tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75976290621093516642024-03-14T03:50:06.533+00:00The Eye of a NeedleThe Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-80808475865497010752014-05-10T11:20:00.003+01:002014-05-10T11:20:33.422+01:00Excellent Article on the BHT Shipping Containers Fiasco<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/153121/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/153121/1.jpg" height="258" width="400" /></a></div>
Courtesy of <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/i-spent-the-night-in-brightons-homeless-shipping-container-housing-project"><b>Vice </b></a><br />
<br />
So, how did artist Charlie Devus come to call a 40-foot metal shipping
container home? “In this place, we’re all God’s polyps.<br />
<br />
All of us flow
according to the tides,” he explains, as he gives me a guided tour of
his new abode. The process began when <a href="http://www.bht.org.uk/" target="_blank">Brighton Housing Trust</a>, a local housing charity, found him a flat that had been flipped straight out of an Irvine Welsh novel.<br />
<br />
“I couldn’t stay there. There was this giant hole just pouring water
down through the ceiling. It was just insane – and I had to leave,
quickly,” he shudders. So, a few months later, while construction was
still being carried out on a new flagship housing project, Brighton
Housing Trust suggested he move in and try it out.<br />
<br />
Along with its stony beach and gigantic seagulls, Brighton has another defining factor: It’s home to one of the <a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10832771.Why_are_there_more_rough_sleepers_in_Brighton_and_Hove_/" target="_blank">biggest homeless populations</a> on the South Coast.<br />
<br />
For full article click <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/i-spent-the-night-in-brightons-homeless-shipping-container-housing-project"><b>here</b></a>. The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-78365532132594579532014-04-26T17:28:00.003+01:002014-04-26T17:28:43.423+01:00Alcohol, Street Drinking and the Rise of the New Puritans<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mXWdO0e4VmA/U1vdlBt6ELI/AAAAAAAAG10/QirJzROnQJ4/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mXWdO0e4VmA/U1vdlBt6ELI/AAAAAAAAG10/QirJzROnQJ4/s1600/003.JPG" height="400" width="225" /></a></div>
We often take it for granted that an age and society that fosters moral relativism and that promotes hedonism will lay few, if any, curbs, restrictions or moral codes upon others. <br />
<br />
Debates that surround the issues of same-sex marriage, abortion and assisted suicide readily deny, despite sound reasoning that points to the opposite, the real societal impact of such lifestyle choices upon others, preferring to enshrine personal freedom as paramount in the public sphere. The sanctity of life and marriage is thus sacrificed for a new sanctity – that of personal choice. Those who oppose the new ‘freedoms’ of the age are vilified as intolerant, narrow minded bigots.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>Diversity, Equality and Discrimination</b></span><br />
<br />
Bizarrely, however, the new found ‘freedoms’ of the modern age do not extend to everybody. Even in an age of moral relativism, in which everybody has their own truths, certain lifestyles, which for many are grounded in addiction and illness, are still singled out for their effect on the public square. <br />
<br />
Recently, while walking down a street in Brighton, I came across a sign in a newsagent doorway that read, ‘The Sale of Alcohol to Street Drinkers is not Permitted on these Premises – The Management’. It so happens that street drinkers have been on the end of near constant attention from the police and PCSOs in Brighton. Doubtless the authorities have their own reasons for doing so, so as not to put off the tourists, to curb antisocial behaviour, to keep the city ‘safe’. However, reading the sign I could not help but think what authorities are saying is somewhat discriminatory, prejudiced and insulting.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>What is a ‘street drinker’?</b></span><br />
<br />
What is a ‘street drinker’ might sound like a question with an obvious answer. It is someone who drinks alcohol on the street. One might ask whether, however, a couple sitting in a park in Brighton drinking champagne are ‘street drinkers’ and whether these persons would be refused champagne once word got around to newsagents to, ‘Watch out for the guy who drinks champers in parks with his wife.’ The word ‘street drinker’ seems to have other connotations of the poverty and misery of the outcast, denoting a ‘tramp’ like existence. These people, I assume – a certain ‘type’ of drinker - who cannot afford to drink in pubs, clubs and bars, but who drinks cans outside, is the real target. It would be too simplistic to say that this message from Brighton newsagents was of the ‘No Irish, Blacks or Dogs’ variety, because this kind of outlawed ethnic (and canine) discrimination was more clear cut. The term ‘street drinker’ is more subjective, a little more ambiguous and left very much to the arbitrary opinion of the newsagent who is being encouraged to think of a client base which is ‘out sort’ and a kind of customer who is ‘not our sort at all’.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wawQaL93is8/U1vdsnTw-bI/AAAAAAAAG18/jeF9hPUU2Gg/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wawQaL93is8/U1vdsnTw-bI/AAAAAAAAG18/jeF9hPUU2Gg/s1600/005.JPG" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Refusal register</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>The age of peculiar double standards</b></span><br />
<br />
Our age, it appears, is to be the age of acute double-standards. For instance, what would the reaction be if, say, a wedding cake maker put a sign up today in his shop window saying that wedding cakes will not be available to same-sex couples who wish for such for their celebration? <br />
<br />
Doubtless there would be an outcry, even a clamour for the delicatessen to be closed down by the vociferous LGBT community, especially in Brighton, even though the owner was acting in accordance with his sacred conscience. Where is the political movement for the rights of alcoholics, street drinkers and homeless people? Of course, it does not really exist, because these people either have no voice in the public sphere or are deemed unworthy of having a voice.
Of course, one may reply, each shopkeeper has his own right to sell what he chooses to each and every customer as they come, as they appear and I could agree with that principle. It is one that I would say extends to the B&B owner who does not want homosexual activity in his establishment. <br />
<br />
Yet, here in Brighton at least, it would appear that this is not the whole story. The decision by newsagents not to sell alcohol to street drinkers is one that has been made with the local authority in what appears to be a city wide action that singles out street drinkers for rejection, enforcing the idea that all are ‘equal’ before the law, but some are less equal than others. The initiative also has the striking effect of reinforcing the notion that somehow, because someone is homeless, poor, or alcoholic, that they are to be treated as pariahs or, at least, second-class citizens.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>Local authority Initiative</b></span><br />
<br />
As the pictures suggest, this is a Council initiative, to which various newsagents and retailers have signed up, we must assume, voluntarily. Other councils around the United Kingdom are doing similar, therefore one has to wonder whether what we are witnessing here is a national targeting of the homeless and street drinkers to be refused alcohol, dressed in the cloak of combating ‘anti-social behaviour’.<br />
<br />
In an age that raises personal freedom to new heights of protection – even to the cost of society itself in terms of the common good, the personal rights of many who wield no power or influence in society are at the same time disregarded. I would personally defend any newsagent or barman from refusing an alcoholic more alcohol on the premise that he or she believes the alcoholic has had too much to drink and therefore should not be served. Yet this initiative does not appear to be objective but entirely arbitrary, depending not necessarily upon the drunkenness of the individual being served, but perhaps appearance only – on the basis that this person is a ‘street drinker’.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ji32NLcnU_g/U1veL4C4CVI/AAAAAAAAG2M/QFP_YkHk6RQ/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ji32NLcnU_g/U1veL4C4CVI/AAAAAAAAG2M/QFP_YkHk6RQ/s1600/006.JPG" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
It goes without saying that alcoholism in general is a huge problem in the United Kingdom and that the social evils associated with alcoholism, in terms of domestic violence, family break up, marital difficulties and other issues are prevalent. Yet the ‘refusal register’ of Brighton and Hove City Council does not apply a single, objective or reasonable law to all citizens, but is obviously applied to the homeless, the poor and those living either in hostels or on the street. It goes without saying that for the chronic alcoholic, deprivation of alcohol can lead to fits, palpitations and other medical symptoms that most of us would find to be most distressing.<br />
<br />
Wikipedia alone notes that ‘the withdrawal syndrome is largely a hyper-excitable response of the central nervous system to lack of alcohol. Symptoms typical of withdrawal include agitation, seizures, and delirium tremens.’
Ironically, the Brighton newsagents in which I took photographs is on a road in Brighton which is about to open new accommodation for 350 students. University students, for all of their academic gifts, are well known for ‘living it up’ and, from my own university days, I can attest that ‘the best days of your life’ are, for many a student, not days, evenings and weekends of careful sobriety. It appears that in Brighton, though not just Brighton, one law will apply to the drunkards who are homeless, poor or who live in hostels, but, I suspect, another law will apply to those who Brighton and Hove City Council believe will benefit the local economy and who come from more privileged and protected backgrounds.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Co-op,_London_Road,_Brighton,_during_Demolition_(Dec_2013).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Co-op,_London_Road,_Brighton,_during_Demolition_(Dec_2013).JPG" height="219" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>New student accommodation being built on London Road</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A<span style="color: #660000;"><b>re ‘rights’ only for the wealthy?</b></span><br />
<br />
As Brighton welcomes its first same-sex marriage, the defenders of this new law will say that marriage’s redefinition is grounded in the human rights of the individual to exercise personal freedom for the sake of love. How ironic, that in the same time such draconian discrimination will simultaneously be applied to the poor and homeless, many of whom will say they just need a drink because they have ‘the shakes’.<br />
<br />
The laws that govern the public sphere in modern Britain often appear to be grounded in language and logic that at first sounds just and fair, but end up being entirely arbitrary, imposed on the populace from above and applied in a totalitarian manner. Catholics shouldn’t be quick to jump on a campaign for drunkenness in public spaces, but we should condemn the unjust discrimination against the poor whose only crime in the eyes of the authorities, it would appear, is not to be just ‘too drunk’, but not rich, socially mobile, or just not respectable enough and, in a city like Brighton, where hedonism and personal freedom are raised to the secular altar, that an initiative like this should be in operation aimed chiefly at the homeless is surely nothing short of scandalous.<br />
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Human nature is wounded and while redeemed, we are frail, fragile and fallen creatures. We need grace in order to overcome our vices. One suspects that the puritans of ages past were not at all times quite so pure as they led others to believe. Here in Brighton – and perhaps in your town or city too – we are witnessing not only the rise of anti-social behaviour, but the unstoppable rise of the powerful and certainly aggressive and certainly dogmatic, new puritans.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7597629062109351664" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>We should ask why the poor, the defenceless, the voiceless, the homeless should be made to be the scapegoats for the sins of so, so many. Are Brighton’s homeless and its ‘street drinkers’ take consolation in the fact that while the local authority considers them unworthy of being able to buy a drink in a newsagent or off-licence, they are free to get married to someone of the same gender. Is it time Brightonians asked ourselves exactly what criteria makes some drinkers better drinkers than other drinkers, because, let’s face it, we all like a drop and it’s not always in moderation. Brighton is known for many things, but moderation is hardly one of them.
