind of Vincentian attitudes that they have but they need to work with us to bring these services indoors where they [homeless people] can get help, because the misguided nature of what they are doing is simply sustaining a vulnerable person in a vulnerable situation.”
This week a spokeswoman for Westminster homeless shelter The Passage said they were opposed to the proposed ban.
She said: “While The Passage understands the frustration of Westminster City Council in dealing with the huge number of soup runs that arrive into Westminster from outside the borough every week, The Passage would rather see a solution that comes out of dialogue rather than legislation.”
Other charities including St Mungo’s and Thames Reach have backed the council, saying they support a ban, which could come into force as early as October.
Philip Hole, services co-ordinator at The Simon Community, which organises soup runs in Victoria, challenged the view that there was adequate hostel accommodation for the homeless.
He said: “The days of direct access are over.
“You cannot simply walk into a hostel and get a bed or use the facilities.
“If you are lucky and particularly vulnerable you might be able to get an emergency bed for a night or so, but getting referred into a hostel once you’ve had your assessment can then take up to three months.”
The Simon Community does offer accommodation, where homeless people can shower and meet case workers, and staff say soup runs are a way of signposting people to such places.