Manchester homeless face jail over tent camps

[Tony Gosling]

Manchester homeless people face jail over city centre tent camps

Seven people are accused of breaking injunction 
barring anyone from pitching tent in city to 
protest against council homelessness 
policies<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/30/manchester-homeless-people-face-jail-over-city-centre-tent-camps#img-1>
  A homeless protest camp under the elevated 
Mancunian Way, one of many set up across the city 
centre since April. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
<http://www.theguardian.com/profile/helenpidd>Helen 
Pidd North of England editor and Aidan Balfe

Wednesday 30 September 201508.55 BSTLast modified 
on Wednesday 30 September 201517.59 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/30/manchester-homeless-people-face-jail-over-city-centre-tent-camps

A group of homeless people in 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk/manchester>Manchester 
faces jail after pitching tents in the city 
centre, the latest episode in a long-running 
battle between the council and an ever increasing number of rough sleepers.
Six men and one woman are due in court in 
Manchester on Wednesday, accused of breaking a 
court order brought by Manchester city council 
and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). 
This injunction aims to prevent anyone from 
pitching a tent in the city to protest against 
the council’s homelessness policies.
The defendants insist they are innocent and that 
they were not protesting but simply living on the 
streets as comfortably as they could. The council 
sees it differently, accusing them of disrupting 
residents and businesses in the city centre via 
vandalism, intimidation and public urination. If 
the defendants lose they face a fine of up to £5,000 or two years in prison.
Some of those named in the court action had been 
living for over a month in a makeshift homeless 
centre dubbed the Ark, underneath the Mancunian 
Way flyover on Oxford Road on land leased by MMU.
Just one of a number of camps which will greet 
delegates at this weekend’s Tory party conference 
in the city, the Ark had portable toilets and a 
TV powered by a generator, as well as furniture 
and camp beds donated by the general public. A 
sign out front declared: “This is not a protest.”
The Ark was cleared by bailiffs on 18 September 
after the MMU and the council obtained a court 
order. It followed clearances at other tent camps 
across the city, including 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/may/06/manchester-council-bans-homeless-people-from-using-library>outside 
the Central Library, in the busy shopping area 
around 
<http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/jun/29/homeless-protesters-face-eviction-from-manchester-city-centre>St 
Ann’s Square and by Castlefield nightlife district.
On 3 August the council obtained an unusually 
wide-reaching injunction from Manchester county 
court. This stated: “Persons are forbidden from 
erecting and/or occupying tents or any other 
moveable temporary forms of accommodation for the 
purposes of or in connection with protests or 
similar events arising from or connected with the 
[council’s] homeless policy” within prescribed city limits.
Following the Ark eviction, the university 
subsequently erected fences around the dry spot 
under the bridge where homeless people have slept 
ever since the flyover was built 50 years ago.
The group simply pitched up on land next door, 
which does not offer the same shelter from the elements.
Ryan McFee, a 24-year-old electrician who has 
been homeless since being released from prison 
last September, is one of the seven accused of breaking the injunction.
He said he had been sleeping rough under the 
Mancunian Way since February after being kicked 
out of a homeless hostel. “First of all I was 
sleeping in a cardboard box, then I started to 
build walls around us like windbreakers,” he said on Tuesday.
“What I was trying to do was create a homeless 
shelter of the kind that’s not currently 
available in Manchester. Normally they kick you 
out during the day. Here, people are welcome to rock up and chill, 24/7.”
McFee said there was no evidence he had been 
protesting. “Where does it state anything about 
Manchester city council’s homelessness policy? 
Nowhere. In fact, it clearly states that this is 
not a protest. I’m not protesting against no 
homeless policy. They can take that injunction and stick it up their arse.”
Adrian Redman, 53, from Trafford, has been living 
at the Ark since becoming homeless in July. He 
said: “The Ark was not a protest. We were trying 
to create a space where people could come and 
feel safe. We gave tents away, toiletries, food, 
anything to help people on the streets.”
Members of the public have been largely 
supportive of the camp. Last week around 50 
students from MMU 
<http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/240974437-city-without-issues-closure-ark-arrogant-attempt-hide-manchester-homeless-problem>staged 
a protest to call for an end to the “social 
cleansing of Oxford Road” by the university. 
Sixty-nine members of staff signed a letter along 
the same lines, though MMU said several members 
of the tent group were “aggressive and verbally 
abusive to university employees”.
On Tuesday Kelly Scragg, 23, a recent graduate, 
came to donate foam mattress and bedding. “I 
walked this route everyday and it’s just sad to 
see people on the street,” she said.
Nigel Murphy, Manchester city council’s executive 
member for neighbourhoods, said: “The injunction 
has been taken out to deal with the protest camps 
which have been causing disruption to residents 
and businesses in the city centre for five 
months, and to stop them from simply moving from 
one site to another. This disruption has included 
vandalism, public urination, fighting and the 
intimidation of members of the public, while the 
police have been forced to arrest people 
connected with the camps and to recover stolen property from one of the sites.
“It would be entirely inaccurate to claim our 
injunction is aimed at cracking down on people 
who are forced to sleep rough in the city. 
However, like the protesters, we don’t think it 
is okay for anyone to be in this situation, which 
is why our homelessness team has been visiting 
the camp on a regular basis to offer 
accommodation, help and support to anyone who 
needs it. Some have accepted our offers – 
including five earlier this month, some of whom 
are now living in a building we have recently 
been working hard to open up as a residential unit for rough sleepers.
“However, a large number have turned down these 
offers, and sadly the team have had to visit the 
camp with a police accompaniment because of the 
hostile reception they have received from people 
based there who are not homeless.”
A spokesperson for MMU 
<http://www.mmu.ac.uk/news/news-items/3739/>said 
of the Ark eviction: “We have been working with 
the council and support agencies to understand 
the complex nature of this situation and the 
group, and have satisfied ourselves that our 
actions would not be detrimental to genuine causes and individual needs.”
Manchester now has more official rough sleepers 
than any other UK city apart from London. There 
were 43 counted on the 
<http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/number-people-sleeping-rough-greater-8745312>annual 
count last autumn, up 79% from 24 the previous 
year, though campaigners say the real figure could be much higher.

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