The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-36641758832404287442014-04-21T23:00:00.001+01:002014-04-21T23:00:22.553+01:00Banned from West Pier Project<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_jrOEVi04Tg" width="500"></iframe>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
I have incurred
the displeasure of a homeless hostel in Brighton, from which I have
been banned.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Brighton_West_Pier,_England_-_Oct_2007.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Brighton_West_Pier,_England_-_Oct_2007.jpg" height="272" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Brighton's mysterious West Pier, after which the hostel is named</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
West Pier Project, a <a href="http://the-eye-of-a-needle-brighton.blogspot.co.uk/"><b>Council ran temporary emergency housing establishment in the heart of the city centre</b></a>,
has, I am informed in person by the staff on the reception, barred me
from entry, following their discovery of the above video which I filmed
of a friend who lives in the hostel explaining living conditions and the
astonishing rental fee charged by the West Pier Project for his living
there.<br />
<br />
I asked them whether it was illegal for me to
film an interview with a friend in his room and they maintained that it
was, so it looks like I'll need a lawyer. Having been told I was no
longer welcome to visit my friend Daryl, who let's face it, doesn't
receive many visitors as things stand, because I had basically exposed
something the West Pier would rather not be brought to light (quite what
that is, I was not told) I had time only to wish Daryl happy birthday
and give him his birthday present, birthday card and a bit of cash for
some tobacco. <br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.chicagopeaceandjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Faith-in-Christ-who-became-poor-960x576.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.chicagopeaceandjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Faith-in-Christ-who-became-poor-960x576.png" height="240" width="400" /></a></div>
Among those who wish people to be silenced in today's society are those who exploit the misery and destitution of the poor for
personal gain, who extort from the poor exhorbitant housing benefit
charges in rent in order to fill their pockets and live in luxury,
since, I was told by a worker that the building is privately owned and
we can therefore safely assume that the rental money of nearly £200 a
week goes to the owner. They don't seem to do much to improve the
building. Only a week or two ago another man I know there tried to open a
window and had to go to hospital because a window pane fell out and
sliced his hand open. The staff kindly paid for a taxi, but you should
have seen the guy's hand. It was a total mess. I told him he should sue.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TVf0RN5FbBQ/U1WT9CbK_bI/AAAAAAAAG0U/I4nvSOL1JSU/s1600/009.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TVf0RN5FbBQ/U1WT9CbK_bI/AAAAAAAAG0U/I4nvSOL1JSU/s1600/009.JPG" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
I
asked the staff member who the owner of the property was, but was not
given a name. The team member denied knowledge of such information.
Perhaps the staff do not know who owns the property. You can bet
Brighton and Hove City Council, however, do!<br />
<br />
Pope Francis calls us to serve the poor and to highlight and
expose the injustices that take place in their regard.<br />
<br />
Just for the record, here is
another picture I took of the inside of West Pier Project. I know this
is a general sign that warns that there is some dangerously strong
heroin 'out there' in big, bad Brighton, but for an establishment that
serves its residents a needle exchange service and whose residents
number many a heroin addict, perhaps telling everyone that there is some
'seriously strong s**t' available in Brighton, and telling them what
colour and texture it takes, maybe isn't that great an idea?<br />
<br />
After all, they all know the next hit could kill them, but many of them are just out for the best hit they can get.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-1829049618000667812014-03-12T16:14:00.001+00:002014-03-12T16:14:23.471+00:00An Interview with a Resident at West Pier Project<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_jrOEVi04Tg" width="500"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
An interview with a man called Daryl, on life at the West Pier Project, Brighton.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
For £180 a week rent, I am sure there are better places on the market.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I wonder who the private owner of the West Pier Project building is?</div>
The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-11462357237744051862013-11-07T21:39:00.001+00:002013-12-07T15:48:30.761+00:00BHT's Sea Containers to Open Amid Turmoil At Olympus House<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.myfinepix.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/full/gallery/72077/img_4019_cleaned.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://www.myfinepix.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/full/gallery/72077/img_4019_cleaned.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Brighton's hostels system: A veritable 'merry go-round</b>'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There has been much hype concerning the shipping containers that now adorn the New England Quarter of Brighton. The project has won media attention in both local and national outlets and much positive publicity has been generated for Brighton Housing Trust (BHT), but is there more to this story than at first meets the eye?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Upheaval and relocation for residents of Olympus House</b></span><br />
<br />
Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) claim responsibility for <a href="http://www.bht.org.uk/services/olympus-house-project/"><b>Olympus House, on 80-81 Marine Parade</b></a>. This accommodation is set to close, only to re-open again as a hostel specifically for mental health patients under the care of the local authority. According to the receptionist working at Olympus House, the hostel will still be run by BHT, but it will become a ‘half-way house’ for those leaving mental health hospitals in the region. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Quite what
this means in the long-term for current residents we have no idea, but
the short term outlook for some residents of Olympus House has been
placed into utter confusion. A significant number are to be placed in
the new 'shipping containers' or 'sea containers' placed in the New
England quarter of Brighton. Some are being promised accommodation in
Eastbourne, some in Brighton and one couple, nothing, leaving a
proportion of tenants confused.<br />
<br />
The current residents
of Olympus House have received notification to quit by January 2014.
Some have been told where they will be re-housed, but one couple have
not. They were told this only a month or two ago but for how long BHT
and the Council has known of its refurbishment and morphing into a 'half-way house' for those leaving mental health facilities is as yet unknown.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bht.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/oly01_W300.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.bht.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/oly01_W300.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Olympus House, Brighton</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Olympus House tenant expresses anxiety over re-housing</b></span><br />
<br />
<i>The Eye of a Needle</i>
spoke with residents at Olympus House in order to find out more
about the plans to shut and re-open under a new remit, with new
tenants, along with a planned refurbishment of their not particularly
pleasant interior, in order to house those leaving mental care
facilities as a 'half-way house' before they are moved to more permanent
residences.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<i>'We've been
living here for over two years,' said one resident. 'They've told us
that we have to leave in January, but they won't tell us where we will
be placed. I've got mental health problems. Not knowing where I will
live is doing my head in. Wouldn't it do your head in?'</i></blockquote>
<br />
<i>The Eye of a Needle</i>
can tell you in truth that this woman, ironically, does indeed suffer
mental health conditions and that the wait in learning where she will be
living after Christmas is having a severely negative impact on her
mental health.<br />
<br />
The individual has a history of suicide
attempts and overdoses as well as the bi-polar mental health condition.
This wait in hearing where she will reside after Christmas is not
helping her mental health situation. Unfortunately, the Council claim to
have dropped their 'duty of care' for her, so she remains in 'limbo',
waiting for news to arrive. The couple fear being placed back in
Percival Terrace or 17-19 Grand Parade.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Coincidence: BHT is advertising for new tenants for the 'sea containers' in Olympus House </b></span><br />
<br />
Meanwhile,
having made a visit to the premises, I can confirm that there is an
advertisement - a poster in the hallway of Olympus House for those
residents who wish to apply to live in a shipping container on the site
where 'The Cobblers Thumb' pub used to stand.This is unusual, given that
the narrative being given the general public in Brighton is that BHT
have acquired shipping containers in an effort to ease the homelessness
problems in Brighton. Through both local and national media, the charity
have acquired a great deal of publicity for their initiative to house
the homeless.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70608000/jpg/_70608432_shippingcontainers.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="356" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70608000/jpg/_70608432_shippingcontainers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>BHT's new shipping containers arrive 'co-incidentally' in time for the closure and re-opening of Olympus House </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This picture above belongs to Brighton Housing Trust. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-24610434"><b>The BBC confirms that BHT </b></a>are the organisers of the shipping containers idea and, indeed, <a href="http://www.bht.org.uk/news/first-shipping-container-homes-arrived-2/"><b>so do BHT themselves</b></a>.
So the organisation makes no secret of their involvement in the
project. And yet, to this day, news that Olympus House is to close and
current residents are to be evicted from the building in January has yet
to hit Brighton's streets despite it being announced to residents over
two months ago. Why?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Why has the closure of Olympus House and its re-opening not been announced by BHT?</b></span><br />
<br />
If Brighton’s good people knew that BHT had generated so much <a href="http://www.qedproperty.com/bespoke/richardsons-yard-brighton.html"><b>publicity</b></a> over the ‘sea containers’ while withholding the vital information that they knew they were to close and re-open their own accommodation, then perhaps that recent ‘great publicity’ for <a href="http://www.qedproperty.com/bespoke/richardsons-yard-brighton.html"><b>'great publicity' for BHT and QED</b></a> have been quite so favourable since it may raise suspicions as to the motives for the sea containers in the first place, motives which may well be pure in a set of unrelated coinciding events.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/29/article-2240561-1646D6FD000005DC-427_308x226.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/29/article-2240561-1646D6FD000005DC-427_308x226.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Andy Winters: 'Imaginative' solutions' needed for homelessness </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Still, credit where it is due. BHT deserve some good
publicity. At least, for example, BHT did not throw the poor of Olympus House onto the
streets to the elements of winter and have confirmed that they will be housing a number of these tenants in the 'sea containers' <b>.</b><br />
<br />
Co-incidence, perhaps, is all it is yet, I must confess I find it an incredibly <i>strange </i>co-incidence, given that the closure of Olympus House and its re-opening should coincide nearly perfectly with the arrival of the shipping containers. <br />
<br />
To my mind, it raised suspicions that the sea containers could be a temporary
solution to a problem in part created by BHT themselves, who have agreed to
continue to manage Olympus House as a 'half-way house' in order to
accommodate Brighton's mental health patients. Andy Winters of BHT, however, maintains this is coincidental.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bht.org.uk/news/first-shipping-container-homes-arrived-2/"><b>Concerning the new shipping containers housing scheme, BHT maintain on their site</b></a> that...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>'This
is an exciting moment in this project. We have identified 21 of the
first 36 residents and they are being prepared to move into their new
homes.
