The site near Kentish Town West station

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A BREWERY has pulled out of hosting a fundraising event for an organisation supporting people experiencing homeless­ness because the cause “may be linked to alcohol abuse”.

“I think it’s just really short-sighted ignorance,” Caroline Allouf, outreach manager at Street Storage, said.

“They’re perpetuating untruths about the homelessness community which we’ve spent decades trying to get people to recognise.

“A massive part of the battle is that people still think ‘but at the end of the day most of them drink and take drugs’ which isn’t the case.

“And that’s not about vilifying people who might drink on the streets.

“But equally there are plenty of people who don’t.”

Last month Hampstead Community Choir organised a fundraising evening at the Camden Town Brewery beer hall in Kentish Town to raise much-needed donations for Street Storage, which is the only organisation in the UK to offer free storage of belongings to people experiencing homelessness.

But the choir later had to inform Street Storage that the famous brewery had withdrawn its offer to host the evening because it has a policy of not supporting a cause with a connection to alcohol abuse.

After asking for clarity, Camden Town Brewery told Street Storage over email that it “doesn’t have any prejudice towards” the charity and offered them a £200 donation.

It said: “As a responsible alcohol company, we operate under and adhere to strict policies and legal requirements. Specific­ally, we are not able to work with charities that may be linked to
alcohol abuse which, sadly, homelessness, in some respects, could be.”

Ms Allouf said: “It’s like, are we going out on the streets and handing out pints?

“All the homelessness charities are trying to support people irrespective of whether they drink or not.

“We’re trying to help people to integrate into everyday life and the community.

“When there are still these attitudes it’s hard for people to genuinely feel accepted and not judged.

“We’re not going to say the night would have made us a ton of money but every donation helps. The numbers of people needing to store with us have gone through the roof. We’re having to pull back on the
quantity that people store with us.

“So however many quid that we’re not getting in, that’s another person who we’re either having to say, ‘you can’t store all of your precious things’, or ‘you’re going to have to wait longer’. With the community it’s about the money, but it’s also about changing attitudes.”

Camden Town Brewery were approached for comment.

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