Where From? Where Now?

As you will have read from previous posts, women aren’t often seen out on the streets. If they are sleeping rough, they tend to be hidden from view, and in many cases with a partner.

Maria, 25, however did spend time sleeping rough where she was both visible and on her own.

I have been spending time with Maria who is now in hostel accommodation. The other day we headed down to Elephant and Castle where she had an appointment at the Job Center.  On the way back we walked through the tunnels where she had slept, alone, on and off for a month.  She explained to me what it had been like for her. This is what she told me:

Last night I met a young girl, I don’t think she was more than early 20’s, sleeping out in Central London. I really wanted to know more about her story and find out what it was that led to her being out. So I went back today to see if she would be happy to talk to me as part of this project.  I found her sitting on the pavement where the Boxing Day shopping crowds were thinning out as they headed home. She was wrapped up in her sleeping bag, in need of her second one (but she’d given it to keep a dog warm).  It wasn’t a good time to talk as she was out begging, and it was a busy hour, but we’ve arranged to meet tomorrow.  I really hope she’ll be there.

Further down the street was another lady sitting on her own. She was five months pregnant. She started to tell me her story, but before she agrees to go on record she wants to discuss the project with her boyfriend first.  I have her mobile number so will call her tomorrow.  They normally sleep in a storage cupboard by a housing estate, so I had been lucky to meet her.

I will let you know if I meet up with either of them again.

I have just got back in from an early shift with the St Mungo’s Southwark outreach team.  It was a quiet morning. Most rough sleepers have already been taken to the Crisis at Christmas centers where they can stay until 30th December.

Darren from St Mungo's outreach team checks a referral for a rough sleeper while out of shift.

We did find one of the couples I have seen before, still sleeping out.  They hadn’t been in their regular place for the last few days when the outreach team went to try and find them, so Darren wanted to check again today. And they were there. They are sleeping in a place I would never imagine that someone would be. A small, dark, cramped cupboard hidden off the street where bins are kept outside. They have some cardboard on the floor and a coverless duvet and the rest is just scattered plastic bags and rubbish. They seemed really pleased to get the information about Crisis at Christmas. Darren from the outreach team gave them the info sheet including details on where the pick up points are for them to be taken off to the centers. As they are verified rough sleepers, they will be able to get access to the residential centers.

It was a real relief to leave there knowing that they won’t be spending Christmas shut inside that cupboard. They didn’t want to be photographed where you could identify them and she didn’t want to be visible at all, but they did let me take some photos.

A young couple, sleeping rough, read a leaflet about Crisis at Christmas given to them by the outreach team.

Please do refer to the last post if you have seen a rough sleeper and want to know how to tell someone who can help them.

Here are a few more photos from the morning:

The outreach team had received a referral for someone sleeping in a stairwell on this estate.

The outreach team check a car park for a referred rough sleeper.

I had seen a couple sleeping in this stairwell behind the pillar on a recent shift. They are now at Crisis at Christmas.

The light was amazing this morning. This church looked beautiful through the trees.

At the end of a day last week I passed a lady who was out begging.  She was probably in her late 50’s or so, she told me she had been out for three weeks. I wondered if it may have been longer.

When I talked with her she pointed to a nearby bin cupboard where she slept each night.  A cramped, rubbish-filled place with open grates for doors where the cold would come rushing through.  She had been bitten by a rat a couple of nights ago and pulled up the bottom of her trouser leg to show me the red bite.

She started to get really emotional, and turned to me and said, “I’m freezing out here”.

I chatted to her about outreach teams, but she said she hadn’t seen anyone. She was immediately interested, but then told me she would be ok, she didn’t need to see anyone.  As we talked more she explained she was afraid she may be taken away, to detox for example. I explained that they were there to help her, and that they could help her get off the streets and find accommodation. She remained unsure but started crying again and told me how cold she was. It definitely was freezing out and she was openly distressed. When I went home I made a referral so that the borough’s outreach teams could go along and try to help her.

If you have seen a rough sleeper out, you can get in touch to let outreach teams know about them and they will go out and follow up on your referral. You will need to provide as much detail as possible about the individual, including the place where they sleep so they can be located.

You can link to this form and St Mungo’s will pass on details to the relevant outreach team. Or simply email streetconcern@mungos.org with any details of who and where someone is rough sleeping.

If the rough sleeper is in London, you can call the 0870 383 3333 number and you will get through to No Second Night Out hotline number.

St Mungo's outreach team in Southwark talk with a rough sleeper in the borough

I was out on a night shift last week with the St Mungo’s outreach service in Southwark. These pictures were taken when we were following up a referral for a rough sleeper (apparently a man, but he wasn’t around when we got there) on a notorious, now boarded up estate in the borough.