The residents will have completed one of BHT’s programme for change and
will free up space in other services that will be able to take in men
and women who are currently on the streets.
There is an acute shortage of affordable accommodation in Brighton and
Hove and, in a landlords’ market, particularly for those with a history
of homelessness.' </i></blockquote>
<br />
The message
makes it sound as if BHT are fulfilling a need, which certainly exists
in Brighton, for temporary housing, or 'imaginative' housing options for
the homeless of Brighton and those in need of 'affordable
accommodation'. Yet, neither BHT, nor any report I have seen so far, has
announced the closure of BHT's very own Olympus House. This is strange because it appears the opening of the sea containers is welcome news for BHT, but the closure and re-opening of Olympus House, with its attending evictions, appears not to be considered by BHT or the local press to be news at all. And it is this that is bound to raise suspicions in some quarters.<br />
<br />
BHT are,<i> in part</i>, fulfilling a need <i>created by their own decisions </i>in
terms of the closure and re-opening of Olympus House in Marine Parade but have not mentioned it to the general public.
If Olympus House was not closing to take in new clients under a new
remit in mental health care, would the organisation have decided to
order sea containers for the homeless? Andy Winters assures us that there is no link between the two events.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u5ksAEh2qKU/Unv_xi4W_eI/AAAAAAAAGUk/q3DS8XpOiJw/s1600/002+%282%29.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u5ksAEh2qKU/Unv_xi4W_eI/AAAAAAAAGUk/q3DS8XpOiJw/s640/002+%282%29.JPG" width="359" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A strange turn: BHT advertise the 'sea containers' in Olympus House</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://andywinterbht.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/details-of-who-will-be-moving-into-our-container-homes-at-richardsons-yard/"><b>According to their own blog on November 8th</b></a>, 'BHT have identified 33 of the first 36' residents
who are to be moved into their 'new homes' (that's shipping
containers). How and from where were these 21 residents identified? What proportion of them have come from Olympus House?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>An eerie coincidence...</b></span><br />
<br />
As yet we do not know for certain, yet it seems a strange co-incidence, does it not?<br />
<br />
The
story that BHT and the Council are putting about is a narrative that
suggests they are proactively tackling homelessness and a shortage of
accommodation in Brighton for those on a low income or benefits.<br />
<br />
When the sea containers open, I will be happy to talk to all the residents to discover where they lived prior to their move to the sea containers.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>How much will it cost to live in a shipping container?</b></span><br />
<br />
<u><b>£165 per week. </b></u>That's the truth and it is advertised as such<i> in Olympus House</i>. Yes, Olympus House is advertising the sea containers to those awaiting re-housing by the local authority. This, I think you will agree, is a strange co-incidence.<br />
<br />
Like
many hostels in Brighton and 'temporary emergency accommodation'
solutions in Brighton, Olympus House has been charging Brighton and Hove
City Council a similar amount per week in order to house Brighton's
vulnerable homeless, those with mental health problems, alcoholism and
drug addiction. On top of this, they have been charging residents on
average around £10 a week 'top up' fee which they have to pay out of
their meagre benefits allowances. Residents are always expressing confusion in relation to exactly
what this 'top up fee' is <i>for</i>.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless,
just because perhaps most residents will be leaving the security of a
room in a hostel to live in a shipping container on New England Road,
does not mean BHT will not be charging a similar amount in order to live
in their 'affordable accommodation'. No, heaven forbid!<br />
<br />
Indeed, a poster at BHT's Olympus House tells residents living there who are desperate for just about <i>any accommodation</i>
and who do not have the luxury of choice that is open to Brighton's
rich exactly how much it will cost to live in a shipping container. Even
by Brighton's inflated rental prices, it is a princely sum, I think
you will agree.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/11/shipping-container-cargo-ship-2-537x358.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/11/shipping-container-cargo-ship-2-537x358.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Would you pay £165 per week to live in one of these?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Of course, your average person would not (and perhaps
could not) pay nearly £165.00 a week to live in a shipping container,
but then, like so many 'charities' and temporary emergency
accommodation companies, 'the average person' is not what this
particular sector seems to be interested in. The truth is that to fall
into Brighton's hostels system you have to be on your knees. You have to depend on the mercy of others.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>The Homelessness Business</b></span><br />
<br />
BHT,
like so many of Brighton's hostels and 'temporary emergency
accommodation' dives are beneficiaries of the public money that comes
with housing the homeless, destitute and poor in a town in which
affordable accommodation is scarce and in which landlords who accept DSS
are so rare as to be virtually non-existent. The fact is that most, if
not all of the poor of Brighton are locked out of Brighton's housing
market because even if they have enough for a deposit, they cannot offer
landlord's a guarantor because they do not have the job and income to
do so and don't have rich friends and/or family to back them up.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article2475848.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/The-converted-containers-will-provide-temporary-homes-2475848.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article2475848.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/The-converted-containers-will-provide-temporary-homes-2475848.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Sea container 'utopia' as illustrated by an artist: Otherwise known as a slum</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yet, the Council <i>will </i>act as guarantor to those on
benefits and some landlords are happy to accept this, but seemingly only
in exchange for charging <i>exhorbitant</i> rent to the local authority and,
by extension, accept the money of both local and national taxpayers
while objectively fleecing both taxpayers and the poor simultaneously. None of this
is specific to BHT, and this magazine does not address them in
particular. Its just 'the business' it seems, in housing the homeless.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b>Andy Winters: Questions and Answers</b></span><br />
<br />
Indeed,
BHT have made much PR mileage out of this 'shipping containers' story,
especially in publications such as The Daily Mail, in which Andy Winters
purrs about the scheme, neglecting to mention that his own organisation
is, perhaps, a contributory factor in its sudden urgent requirement. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240561/Homeless-people-sleep-shipping-containers-Brighton-tries-tackle-housing-crisis.html"><b>The Daily Mail</b></a> article reads thus:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>'Andy
Winter, chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust, said 'imaginative
solutions' were needed to deal with the 'desperate' housing situation in
the city.</i></blockquote>
<br />
Andy Winters delights in the good news of the shipping containers for the Brighton
homeless community: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<i>'I
have to admit that when it was first suggested to me that shipping
containers be used for housing I was a bit sceptical.
'However, having seen what can be achieved, I was quickly won over. The
WC and shower unit is exactly the same as my daughter had in her student
accommodation and she much preferred it to having to share bathrooms
and toilets with other students. Who wouldn’t?
