Even though the council evicted the tents last week, they’re still in town – why?
Camping chairs were arranged in a circle next to the homeless tents in town on Wednesday, as if someone was having a get-together.
In fact, March 4 was an important milestone for residents of the homeless camp which has moved from the town hall, to St Peter’s Square, to Lower Moseley Street, and finally to Albert Square. But it is not a milestone worth celebrating: it’s now been one year since charities started helping homeless people sleeping outside the town hall.
In that 12 months, the camp emerged as a protest, was taken over by people in need, was removed from the town hall arches, re-established in St Peter’s Square, and finally was evicted last week by Manchester council staff after the authority secured a court ‘possession order’ to retake its land.
Each twist and turn has taken its toll on residents, with one man who has slept in a tent since July revealing how hard the last eight months have been.
“It is not nice, it is very s***,” the 36-year-old summarised. “I have not had a shower for 10 days. I have health conditions, I’m now an alcoholic because of the situation.
“I have self harmed many times,” he went on, voluntarily showing the Local Democracy Reporting Service his stomach and neck.
The man, who asked not to be named, is married with a family. They are in Egypt, he added, and he’s not seen them since 2016.
Most of the people in the 35-strong-camp are Sudanese and Eritrean refugees, he added: “Some people are mechanics, some people can drive. They have experience, a lot of them just need to get started in life.”
Why are the tents still there?
Manchester council staff evicted the St Peter’s Square camp last Wednesday (February 26) in a dawn operation. Rather than solving the problem, the eviction just moved the camp.
Within an hour, some residents had already set up a new camp around the corner on Lower Moseley Street. By that afternoon, a second splinter camp was in Albert Square.
Work to provide support or housing for camp residents is ongoing, with the council explaining it ‘secured a possession order for St Peter’s Square which was enacted last week to address specific issues caused by the encampment there’.
A spokesperson also explained that, ‘to ensure it was reasonable and proportionate, it had to relate to a small defined area’, meaning tents could be moved nearby.
They added: “It remains our position that such encampments anywhere in the city are not in anyone’s best interests and are not a suitable, safe or sanitary place from which to access the support available to people facing homelessness.
“We will continue to engage with those sleeping in the tents, people who are refugees, and continue to offer temporary accommodation to anyone classed as being in priority need in the same way we would for anyone sleeping rough. We understand the frustrations of many Manchester residents and local businesses that the camp has relocated to Albert Square and we are reviewing all our options to resolve the situation.”
It’s partnered with Ancoats charity Mustard Tree which gives information, support, and signposting to other organisations to homeless people. Despite their hard work, the problem remains because of the volume of people coming in every day.
The LDRS understands Mustard Tree is now giving advice to newly-arrived homeless people every day, with some coming from Stoke, Northwich, and even Belfast this week. The council says the influx was created by ‘a huge backlog building up under the previous government in assessing the claims of people fleeing conflict, famine or other issues and seeking asylum in the UK’.
“As this backlog has been dealt with, people granted the right to remain have had to leave their Home Office accommodation,” a spokesperson went on.
“The majority of the refugees in the Albert Square camp were not originally accommodated in Manchester, and have no pre-existing connection with the city, but have travelled here from other parts of the country – attracted by the city’s international reputation and the mistaken belief that we would be able to do more to support them than other places. Similar camps exist in other parts of the UK.
“Our homelessness team, together with partners in the voluntary and community sector, have worked hard to help people off the streets – either by providing temporary accommodation to those classed as vulnerable and in priority need or helping them to find themselves private rented sector accommodation and employment. Many people have been helped in this way and it’s important to stress that very few – if any – of those in the tents are the same people as a year ago.
“But it’s clear that we can’t simply accommodate our way out of this issue. We reached a point last year where everyone camping in St Peter’s Square had been accommodated and there were no tents left but it has built up again to the numbers we see today. Going beyond our legal duties would be unsustainable and short-sighted as it would just attract ever more people from across the country.
“So, while providing appropriate support, we also have to address the negative impacts of tent camps both on the people in them and the wider public. We have limited legal options available to us and these need to be reasonable and proportionate – generally location-specific – and follow strict timetables which we cannot dictate.
“There are no easy answers but we will work to strike a balance between appropriate support for the people camping and addressing the inappropriateness of such camps.”