It was an interesting evening. I saw more women out than I have done on previous shifts, and it brought into reality many of the stories I have been hearing about how women often stay in couples for protection, and tend not to sleep where they are easily visible. We saw four women in total, one who I already knew.  Three were in couples (two of them in stairwells on another estate), and one was asleep in a car.

It definitely felt like the winter was really settling in that night, and although the women were ‘hidden’ from view, the places they were sleeping felt eerie and frightening to me. We weren’t able to talk to any of them for this project, two didn’t want to and it wasn’t appropriate to ask the others, but we did get the chance for brief conversations.

One of the ladies was new to the streets and so we were able to take her up to the Assessment Hub – part of the No Second Night Out initiative, where they will assess her needs and help her move on from there, hopefully putting an end to her time sleeping rough. One lady, in a couple, peered her head out of her makeshift tent at the back of an estate. She was very friendly, amazingly so in fact, as she had already bedded down for the night. At midnight I really don’t blame her!

We are going to head out again, this time on an early morning shift. We will hopefully meet people as they are getting up rather than just going off to sleep and will be able to visit some places not safe to go at night.

Four hours out, no audio on record and only two pictures without a woman in sight – but still hugely worthwhile. All the same, another reminder that I can’t expect to speak to these woman straight away.

The sleeping site of a rough sleeper

A St Mungo's outreach worker checks the other garages for rough sleepers after hearing a noise in one of them.

I had a coffee with one of St Mungo’s key workers yesterday.  She re-iterated something I keep on hearing: that women are much less likely to be visible on the streets than men.

One major reason, she said, is that women often stay in relationships which are detrimental to their well-being – such as with an abusive partner or pimp – in search of some kind of protection. At least they know who that person is, whereas out on the streets they don’t know who might approach them. Better the devil you know…

And, if that’s the case, it does make you wonder how many women really are “homeless” in the UK today.

There was huge excitement and cheers in one of St Mungo’s semi independent houses yesterday, as the old garden shed came crashing down. Now a twisted pile of metal and wood, they’ve got the designs and funds in place, and it’s all systems go to get the new one up.

Lucy, one of the women in the gardening group, started this shed project. She had waited two years for this moment. “It feels so good, and who’d have thought we did it all with a tiny claw hammer. Along with lots of muscle power, determination and motivation. We’ve decided on the new one. We’re going to build one with lovely glass doors and windows. It has such potential. It is an amazing place that can become a hive of activity. It seemed such a waste to have a shed at the bottom of the garden that was basically a rubbish cupboard. We’ve got a couple of weeks to prepare the area and then we’ll be ready to put the new one up.”

Watch this space…

The group is part of St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots gardening programme. Have a read here for more information.

I kept wondering when I was out on night shifts with outreach teams why some people choose to sleep right by main roads where there are constant horns, sirens, revs of cars…

I met up with Kath Sims, who has worked in the homeless sector for the past four and half years (at times working specifically with women) and is now with St Mungo’s Outreach Team in Westminster. We went out in Central London to places where she often sees women sleeping.  This question came up again when there was a ledge outside a Tescos  (see photo) where a woman had been seen on a regular basis (she is now off the streets).

Kath explained: “It is not a normal place that anyone would bed down. There’s no shelter. But there has been a lady who has been here for over eight months, sitting upright on one of the ledges. She had severe and enduring mental health problems. We thought because she was there every night but refused to engage with us it must have been the noise of the traffic and the cars that were the calming influence on her.”

“For people that don’t actually want to engage with services, to make themselves very visible every single night makes you wonder why they are sitting there. You find it a lot with people who suffer with schizophrenia and voices. They tend to sleep in very busy places, places that don’t really give shelter but drown out the voices in their head, whatever is going on at that time for them.  So they will choose areas in central London, big roads, that are quite exposed and generally don’t have a high influx of rough sleepers.”

Outreach teams work across London, and most other cities or large towns, with people who are sleeping rough. They assess people’s needs, build up relationships and try to help them move on from the streets.

I knew very little, if anything, about what this involved before I started this project.

So for those of you in the same situation, I wanted to put up this short audio clip so that it will mean more to you when I mention the word Outreach from now on.

This is part of an interview I did with Deborah Sibbald, then managing part of St Mungo’s Outreach team in Westminster, although she’s recently moved on. Deborah spent over ten years with St Mungo’s and even longer in the homeless sector as a whole. She gave me a real insight into the work of outreach teams and the situation for female rough sleepers when I headed out on a night shift with her. More on that in later posts.

Debs and Jean out on a night shift. Debs makes a call to follow up on the case of a female rough sleeper they just met..

If you want to find out more about St Mungo’s Outreach work and the No Second Night Out Initiative please click here.

I saw this great copy from an Adidas advert on the tube today, for a second i thought it was talking about the women i work with…

(click on the picture to enlarge)