'What really excites me about this opportunity is that land that might
otherwise lie idle for five years will be brought back into life and
used to provide much-needed temporary accommodation for 36 men and women
in Brighton and Hove.' </i></blockquote>
<br />
Yet no
public mention of Olympus House's closure then and still not now. Why is that? Had the deal for
Olympus House to be turned over to become a 'half-way house' for mental patients not yet been
brokered in November 2012, when these quotes were given?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<i>'Mr Winter added: 'This appears to me to be very attractive from a sustainability perspective.' </i></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://andywinterbht.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/image2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://andywinterbht.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/image2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
'Sustainability perspective', Mr Winters? They are shipping containers for Heaven's sake!<br />
<br />
On the 7th November, Mr Winters posted on <a href="http://andywinterbht.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/answering-some-questions-about-our-container-homes-project/"><b>his BHT blog </b></a>the following:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<i>'The residents who will be moving in are known to BHT and have a track
record of paying the rent, service charge and other bills. We cannot
take the risk of having tenants who do not pay their rent.'</i></blockquote>
<br />
Yet why no mention that at least a proportion of the incoming tenants to the shipping containers are known to BHT themselves as residents of BHT's very own Olympus House? A statement from Andy Winters of BHT on his personal blog says:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/29/article-2240561-1646D6FD000005DC-427_308x226.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/29/article-2240561-1646D6FD000005DC-427_308x226.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</blockquote>
<i>'The timing of the closure of the
Olympus House Project and the opening of Richardson’s Yard are
co-incidental.</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>
</i><i>The Olympus House project is closing for refurbishment works and will
reopen in February providing accommodation for 24 men and women with
high support needs. The timing of this transition is dictated by a
contract awarded to BHT to provide this accommodation.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>The opening of Richardson’s Yard was originally planned for the late
summer but, because of the demolition of the Cobbler’s Thumb pub (not a
consequence of or linked to the Richardson’s Yard development), delayed
the arrival of the containers.</i><br />
<br />
<i>
</i><i>I am pleased that some residents of Olympus House will be moving to
Richardson’s Yard where they will get self-contained accommodation and
of an improved standard.'</i></blockquote>
<br />
Further questions for Mr Winters arise. For example: When was the contract for Olympus House to take in those leaving mental health institutions brokered? And when were was the contract for Richardson's Yard brokered? Exactly what proportion of the new tenants of the sea containers will be coming from Olympus House itself?<br />
<br />
On<a href="http://andywinterbht.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/details-of-who-will-be-moving-into-our-container-homes-at-richardsons-yard/"><b> 8th November, Mr Winters, again on his personal blog</b></a> says of the 33 new residents:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b><u>63% are in accommodation proving support, either by BHT or one of our
partner organisations</u></b>. 9% are in emergency accommodation, and 24% are
sofa-surfing with family or friends. One is a rough sleeper.</i><br />
<br />
<i>91% are either in paid work (36%), voluntary work (27%), training or
education (18%), or in work but currently signed off sick (9%).</i><br />
<br />
<i>In just over two weeks, 100% will have their own front door, their own kitchen, their own bathroom, their own home. </i></blockquote>
<br />
In
other words, according to BHT, 63% of those moving in are in
accommodation 'either by BHT or one of our partner organisations' and
63% of these tenants are on benefits. Well, Mr Winters, to my mind that
36% should be in paid work (therefore not on benefits?) is surprising,
because, as a cafe assistant, I don't think I could afford to live in a
shipping container for £165 a week! Some of these homeless must be big earners!<br />
<br />
Still, one couple, among 17 other residents of Olympus House are yet to be housed after their promised eviction from Olympus House. Pray for them all. It is a terrible thing to be at the mercy of Brighton and Hove City Council.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Gp_IN11aSEg" width="560"></iframe></div>
The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-68292817528400353352013-10-30T01:42:00.002+00:002013-10-30T02:03:07.684+00:00Hearing Voices at Mill View Hospital<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/19/46/2194602_04adbc6e.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/19/46/2194602_04adbc6e.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mill View Hospital, Hove</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Pray for a friend of mine who has been sectioned. I've
known this individual since about 2003. He is a baptised Catholic,
despite being unable to drag himself away from the Book of Mormon and
retains a stubborn refusal to worship on Sundays.<br />
<br />
It
turns out he has been there for about five weeks. Like I say, I've known
him quite some time and I've often thought he needs proper 'care'. I
don't know whether that is something given at Mill View Hospital. The
staff seemed relatively indifferent to the patients all in all.<br />
<br />
I
went to visit him with a friend whose other friend was sectioned two
weeks ago. It can't be pleasant being sectioned. When you walk into a
mental hospital you imagine that through the opening of the doors,
you'll be confronted by something out of a zombie film, or at best <i>'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'</i>
but it really isn't that way. They all seem 'normal' people - whatever
that is in the modern world. They're normal and of sound enough mind to
say things like... <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It's terrible here. The staff don't care."</i></blockquote>
<br />
Yes, I know they are on medication and that 'helps' (to make things easier for the staff). My friend was sectioned having missed his 'depo' injection by a week or two. I
am suspicious, but not 'paranoid' about mental health hospitals and even the medication. A
little research on the net always reveals how many British Eugenics
Society members went into mental health, obviously for 'rewarding
careers' - if you enjoy sterilising and lobotomising the mentally ill. Much medication and injections given to schizophrenics co-incidentally makes them infertile or sterile. Because he has been so unwell for such a long time, I am also suspicious of motives for my friend's sudden sectioning. For example, I was told by another patient that my friend was 'in a
really bad way' when he came to the hospital, but as long as I have
known him he's been having conversations with Jim Morrison and the
'angel kingdom', spending his dole money on day one, leaving him skint for two weeks, hitting his own head in frustration at the voices he
hears and developing a 'communicative relationship with my spit'. He is
on a 'Section 3' which means he could be there until Christmas, perhaps
beyond.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/previews/22567-merry-go-round-brighton-pier-e-sussex.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/previews/22567-merry-go-round-brighton-pier-e-sussex.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Brighton's most vulnerable are on an accommodation merry-go-round</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Despite the severity of his schizophrenia, my friend
is perfectly able to hold a 'normal' conversation. He always has done, despite the 'voices'. He can't look after
himself, hears voices, takes drugs and doesn't come to Mass, but that
really is nearly all of Brighton covered, isn't it?<br />
<br />
He
tells me how depressed he is, how even to have a cigarette, he has to go
to the reception in the ward and ask a nurse to go outside with him to
the garden to smoke. He's pale and withdrawn. He talks of his
powerlessness in this situation:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"If
I had committed a crime, or been sentenced to prison I would
understand. Prison would be better than this, because at least then I
would know what I have done wrong. Here, I have no freedom, my freedom
has been taken from me. I don't understand."</i></blockquote>
<br />
So
often, it seems, those professionals in the State's 'care' machine are unable to communicate
effectively with those in 'their care'. There seems to be a lack of what
Pope Francis calls 'dialogue' or a 'culture of encounter'. The staff
are 'trained professionals'. It all seems like a job involving
'observation' and 'assessment' of the patients, but as in hospitals the
'bedside manner' seems to be lacking.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://m.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/2635018.jpg?type=articleLandscape" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://m.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/2635018.jpg?type=articleLandscape" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>West Pier: Less 'project' and more dumping ground</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Of course, I'll happily concede that my friend really
does require proper 'care and support' with his condition - even a measure
of 'supervision' - but the place is so depressing for him. All he has
in his room is a blanket or two.<br />
<br />
To add insult to the injury my friend feels (since whatever your condition and the treatment it requires it can never <i>feel </i>right
or just to be held against your will in a mental hospital) he has been
told that he will lose his flat before he is released and that he will
be rehoused at 'West Pier Project', a 'temporary emergency
accommodation' hostel in Hove, which is - helpfully for him - full of
people with mental health problems, smack and crack addiction and
alcohol issues. Nice, eh? I believe this may well be accommodation
owned by<a href="http://the-eye-of-a-needle-brighton.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/scandal-of-17-19-grand-parade-baron.html"><b> Baron Homes Corporation Ltd</b></a> - Brighton's 'biggest property company'. <br />
<br />
He's very confused and very depressed. I'm sure he'll have a simply splendid time in the largely unstaffed 'hostel' where tenants are known for injecting <a href="http://m.theargus.co.uk/news/10673863.Homeless_people_injecting_bath_salts_during_deadly__poke_parties_/"><b>'bath salts during deadly poke parties'</b></a>. That was an article by an unscrupulous journalist, by the way.<br />
<br />
Pray
for my friend and pray too that you never fall into such dependence on the State that you are at
its total mercy, since mercy isn't really its abiding quality. On whether
he 'deserved' or 'needed' sectioning I'm content to defer to the
judgment of trained professionals and experts, but whether my friend
should become another victim of Brighton's absurd homeless hostels
merry-go-round is another matter. More news on that subject to come in the next few
days. It is a little scary to think how much power the State has over
the individual in this country and a sobering thought that as society
becomes more and more secular, the religious will be considered more
different or 'insane' as time goes by.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00420/129717962_zombie_420368c.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00420/129717962_zombie_420368c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>"No pinky, don't do it!"..."Shut it, Rose!"</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Meanwhile, I would really ask the question whether t<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2477877/Gay-student-Clayton-Pettet-plans-lose-virginity-audience-art-project.html"><b>his art student could do with some time in a mental hospital himself</b></a>
- not because he is homosexual, but because he wants to lose his
'virginity' in front of a hundred strong art studio audience and then
undergo a 'question and answer' session ("So how was that for you?")
from the audience immediately afterwards. Welcome to the new age of
'normal'. It sounds like he needs help, but instead he gets headlines.<br />
<br />
Oh and the revellers at Halloween, especially the 'zombies' - they're 'normal' too, aren't they? Despite their condition, which involves great suffering, schizophrenics I have met retain a great dignity, since they never choose the sorrowful and degrading experiences they regularly suffer. The same cannot be said for many in Brighton.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-29227179647889645752013-09-15T17:55:00.001+01:002013-09-16T12:10:13.096+01:00How The Argus Destroyed the Reputation of a Faithful Priest<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wga.hu/art/a/angelico/10/2north/60north.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.wga.hu/art/a/angelico/10/2north/60north.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>St Laurence of Rome distributes alms to the poor</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On Thursday 5th September, Bill Gardner of <i>The Argus</i> wrote <a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10656521._Lying_and_messy__poor_sent_by_God_to_test_us__says_Brighton_priest/"><b>an astonishing article for the local newspaper</b></a>
that made its way into the national and then international press.
