‘Unnecessary’ homelessness law must be overhauled, say Tories

TWO former housing ministers are attempting to repeal Britain’s 200-year-old Vagrancy Act, in order to end the “criminalisation of the homeless”.

Robert Jenrick, Boris Johnson’s former housing secretary, and Lord Young of Cookham, who served under Sir John Major, are backing an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which would overturn the “archaic” legislation.

The amendment, which was tabled on Friday by a crossbench peer, is intended to force Mr Johnson’s hand over the issue, after he declared in October that “no one should be criminalised simply for having nowhere to live”, and accepted that “the time has come to reconsider the Vagrancy Act”.

The Vagrancy Act, which was passed in 1824, makes it a criminal offence to beg or sleep rough.

It was introduced due to the number of ex-servicemen who had fought in the Napoleonic wars and later found themselves homeless and without a job. One of the crimes set out in the legislation was, “endeavouring by the exposure of wounds or deformities to obtain or gather alms ... or procure charitable contributions of any nature or kind, under any false or fraudulent pretence”.

The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto pledged to end rough sleeping by the next election. But Mr Jenrick warned that the Vagrancy Act, which is still used to carry out prosecutions, simply pushes homeless people into the criminal justice system, creating a “wholly unnecessary additional obstacle that they must overcome to reintegrate themselves into society”.

The legislation, which is also cited by police to move rough sleepers on from particular locations, also deters homeless people from seeking help from authorities for problems such as domestic abuse, because they are treated like criminals, Mr Jenrick said.

Those behind the amendment believe it will be the only opportunity to scrap the Vagrancy Act in the current parliament. Mr Jenrick added: “Homelessness in and of itself should not be a criminal offence. It makes us [uncomfortable], but that does not grant society the right to avert its eyes from the brutal reality of what homeless people endure.”

Mr Jenrick and Lord Young both oversaw schemes that treated homelessess as a social problem, with Lord Young, 80, heading the Rough Sleepers Initiative in the early Nineties, and Mr Jenrick leading the Government’s Everyone In programme to reduce rough sleeping during the pandemic.

Lord Young said: “We must take the opportunity in the Police Bill to deal with this now, or this outdated Act will remain on the statute book.”

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill reaches its final stages in the House of Lords this week.

‘Homelessness ... makes us uncomfortable but society doesn’t have the right to avert its eyes from the reality’