Tents in Camden Gardens

SOME homeless people are being banned from sleeping rough in a large area in Camden Town and have been warned their tents and belongings will be removed if they do not leave the area.

The order comes two years after the then leader of Camden Council, Georgia Gould, stood up in a public meeting to declare that disposing of rough sleepers’ belongings would not happen again.

She said confiscations went against the council’s values after videos of tents outside University College London Hospital being thrown into the back of a rubbish truck went viral.

But a few weeks ago, four rough sleepers, some of whom were camping in Camden Road, received a letter telling them to “immediately stop all anti-social behaviour” and “remove all personal belongings” from a stretch running from Camden Town tube station up to Camden Gardens.

The letter said that “any remaining tents / structures and belongings will be removed as a direct consequence of continued ASB”.

It listed anti-social behaviour linked to the encampment including “loitering in a public place to the detrimental impact of others”, “leaving bedding, clothing, or personal items unattended” and “openly carrying or leaving drug paraphernalia including used and uncapped needles in a public place”.

It does not say when the rough sleepers need to leave by, but it said failure to comply with the warning may result in a Community Protection Notice, formal legal proceedings or the removal of all remaining belongings.

One man who sometimes sleeps rough in Camden Gardens under the arches, but did not receive the letter, told the New Journal: “It’s such a big area. It’s horrible. People are homeless and they wouldn’t be staying there if they didn’t need to.

“There are users, sure. People become addicted and basically you can’t recover in one day. It’s hard. I don’t understand these people. They want to take away what people are having to do to survive. It’s wrong.

“They wonder why people commit crime and go into the supermarket and steal. It’s to survive. People use drugs to stay warm. Heroin warms you up. It keeps you warm, it’s like a blanket.”

He added: “If you look around here, I’m sure there are dilapidated houses. It won’t take the council much to put a few quid into it and make it up and running. Give it to five, ten of these guys and they’ll treasure it. They’ll treasure it more than most people.”

A spokesperson for Streets Kitchen said: “Time and again, enforcement has been proven ineffective.

Moving a problem down the road does not solve it; it simply makes it worse by removing people from support systems, such as evening outreaches, where they can get food and basic survival items.

“The lack of simple humanity and care in Camden’s homeless services, illustrated here, is truly outrageous. Instead of engaging with people as individuals, they have once again resorted to a horrendous and potentially illegal enforcement policy.

“What makes this worse is that they publicly proclaimed, after they were last caught removing people’s tents, that they would not resort to such tactics again. We oppose these measures and encourage people to assist those experiencing homelessness however they can, to show their opposition to such draconian actions.”

Following the eviction of rough sleepers outside UCLH, the council carried out an investigation into the incident and released a report in December 2023.

The report said: “We have made clear that disposing of people’s belongings who are experiencing rough sleeping as part of enforcement or move-on activity is unacceptable and against our values.”

Ms Gould, now an MP, said it would not happen again.

Lyle Barker, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “It’s deeply concerning that councils are using sweeping powers which punish poverty and directly target homeless people rather than tackling the complex issues underlying homelessness.

“In recent years, we’ve seen Camden residents subject to Public Space Prevention Orders (PSPOs) which prohibit activities like begging, sitting in doorways and putting up tents. These Orders put incredibly broad conditions on where people can go, and put homeless people at risk of being criminalised if they even walk down particular streets in the borough.”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “This is not a ban on rough sleeping in Camden Town but action to address serious incidents of anti-social behaviour by specific individuals.

“This letter was given to four people in Camden Town who have repeatedly behaved in an anti-social way, including harassing and intimidating people, leaving drug paraphernalia on the street and urinating and defecating in public.

“We have a responsibility to intervene here to keep other Camden residents safe. We have offered support and help to this group alongside this warning.

“We want to be clear that this letter is not addressed to people rough sleeping in Camden Town in general.

“As always, our approach across Camden is to work with our partners to support people who are homeless and sleeping rough to help them to rebuild their lives away from the street, through housing assistance, help with drug, alcohol and substance misuse and health support.”

Bin lorry flashback

WHEN homeless tents set up behind the UCL hospital were thrown in a rubbish truck, Camden was quick to say sorry for its involvement.

The treatment of people huddled near a warm air conditioning unit led to widespread criticism and Georgia Gould, then the leader of the council now an MP, told a public meeting in Camden Town: “I want to be here to say, unequivocally, that this is not Camden’s values and it should not have happened.

“To the people here who were moved on, I’m deeply sorry. I want to learn from what hap­pened and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Tents being thrown away by contractors in November 2023

A few weeks ago orders went out that said tents would be taken away due to anti-social behaviour concerns.

Those affected would be warned in writing but campaigners say that being homeless is being criminalised again and the threat of taking people’s things is unacceptable.