Newspapers that carried his story on Fr Ray Blake of Brighton included
the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412411/Controversial-priest-Father-Ray-Blake-launches-scathing-attack-homeless.html"><b>Daily Mail</b></a>, The Sun, The Times and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10289905/The-poor-Theyre-lying-drug-abusing-illegitimates-complains-Catholic-priest.html"><b>The Telegraph </b></a>as well as international news agencies.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
<b>The Legend of St Laurence of Rome</b></span><br />
<br />
Bill
Gardener’s article was, unfortunately for Fr Blake, an unscrupulous
‘hit-piece’ characterising the parish priest of St Mary Magdalen
Catholic Church as a grim Dickensian villain who hated the poor of
Brighton. A whole month earlier, on August 10th, Fr Blake had penned a
post for his personal blog entitled, ‘The Trouble With the Poor’. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/the-trouble-with-poor-html"><b>The blog post</b></a>,
to which Bill did not provide a URL link in his article was a
meditation on the Feast of St Laurence, the Catholic Saint who, during
the persecution against the Roman Church under Valerian, when asked to
bring to the Emperor the ‘treasures of the Church of Rome’, brought to
him the poor, the sick, the widows and ophans in the Church’s care and
declared,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Rome"><b> “Behold, O emperor, the treasures of the Church of Rome!”</b></a><br />
<br />
According
to the legend of St Laurence, the enraged Valerian had Laurence slowly
grilled to death. During his martyrdom, the legend says that Laurence
said to his murderers, ‘Turn me over now, since this side is done.’<b> </b>St Laurence was the focus of the blog post by Fr Blake and it was against this backdrop that his post <a href="http://marymagdalen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-trouble-with-poor.html"><b>‘The Trouble With the Poor’</b></a>
- especially the homeless - was read by his readership. Of course, you
would never know this had you read Bill Gardner’s astonishing character
assassination of the Brighton priest whose Church operates one of only
two nightly soup runs to the homeless and hungry of Brighton. It is
clear from the priest’s blog post that St Laurence is the focus of his
reflection, since the Saint’s gruesome martyrdom is pictured in his
piece.<br />
<br />
Writing on the Church’s theology, Fr Blake wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<i>‘The
Protestant argument was against the pre-reformation Catholic Pelagian
practice of salvation through works. The Catholic conter-reformation
argument was against Protestant belief that once you were saved you were
saved. Catholics believe the great danger in Protestantism is
complacency, having received the ‘blessed assurance’ of Salvation one
can relax. The Catholic doctrine is that complacency about salvation is
dangerous, hence the counter-reformation and biblical teaching of ‘faith
fruitful in good works’. No ‘assurance’ can guarantee salvation, it is
God’s free gift, unknown to us until judgement day.’</i></blockquote>
<br />
The Brighton priest’s August reflection continued:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>'The
sin of the Pharisees, of the rich man in the story of Dives and Lazarus
is complacence. The rich man didn’t even notice the mess that Lazarus
created at his front door. He didn’t respond to it, he needed someone
to bring him out of his complacency.’</i></blockquote>
<br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>An</b> <b>international</b> <b>controversy</b> <b>begins...</b></span></b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2080/1716784619_3ca465d98c.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2080/1716784619_3ca465d98c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fr Blake blesses the bench dedicated to Ann Roberts</b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It was within both this content and context that Fr
Blake’s readership understood the following thoughts on the poor and
homeless that Fr Blake ministers to on a near daily basis in his life as
a Catholic priest. Speaking of his experiences as a priest in
Brighton, Fr Blake wrote:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>‘The
trouble with the poor is that they are messy. There is a secluded area
between the church and our hall, a passage, occasionally we find someone
has got a few cardboard boxes together and has slept there and if it
has been raining leaves a sodden blanket, cardboard there to be cleaned
up, often it also smells of urine and there is often excrement there and
sometimes a used needle or two.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>There is a man who comes into the church, especially during the
traditional Mass and during the silence of the Canon will pray aloud,
“Jesus, I want you to bless Fr Ray and ...., and God, can you persuade
the good people here to give to the poor, I am poor”. Unchecked he will
take his cap off and have a collection. It makes a mess of our prayers,
it stops some coming to Mass here. If they are not doing that they are
ringing the door bell at every hour of the day and night, and they tell
lies. They tell you their Gran is dying in Southampton and they need
the train fare, you give it to them and if you don’t find them drunk in
the street they are back the next day and the other Gran is dying in
Hastings this time.’</i></blockquote>
<br />
Harsh? Or just
the honest, real life experiences of ministry in the ‘city by the sea’?
Bear in mind that Fr Blake greets members of Brighton’s homeless
community day in, day out, at his door. Few people in Brighton would
suggest that all of Brighton’s homeless community are of either sound
mind or are perpetually truthful, yet this does not stop both Fr Blake
and his flock loving, feeding and caring for them, more than most in
Brighton.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L8B5j1ygnDw/TGG8j-3hpxI/AAAAAAAAAGM/R3qKGfEMhc8/s1600/martyrdom_of_st_lawrence.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L8B5j1ygnDw/TGG8j-3hpxI/AAAAAAAAAGM/R3qKGfEMhc8/s320/martyrdom_of_st_lawrence.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Martyrdom of St Laurence</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>The</b> <b>misrepresentation of an honest Priest who had does more than most to help the homeless</b></span></b><br />
<br />
Just days after their cruel hit-piece, <i>The Argus</i> itself ran a poll in which <a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10670302.Superstrength_booze_ban_bid_at_three_off_licences_in_Hastings/?ref=rss"><b>54% of readers said they would like the Council to ban ‘super-strength’ lager being sold in order</b></a>
to curb the ‘anti-social behaviour’ of members of Brighton’s homeless
community. Fr Blake, far from condemning the homeless, was simply
reflecting on his experiences as a priest, but honesty can get you into
hot water with <i>The Argus</i>, those great champions of Brighton’s homeless and of those who help them.<br />
<br />
Nearly <i>a whole month after</i>
his reflection on St Laurence, Bill Gardner wrote his piece with the
headline, ‘”Lying” and “Messy” Poor Sent by God to Test Us’. With
stunning journalistic flair, Mr Gardner claimed that the Brighton priest
had, ‘condemned’ street drinkers, ‘complained’ about a homeless man,
‘blasted’ homeless people who came to his door and that he found
homeless people “quite a trial” to deal with and here began the
international controversy of the Catholic priest who was characterised
in the local, national and international press as somehow ‘hating the
poor’. <br />
<br />
In his blog post, Fr Ray did no such thing. He
put the many troubles, difficulties and hardships of the poor in the
context of St Laurence, the fifth century Deacon who died defending them
as the ‘treasure of the Church’. Fr Ray’s message was that we should
imitate the kindness and charity of St Laurence, who loved the poor and
showed us that they are the real ‘wealth’ of the Church.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Was The Argus’s motiv</b></span><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>ation just good, old-fashioned anti-Catholicism?</b></span></b></b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q09kVw-X_ss/TEdSQjQ85PI/AAAAAAAABMI/DjH9y5IrPJc/s1600/Picture.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q09kVw-X_ss/TEdSQjQ85PI/AAAAAAAABMI/DjH9y5IrPJc/s320/Picture.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>St Mary Magdalen's Church feeds the homeless 365 days a year</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The truth is that few people are as compassionate on
the poor in Brighton as this good and faithful priest and the volunteers
who work on the soup run, the financial support of which is due to his
direct appeals to his congregation.<br />
<br />
Whatever
Brightonians make of the Church’s position on such issues as human
sexuality, abortion and marriage, the accusation of meanness or hatred
of the poor cannot be levelled at either Fr Blake or the parishioners of
St Mary Magdalen’s Church, who entirely fund the soup run to the
homeless from their own pockets and who also both co-ordinate and assist
it for no pay whatsoever.<br />
<br />
Replying to <i>The Argus’s</i><u> </u>shocking article, Fr Blake said on his blog:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>‘Perhaps
Mr Gardner might like to help on our soup run. It doesn’t have to be
365 day a year, once a week would be fine, providing he treats our
clients with respect. Or maybe he could take Jason or Daryl or Pawel or
Dawn out for a cup of coffee or a meal, or just come a clear up the
next time someone comes in and vomits or bleeds all over my kitchen
because he is on drugs or has been beaten up.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Maybe, next time I run out of money I could tap him for a few quid
when some vulnerable 17-year-old girl needs to top up her phone to speak
to her mum because her boyfriend has beaten her up or she needs a roof
over head because she is sleeping in a tent and it is just few degrees
above zero and she is vulnerable. Or maybe the next time I am arranging a
child’s funeral and someone comes to the door in need of someone to
talk because they are suicidal, I can send them round to Bill’s place so
he can spend a couple of hours listening to them. Here, too, I am
neither complaining, blasting, lambasting or anything else, just
asking.’</i></blockquote>
<br />
There is little doubt that Mr
Gardner removed from Fr Blake’s blog post both the context and much of
the content of his reflection on the Feast of St Laurence. Earlier in
the same week, no less, he wrote a previous piece for The Argus in which
he claimed Fr Blake had expressed<a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10652417.Outrage_over_Brighton_bondage_bridal_fair/"><b> ‘outrage’ over a bondage bridal fair in Brighton.</b></a>
He had written nothing on his blog commenting upon the fair and Fr
Blake merely gave a telephone reply to Mr Gardner re-stating the
sanctity of marriage for Catholics. What does a journalist expect a
Catholic priest to say? So, it would appear that two mischievous
articles in one week concerning the same priest might suggest a trend
bordering on obession that leads some to believe that Mr Gardner may
have ‘had it in’ for this Catholic priest.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Introducing the ‘irritating little b******’</b></span></b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NZ2wic_kpPA" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Speaking
on the phone to Mr Gardner, Fr Blake had told The Argus reporter that
one man who comes to the Church every so often is an ‘irritating little
b******’. This was then emblazoned in headlines and sub-headlines in
such newspapers as the <i>Daily Mail</i>, those other champions of the
poor and homeless. This was indeed the same man as Fr Blake mentioned in
his blog post. While Fr Blake and the parishioners at St Mary Magdalen
love him dearly, the gentleman he was describing is on an ASBO which
forbids him to walk on 44 different streets in Brighton and Hove.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sjoEKVz08Ug/UjYXxnFd7rI/AAAAAAAAGLg/obpo-bCqON8/s1600/Picture+005.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sjoEKVz08Ug/UjYXxnFd7rI/AAAAAAAAGLg/obpo-bCqON8/s320/Picture+005.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>ASBO: Something not mentioned in Bill's hit-piece</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Still, Mr Gardner did not seem too interested in who
