Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
‘Homeless may be left behind’
SOUP KITCHEN LEADER CONCERNED COVID-19 ANXIETY COULD PUT MANY ROUGH SLEEPERS ‘BACK TO SQUARE ONE’
THE number of people coming to Ealing Soup Kitchen could double as a result of the coronavirus crisis, a charity boss has said.
The homelessness charity has been forced to close its four-day-aweek service at St John’s Church, in Mattock Lane, due to the government’s social distancing measures, but continues to run a food takeaway hub from the Salvation Army headquarters nearby on Monday evenings.
While efforts are also being made to adapt to outreach work and help house rough sleepers, soup kitchen manager Andrew Mcleay is also gearing up for the prospect that its full service – which sees hundreds of people each week –could see higher demands when it returns.
“I suspect that with this happening the way it’s happening, with people who are inevitably going to lose their jobs, our numbers will go up and we are already seeing 400 a week,” he explained.
“We are going to need as much as we can as soon as we are back up and running.”
The 35-year-old said while it is early days to be able to know specifically, some of his team are expecting double the demand due to disruption caused by the deadly bug.
Meanwhile its operations have seen a 45 per cent drop in core volunteers due to the virus, with more vulnerable members having to selfisolate or stay away after developing symptoms of Covid-19 elsewhere.
Mr Mcleay is concerned homeless people could be left behind and “may die on the streets” amid the crisis, but the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has delivered some hope for the charity in announcing hotels will put up rough sleepers across the capital.
He added: “I’ve yet to see anyone from Ealing get a place through this scheme but fingers crossed more rooms become available as there are thousands on the streets currently.”
The homeless worker is also facing the difficulty of working remotely with a number of regular clients, who had reached the stage of being placed for long-term housing after kicking substance abuse.
But the pandemic has thrown the process into the air, with Mr Mcleay concerned the climate of anxiety could put these rough sleepers back to square one.
“Some have been clean for quite a while, we were trying to get them into stable housing. Now the concern is because they are not going to be able to get in as quickly, they might go back into that habit of drugs,” he said.
“It will take years to get them back into being accepted for housing.”
With offices and businesses closing their doors everywhere and changing government advice, Mr Mcleay has also felt helpless in not knowing which hostels or hotels are accepting homeless people.
“It is a struggle and a worry. We have got places we would normally send over one of our guys. The government is saying hostels will be turned into hospitals – can I send people to these places? And even if I can, a lot of hostels don’t accept homeless people, it is a real tough situation.
“It is just a minefield. I feel I can only do it at the end of the phone which feels really defeatist if I don’t get a response, what am I supposed to do?” he said.
And he added: “It is really hard because with homeless people a lot of the time it is all about trust. You build up that network of trust but then something like this happens and it erodes again, even though it’s not our fault, they are still going to blame us. For them it is about having reliable service, now it is unreliable.”
Ealing Soup Kitchen is not the only homelessness service affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Ealing’s drug and alcohol support service RISE also announced last week it was suspending some services due to the disease, with previously agreed visits only allowed “in the most difficult situations”.
Night shelter
St Thomas of the Apostle church in Hanwell has also slashed all public events and services, and Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter announced it was closing last week.
The night shelter confirmed on Facebook: “As from March 19th the shelter is now closed.
“We are very grateful to the Rough Sleepers unit at Ealing Council for ensuring that all the homeless guests are in accommodation at least temporarily.”
Council’s call
According to Ealing Council, 2,000 households are currently in temporary accommodation in the borough and it is working through the crisis to find rough sleepers a safe place to stay.
The local authority is calling for more government action to end the five-week wait for Universal Credit and more funding for councils to help those vulnerable to homelessness locally.
And the body has also voiced concerns that the three-month ban on evictions could lead to a spike in homelessness in future unless job insecurity is tackled.
Councillor Peter Mason, Ealing’s housing chief, said: “We are working flat out to help our residents, including the homeless, but we need further action at a national level.
“Although the government’s commitment to ending evictions is a good first step, much more needs to be done to address London’s chronic housing insecurity. We are concerned that a temporary eviction ban may simply store up pressures that later leads to a spike in homelessness, unless the welfare system is used to stabilise household finances and deliver immediate support for those struggling with housing costs.
He added: “High rates of rough sleeping in the capital also risk undermining the local public health response to coronavirus.
“Whilst we are already identifying ways to ensure rough sleepers and others have places to self-isolate, these will only be temporary measures unless more resources are identified.”