Claims of YPeople boss are ‘bullsh*t’

Over the last few weeks, the News has been reporting on an increase in anti-social behaviour in the Village, which many attribute to the YPeople project.

The facility was moved to the Lindsay House 18 months ago and has coincided with the rise in trouble.

An FOI enquiry we submitted to Police Scotland showed officers had been called out to the homeless unit almost 700 times, attending on 541 occasions in the last two years to deal with antisocial behaviour, violence and drug misuse.

Members of the community, including Dr Lisa Cameron MP, have called for YPeople to be moved from there.

Our source told us how she used to take groceries to the unit daily for her son where she regularly saw residents drunk and disorderly in the reception area of the centre.

She says she has witnessed people walking into the centre with booze, smuggling booze in, and people climbing in and out of windows to get into the unit.

Yet YPeople bosses continue to bury their heads in the sand regarding the unit, denying any links of disorder in the community to their residents.

Vicki Murdoch, manager at the Village unit, said they ask residents standing outside the building“to come in”and“if they want to stay up during the night, staff will stay up with them, play a game of chess, make a cup of tea and have a chat.”

“That’s absolute bullshi*t”our source told us.

Traders told us they are fed up having to police anti-social behaviour themselves.

They claim residents from the halfway house are causing mayhem in the historic conservation village; openly boozing, taking and selling drugs, stealing, begging for money and intimidating their customers.