the gentleman Fr Blake was describing is, who is known to Brighton’s
residents, business community, churches, local authority, police and
probation services to be <i>very challenging indeed</i>.<br />
<br />
In
fact, the gentleman is banned from St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church,
having disturbed their services last Christmas, when he inadvertently
set his own head on fire while lighting a candle, because his ‘Santa
hat’ caught alight. <br />
<br />
Unfortunately for the reputation
of Fr Blake, who did not expect his passing comment on the man to be
published, Brighton people believe he has in some way injured the right
reputation of a perfectly reasonable gentleman when, in fact, his
behaviour is so destructive, his begging techniques so very intrusive,
that he is on one of the most restrictive ASBOs dispensed to any of
Brighton’s citizens, whose ‘anti-social behaviour’ causes distress to
others. Yet, the individual at the heart of Fr Blake’s comment has
himself vindicated Fr Blake on a You Tube video in which he praises Fr Blake’s compassion for the poor.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZjG4Ac9RkMI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
It
is a great pity that Mr Gardner opted to go with a sensational quote
about the gentleman concerned, rather than to ask more questions about
who the ‘irritating little b******’ could be. Of course, it is also a
complete misrepresentation of the truth to suggest that Fr Ray Blake
does not care for this individual. Both he and his parishioners do care
about him and in fact, while he is banned from many of Brighton’s
churches, he is still consistently welcomed back to St Mary Magdalen
Church, despite having disturbed Mass there on several occasions,
something known in the Catholic Church as sacrilege, unless worship is
disturbed in an emergency. We love this gentleman, named Jason, very
much and he knows it. If only Bill Gardner had done what journalists
are meant to do and <i>investigate</i>. Now, of course, the faithful of
St Mary Magdalen Church must ponder who is more irritating and socially
menacing...Jason, or rogue reporter, Bill?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
<b>A priest's reputation destroyed by appalling journalism</b></span><br />
<br />
How sad it is, that thanks to Bill Gardner, the erstwhile cub reporter for <i>The Argus</i>,
the people of Brighton and Hove, as well as people across the country
and across the World, believe the shocking misrepresentation of Fr Blake
that Mr Gardner gave to them. I hope you are pleased with yourself, Mr
Gardner. You have destroyed, for the time being, the reputaion of a
good, caring, faithful, honest priest in the local and now national and
international press. The measure you give out, however, is the same
that will be measured back to you. Do the honest thing, the right
thing, the just thing and apologise to him - <i>in print</i>!<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8FE6H41RdYk/UjYW38YyrlI/AAAAAAAAGLY/Cbo8uprYq3M/s1600/321.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8FE6H41RdYk/UjYW38YyrlI/AAAAAAAAGLY/Cbo8uprYq3M/s320/321.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Chance would be a fine thing...</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is the very <i>least </i>that Bill Gardner and
his editor, Michael Beard can do for a priest who has been
misrepresented in their newspaper with devastating effects for his
public reputation and the image of the Church. If only they put as much
zeal into writing on homelessness, as they do in destroying Catholic
priests, Brighton would be a very, very different place. Until a public
apology is made to Fr Blake, we urge Brightonians to boycott the
newspaper and for advertisers to reconsider using their advertising
space.<br />
<br />
If readers of <i>The Eye of a Needle</i> would like to show support for Fr Blake, you can contact the editor of The Argus <a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/contactus/contactus/"><b>here</b></a>. Its US parent company, <a href="http://www.gannett.com/"><b>Gannett </b></a>can be contacted <b><a href="http://www.gannett.com/article/99999999/CUSTOMERSERVICE01/100525001">here </a></b>and its holding company, <a href="http://www.newsquest.co.uk/"><b>Newsquest</b></a>, can be contacted <a href="http://www.newsquest.co.uk/about/"><b>here</b></a>.<br />
<br />
If you would like to contribute in any
way to St Mary Magdalen Church’s <a href="http://brighton-soup-run.blogspot.co.uk/"><b>feeding of Brighton’s homeless community</b></a>, they are always in need of volunteers who are willing to
sacrifice their time in order to serve those in whom the Catholic Church
teaches Jesus Christ is especially served.<br />
<br />
We welcome
feedback from readers and aim to build a relationship of trust and
mutual respect with the readership of this magazine. Trust and respect
is important. If only it was important to Bill Gardner and <i>The Argus</i>.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-21169011350744833152013-09-09T23:26:00.002+01:002013-09-09T23:26:57.078+01:00I Stand in Support of Fr Ray Blake<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8eAJtVpo8UM/Ui5LKEEFLNI/AAAAAAAAGHg/fmtSUL3Gmns/s1600/333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8eAJtVpo8UM/Ui5LKEEFLNI/AAAAAAAAGHg/fmtSUL3Gmns/s640/333.jpg" width="546" /></a></div>
<br />The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-40967221192365448472013-05-08T12:46:00.001+01:002013-05-08T12:46:56.353+01:00The Man Imprisoned for Walking on the Wrong Street<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1784933.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Polly%20Hudson%20visits%20Lewes%20Prison%20-1784933.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1784933.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Polly%20Hudson%20visits%20Lewes%20Prison%20-1784933.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
A
friend of mine is back in the slammer. His crime? Well, he was
discovered walking on a street from which he is banned. This is one of
the 47 streets in Brighton and Hove from which he is banned. He got six
months for walking on the wrong road, but he will be let out after three
months if he is good in prison.<br />
<br />
I saw him today, he
seems well but obviously is depressed and while he looks forward to his
release, he knows that, as usual, upon his release he will be given £47
and a ticket back to Brighton where he will once again be homeless. A
pound for every street he cannot walk on.<br />
<br />
Whenever he
is released from prison there is no 'plan' in place for him to be
housed. It is bizarre - surreal even - going to visit someone imprisoned
for walking on the wrong street in Brighton. I mean that with the best
will in the world, with abortion 'doctors' walking free and easy, even
financially rewarded, that someone who will be forever tagged as a
'social menace' can be banged up in prison for walking on the wrong
street - or, even - the wrong 'side' of the street.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I
could understand it," he said, "if when I was spotted on the wrong
street, I was harassing someone or asking someone for money or
something, but I wasn't. I was just trying to find a quicker way of
getting to where I needed to go."</blockquote>
<br />
For the
grievous crime of finding a quicker way of getting to where he needed to
go, he is now inside. Tolerance is a word banded around everywhere
nowadays, but really, it is only tolerance for some in certain
'communities'. There is no tolerance for poor men who have nothing to
do, nowhere to go (nowhere they can go), who have had ASBOs slapped on
them which are then extended into perpetuity beyond reason or justice -
only through expediency. My friend keeps saying how much he wants to be
baptised - he certainly desires Baptism and desires Salvation. If God
takes mercy on me and I one day after purgation enter into Heaven, I
really hope and pray my friend will be there since it is very likely
that only in Heaven will this man be objectively <i>free </i>in any sense of the word.<br />
<br />
He looked around at the other prisoners who had social visits.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"More
or less everyone else is here for shoplifting and stuff," he said.
"They're all here because they're poor and have a drug habit or alcohol
habit so they've nicked something from a shop to 'get well'. That's it.
That's why they are here - because they broke the law in order to feed a
drug addiction. It's insane, isn't it?" </blockquote>
<br />
It
is quite insane, I agreed, but it isn't quite as insane as talking to a
man in prison for walking on the wrong street in a world in which
politicians launch attacks, legally, against little human beings in the
womb with total impunity.<br />
<br />
Say a prayer for him, poor man. The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-66824035659538355182013-03-07T11:20:00.001+00:002013-03-07T11:20:57.100+00:00Methadone is Not 'The Fix' to Heroin Addiction<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/7/18/1279473366070/Methadone-006.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/7/18/1279473366070/Methadone-006.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Coming off methadone is <i>worse </i>than coming off heroin</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A month or two ago someone I knew from Brighton's<a href="http://the-eye-of-a-needle-brighton.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/scandal-of-17-19-grand-parade-baron.html"><b> 17-19 Grand Parade</b></a>,
a terrible excuse for homeless provision that is known as 'temporary
accommodation' was released from prison and had drifted back to
Brighton.<br />
<br />
A cradle Catholic who is perhaps on the
periphery of the Church, but who wants to re-engage with the Faith, he
told me about his struggles with heroin addiction and the substance that
is used by the authorities to counter it - methadone. I must say, I
have not yet read Damian Thompson's book on addiction, so I don't know
whether he discusses methadone in his book.<br />
<br />
While it is
true to say that there are quite a few heroin users who are 'dual
users' of both methadone and heroin, it is also true to say that many
heroin addicts are provided with methadone as the replacement for
heroin. There is, I believe, widespread ignorance of what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone"><b>methadone </b></a>is and what it does.<br />
<br />
Methadone
is meant to 'hold' the heroin addict and so health authorities and
'substance misuse' services provide, through chemists, the amount of
methadone deemed required by users to hold them. Methadone is an opiate
based drink that acts as a legal replacement for heroin and has a degree
of success in keeping heroin users off the illegal substance. It is,
however, still an opiate and ensures that heroin users are for a long
time, perhaps even for life, addicted to methadone.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.choicesforchange.ca/images/methadone_withdrawal.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://www.choicesforchange.ca/images/methadone_withdrawal.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The withdrawal effects of coming off methadone are extreme</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The man I was talking to about heroin describes
coming off methadone as twice as hard, far harder than coming off
heroin. This is because of the great pain and suffering that comes from
the withdrawal symptoms. He was in prison for about six months and used
the opportunity of being in a 'safe place' with no distractions to come
off methadone since the substance is actually quite toxic. For a start,
being addicted to methadone ensures that your teeth rot away really
rather quickly. It tastes vile. God alone knows what it does to your
insides.<br />
<br />
For three months, then, the man was in prison
'climbing up the walls' of his cell, unable to eat much and experienced
at first hand the awful withdrawal effects that include vomiting,
sweating, diarrhea, nausea, panic attacks, itching, stomach pains,
constipation, headaches, skin rashes, urination problems, hallucinations
and insomnia, to mention just a few. The withdrawal effects of coming
of methadone, he says, are more powerful in intensity than coming off
heroin and last <i>longer.</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.novusdetox.com/methadone-history.php"><b>The substance was developed by IG Farben</b></a>
during the Third Reich and is said to have been given to troops to keep
them going through hardship in war. This was, let's remember, the same
company that created and supplied Hitler with the necessary Zyklon B
toxic gas for the extermination of millions of Jews, gypsies, dissidents
and anyone else the Nazis thought to be not unfit for purpose.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://syndikalismus.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/igfarben_poster19431.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://syndikalismus.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/igfarben_poster19431.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>1940s advertisement for IG Farben</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The man claims that on the outside world, giving up
heroin and certainly giving up methadone is nearly impossible without
being in a safe place in order to go through the agony of the withdrawal
symptoms. In Brighton, a massive proportion of the homeless and hostel
dwellers queue up every morning for methadone as the replacement to
their heroin addiction. They are, of course, all methadone addicts as
well. On top of this, many are alcoholics.<br />
<br />
The
susbstance misuse service team daily breathalyse their 'clients'. If
they have been unable to limit the alcohol, from even the night before
which is still in their bloodstream and run over. If in being
breathalysed, the 'client' goes 'over' and fails the test, they are
refused methadone. Having been refused methadone, the 'client' is sent
away and, not terribly surprisingly, then calls or finds a dealer,
having begged enough money, in order to get his 'fix' of heroin because
he has been refused the methadone.<br />
<br />
Therefore, for many
addicts, heroin is still a feature of their lives, something their
bodies require urgently, because they have been refused the only
replacement because of their other addiction to alcohol. One day they
will get the methadone and this will 'hold' them, but it is unknown to
many whether they will be able to maintain the discipline to limit their
alcohol intake and therefore often find themselves begging or spending
their benefits on heroin and supplying the heroin dealers with money.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sussexpartnership.nhs.uk/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&view=image&format=raw&id=1152&type=img" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://www.sussexpartnership.nhs.uk/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&view=image&format=raw&id=1152&type=img" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mill View Hospital in Hove, where addicts go for 'detox'</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The 'clients' then, in a terrible cycle of
methadone, alcohol and heroin dependency await a precious place in Mill
View Hospital where they can detox. However, while in Mill View
Hospital, there is rarely, if ever any programme to help people come off
methadone.<br />
<br />
Methadone is supplied to the clients in the
hospital as being the wonderful replacement for heroin that it patently
is not. There are some stories of people successfully coming off
methadone by having their amounts reduced, so long as these people are
not alcohol dependent or are able to limit their alcohol intake the
night before the morning after.<br />
<br />
There is little will to
help heroin addicts come off methadone. Even if the will and the
funding is there, the priority is for addicts to be given a safe place
to 'detox' off heroin or alcohol. Despite its abject failure, the
services clearly do not recognise methadone replacement initiative to be
the abject failure that it patently is. The homeless describe it as a
vicious cycle, nearly impossible to get off. Few people understand the
situation and dependency of the heroin addict. There is no one-off,
miracle solution for it - it is a bodily dependency. The only way, it
seems, to break free from the cycle of heroin and methadone addiction in
modern Britain is to commit a crime, get sent to jail and start the
'recovery programme' yourself and what a 'strength of will' is required
to do that!The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-51781833634543942792012-06-25T19:51:00.003+01:002012-06-25T19:51:53.657+01:00LGBT and Police Discrimination<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
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<a href="http://pic3.qguide.com/lb/jw/lbjw.gay-brighton-bars.20101014211651724185.soczon.imageXL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://pic3.qguide.com/lb/jw/lbjw.gay-brighton-bars.20101014211651724185.soczon.imageXL.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I heard a fascinating account of a night out from someone who has in the past attended the Soup Run.<br />
<br />
The man in question went out for a night out with his friend who is a
lesbian. The two decided to go to a gay club in Brighton called
'Revenge'.<br />
<br />
So, they both got dressed up for a night out. The man and woman arrived
at Revenge, but, at the door, while the lady was accepted, the man was
turned away.<br />
<br />
I asked the gentleman in question whether any reason was cited for his
not being allowed into Revenge. I asked whether he thought it was
because he was black or because he has dreadlocks, or was not dressed
appropriately or something. No reason for his not being allowed into
the club was given, just that 'he can't come in'. <br />
<br />
"I don't understand it," he said, "I'm heterosexual but how can they
tell that just by looking at you? It was like they had a profile and I
didn't fit it or something. And even if I am heterosexual, why should
that bar me from going into a gay club? My lesbian friend wanted to stay
and have an argument with the guy on the door about it, but I told her
to leave it. We turned around and left and it put a real downer on the
evening."<br />
<br />
Perhaps if he'd have oiled up, shaved his head and body hair, donned
some fake angel wings, hired some portable strobe lighting and gone
topless he might have got in. So much for diversity and inclusion in
Brighton.<br />
<br />
Prejudice and discrimination came up again in our conversation as we
talked more. The chap was sitting with a group of people who regularly
sit at the back of St Peter's Church on London Road. I explained to him
that I had sat here last week with a friend for a while until two
community support police officers arrived on the scene with a small blue
marquee not unlike that pictured (below, right).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.stewartsales.com/_cmsImages/products/product_140_152.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://www.stewartsales.com/_cmsImages/products/product_140_152.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
There sat the PCSOs watching the homeless and hostel dwellers of
Brighton talking, drinking cans and generally socialising. So, I walked
over and asked why the PCSOs had established a small base looking over
the affairs of Brighton's poor. They replied that this was a 'hotspot'
for 'street-drinking and anti-social behaviour'. They said they know
many of the homeless and like many of them but that it was their job to
patrol and set up pitch so that no 'anti-social behaviour' was going on.<br />
<br />
They admitted that they exercised a certain amount of discrimination. A
couple enjoying a glass of wine was different, they maintained, to
several people who residents might feel threatened or intimidated by. I
responded by asking whether it was right to agree with the prejudices
that people hold against the homeless. They said 'perhaps not' but that
if they left people alone to do their own thing then there would be
arguments and fights.<br />
<br />
So, I went back over to the other side of the road and saw George and
Diane who were sat away from the party scene. "What's that they've put
up, then?" said George, "A beer tent?" George described the police as
'control freaks' concerned only with the image of Brighton. "It's all
for the tourists," he said, "but they don't realise they draw more
attention to the homeless by pitching up a massive blue tent." Having
told me that they exercise restraint and prudence when dealing with
'street people', they then told me that they'd just told the crowd that
they had 15 minutes to drink up and go elsewhere. True to their word, a
quarter of an hour later they were over to tell the poor to clear off.
The poor keep the PCSOs in their job, however, because the next day the
exact same crowd gather in the exact same place and the exact same
response comes from the police community support officers. It's almost
like Brighton is trying to maintain its image by 'dealing' with the
fallout from an enormously hedonistic culture. Suffice to say that drugs
and alcohol in Brighton are clamped down upon to different degrees
depending on your social status.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.poundhill.talktalk.net/lrstpeters.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.poundhill.talktalk.net/lrstpeters.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>St Peter's Church, London Road</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The chap I talked with today agreed that Brighton is not half as liberal
as it makes out. For a town that marks itself out as a 'hotspot' for
hedonistic culture, it can be awfully puritan. "I don't know why they're
onto the crowd who drink here. After all, its all fenced off. People
walk by and they're not hurting anyone."<br />
<br />
He said that recently he had been searched by the police for drugs and
he assumes it is because he is black, has dreadlocks and hangs around
near St Peter's from time to time. "I get it all the time," he said,
"People coming up to me and asking if I've got drugs because I'm black
and I've got dreads. The truth is I haven't done any drugs for 25 years
and have never been a dealer. I'm 45 for Heaven's sake." <br />
<br />
The thing about law and rights (from the little I know) is that it is
meant to be something
universal. It either applies to everyone or it does not, so the idea of
discriminating between a couple drinking cava on a blanket in the
afternoon sun and a homeless man with some friends seems nonsensical -
legally speaking. Anti-social behaviour is in the eye of the beholder.
What might simply be inoffensive to one person could have another person
in terrible fright because, 'O Heaven's above! It's a group of homeless
people congregating. There are more than two of them and some of them
have a beer in their hand! Call the police! I'm terrified!'</div>
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It goes without saying that on the weekend of Gay Pride, coming up in August, all these street drinking laws are discarded for a gigantic p*ss up and drug fest in Preston Park as cans lay strewn across London Road and the general region for an almighty Council clean up the next morning. Does this make any sense? Well, it makes no moral sense. It only makes financial sense because it brings in tourism and trade. Hey, you know, there might be <i>some </i>people in Brighton who don't feel that comfortable when a massive hoard of homosexuals and lesbians descend upon Brighton in August in scenes which could be construed as some as publicly a little indecent, but those people who object, if they even exist, are obviously bigoted, discriminatory and nurture an irrational phobia of men and women gathering together to get blasted, behave and dress immodestly, congregate in huge crowds and socialise in a very public manner.</div>
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Some of the homeless are even on ASBOs which stop them from
congregating with a drink in their hand in the company of more than <i>one
</i>other person. With all this hullabaloo about making same-sex sexual
activity socially respectable or beneficial, I'm sure it wouldn't take a
genius lawyer to argue for the right to drink a beer in a public area
and congregate with a group of friends in the sunshine outside as a
'human right', but we've moved beyond common sense now because human
rights are the State's domain. The State permitteth you to buy a can of
lager, but the State taketh away the can on lager if you're homeless and
drink it in public.
</div>The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-10117169123427303402012-05-30T00:31:00.003+01:002012-05-30T00:31:42.940+01:00Mears and Brighton and Hove City Council: A Relationship 'Molded' by Public Money<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9WUvB_q9XBg/0.jpg" height="350" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9WUvB_q9XBg?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" />
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<br />
I've been sent this quite astonishing video by a reader which is worthy of attention and dissemination. You could be forgiven for thinking that maybe this council accommodation could do with some work. Maybe a spot of restoration and the removal of black mold that caused the children living in this accommodation to develop respiratory problems? Well, you'd be right, but the really astonishing thing about this video is not just the appalling conditions of the accommodation but that it was taken by the mother of a woman with 4 children <u><b>after</b></u> Mears Group plc had completed their 'work' on the council property.<br />
<br />
The family, a mother with her four children in this two bedroom accommodation were moved out of the Hangleton property after repeated complaints by the family and extended family were made to the Council. To its great credit, <i>The Argus </i>newspaper also covered the story of the squalour of the property and their coverage of the shocking conditions of the accommodation may even have assisted the Council's response to the plight of the family.<br />
<br />
The family were moved out of the property and placed in temporary accommodation elsewhere. They have expressed, already, the problems of having four children in a two room property, but were prepared to revisit the accommodation to view it after the Mears maintenance workers had done their work in renovating the property.<br />
<br />
In the presence of a Council housing manager and a Mears surveyor, the family were shown the accommodation after the work had been done on it. Having watched the video and seen other pictures of the property, my personal assessment is that the black mold that caused respiratory problems to both adults and children in the property requires some more work. Perhaps Mears Group workers and council housing reps can see something we cannot. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is fine, of course, when you're not the one passing through the eye of a needle.<br />
<br />
It suffices to say that this shocking video of the neglect of the Mears company of Council property - a neglect for which Mears are in receipt of around <a href="http://openlylocal.com/suppliers/119391-mears-limited"><b>£2million of public money every month</b></a> - might be a source of embarrassment for both the company themselves and the Council which reward them so handsomely for their 'services'. Maybe <a href="http://www.mearsgroup.co.uk/"><b>Mears</b></a>, a company which, as we know, was floated on the stock exchange in 2005, don't believe tenants - children and adults - are 'worthy' of accommodation better than this. Maybe they are banking on the rest of the public in Brighton, in Hove and beyond to agree with them.<br />
<br />
Perhaps they are banking on everyone in Brighton and others beyond being as heartless as they are. Of course, the ones doing the real banking are the shareholders. I wonder what they would make of this video? Companies which lose reputations have been known to lose some shareholders. Wouldn't it be a shame if Mears lost some of theirs? But hey, that's the world of 'risk' capital and surely, surely someone at Mears Group must know that by leaving residents in Brighton and Hove in such squalour there would always come with it a measure of risk that they might one day get found out.<br />
<br />
Gradually, slowly, I hope and I pray that more and more people wi#ll come forward to expose the risks Mears have taken not just with their own reputation as a company in receipt of such vast amounts of public money, but also with the health, safety and well being of adults and children in Brighton...and, most likely, beyond.<br />
<br />
You might think that this article couldn't get any more absurd. But you'd be wrong. The Council housing manager,<b> <a href="http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/Published/C00000150/M00003292/AI00022570/$20111026141818_000658_0002147_ReportTemplateCabinetMemberMeeting.doc.pdf">Mr Graham Page</a></b>, has told the mother of four children that this is the property that they should 'make arrangements to return to' after she has viewed it on the 14th of May and that he would be 'dropping the keys back to her on Wednesday'. Not surprisingly, the mother and her children remain in temporary housing and at this time and, as things stand, refuse to return to the property. Can you blame them?The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-40502015793404616212012-05-14T18:06:00.002+01:002012-05-14T18:06:51.975+01:00New Steine Mews: Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://statics.192.com/estreet/original/large/1015/10156978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://statics.192.com/estreet/original/large/1015/10156978.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I've just heard from Mr Evans that New Steine Mews refused Jason his
clothes from his room two days ago because of what I wrote on my blog.<br />
<br />
I believe Jason because Jason didn't know I'd written anything on my
blog therefore I don't require the 'other side to the story'.<br />
<br />
New Steine Mews, however, did know because I sent them links to both of my blogs.<br />
<br />
So, they make a man homeless, evict him with none of his possessions.
Then, after he's been out in the rain for a few days and he needs his
clothes, he goes back to see them to get them and he's told that he
cannot have them because someone has written something unpleasant about
the near total lack of compassion or empathy the staff there have with
the homeless.<br />
<br />
If you would like to make known your views on this, feel free to contact the staff at New Steine Mews at:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<a href="mailto:hostel@nsmhostel.org.uk">hostel@nsmhostel.org.uk</a></blockquote>
<br />
...and let your views be known.<br />
<br />
Look, I know that Jason can be 'hard work' but talk about kicking a man
when he's down. But hey, that's my fault for exercising free speech,
isn't it? I guess that's why Our Lord told His disciples to clothe the
naked. He knew the State wouldn't think to do it. They can consider it
war, then. There must be a way for all of Brighton to know of their
wicked treatment of the poor. I'll have a think. Still, its heartening
to know that its not just the homeless that the State has it in for,
but <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9263453/500000-to-lose-disability-benefit.html#disqus_thread"><b>the disabled</b></a> as well. Oh, and the elderly. And the unborn.<br />
<br />
As someone has kindly commented, out in the world for those to whom law
applies, what has taken place is theft. For those consider themselves
above the law of both God and man, what has taken place is just revenge
because if you're poor, or homeless or without power or status in this
World, your rights mean nothing.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-32273521174141411572012-05-10T21:54:00.001+01:002012-05-10T22:08:05.964+01:00The Cruel Hypocrisy of Brighton Hostel Workers<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q09kVw-X_ss/TLxx6fmHnhI/AAAAAAAABQU/V0QMaO7Sp8o/s1600/Picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q09kVw-X_ss/TLxx6fmHnhI/AAAAAAAABQU/V0QMaO7Sp8o/s400/Picture.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Jason two years ago...</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Just recently I have been struck by the indifference and hypocrisy of some of the hostel workers in Brighton. In particular, <a href="http://www.nsmhostel.org.uk/"><b>New Steine Mews </b></a>appears to be quite a case in point.<br />
<br />
Jason Evans, now homeless once more in Brighton has some pretty stinging words to say about his experiences resulting in his eviction from New Steine Mews, the 'Place of Change' in Brighton.<br />
<br />
According to Jason, the reason for his eviction is as follows:<br />
<br />
Jason was in the reception talking with one of the staff members of the hostel. For some reason or another, the particular staff member is alleged to have called Jason an 'Arabic bastard'. Not being one to always turn the cheek, Jason, in response, called the staff member a 'Spanish bastard' in return. Jason maintains that later in the evening the two men shook hands and were able to overcome whatever mild altercation they had had earlier.<br />
<br />
'Big deal', you might be thinking and I'd agree with you. But it is a big deal to New Steine Mews and it is now a bigger deal to Jason because he's sleeping out in the pretty awful damp and rain of May, the month, incidentally, of Mary the Queen of Heaven. Having shook hands with the staff member and patched things up, Jason was informed the next day that he was to be evicted. He claims that he wasn't given an actual reason for his eviction - he just assumes that the above story is the reason.<br />
<br />
New Steine Mews workers, for homeless hostel workers, appear to lack any compassion or heart in their dealings with the homeless. Jason was evicted without being able to collect any of his belongings. He now stands around in the rain with all that he has, which is the clothes that he stands in. He isn't allowed back on site to collect any of his belongings - a coat - or any blankets or bedding. He has no sleeping bag. He didn't like New Steine Mews. In fact, I am yet to meet anyone who has anything good to say about the 'Place of Change', but, that said, it was a roof over his head.<br />
<br />
It is about time that more people in Brighton realised that homeless hostels like New Steine Mews are one of the primary reasons why homelessness perpetuates itself in Brighton. The homeless, in the eyes of the Council and of their hostels have no actual rights. If they are deemed to have 'overstepped the mark' in any way, they are slung into the street in whatever they are wearing. The homeless aren't cared for - in fact - it is almost as if they are merely exploited by the hostels system so that local government agencies or private agencies can reap a whirlwind of housing benefit payments.<br />
<br />
Jason's keyworker, a woman called Dawn, expressed shock that Jason had been made homeless again, having noted how 'well he was doing' in his behaviour and in meeting various appointments that Jason had to attend. For me, what is shocking about Jason's treatment is the total lack of regard that the Council - and its workers - has for Jason's human rights - the right to shelter and the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Of course, these ideals may not be held up for Jason, but we know that just as in Animal Farm, 'some people are more equal than others'.<br />
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Take, for instance, one resident of New Steine Mews, a transgender man who dresses like a lady. He still has his essentials, so I am told, but I am informed that this person, who biologically speaking, is still a man, lives on the women's block of New Steine Mews. His rights appear to be greatly respected. So respected, in fact, that I am informed that his behaviour, which is regularly abusive and threatening is overlooked just as frequently. I was told that the individual recently threw his crutches at a member of staff at reception. This is, I think you would agree, an act of violence against a member of staff - not something Jason has been accused of - and yet his treatment by New Steine Mews seems to be rather more protective and understanding than is Jason's. It seems to me that all Jason has to do is say the wrong thing at the wrong time - this time under provocation by a member of staff - and he is told to sling his hook and sleep in the cold and rain.<br />
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The hypocrisy of New Steine Mews is cynical and double-edged. Firstly, the staff don't care what happens to those who walk through the door or those who they sling out of it. Their actions, their prejudice and their neglect of those in their care makes an absolute mockery of their supposed objective of creating a 'place of change' or of protection for those vulnerable homeless adults in their care. Secondly, from what I've been told, the staff treat different homeless residents differently and according to different criteria, so that some are protected in the name of 'equality', but there is no 'equality' of treatment for their residents. I guess its just an LGBT thing. Indeed, 'some are more equal than others'.<br />
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If anyone reading this wants to buy Jason a sleeping bag, then email me as I personally don't have much money at the moment. It's soaking wet outside but New Steine Mews don't appear to care too much about Jason's fate. <br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_2023758435"><b><br /></b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=NIV"><b>'<span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."</span></span></b></a></blockquote>
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<span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-NIV-24049"><span class="woj">I'll leave New Steine and the Council to look at that quote in case they don't know its author. New Steine Mews seem quite adept at trying to sort out the 'sheep from the goats' at their hostel. We who believe in true Justice - rather than the reckless kind of arbitrary justice distributed by mankind - know that in the End, the scales of Justice will fall in favour of the poor, the weak, the discarded and abandoned in this World and against those who oppressed them. Ultimately, no human law, bar those of the human rights court in Europe can ensure that Jason is treated humanely and with dignity. It really is a matter of human conscience and at New Steine Mews, conscience is not the order of the day. No. At New Steine Mews, the order of the day is Equality...for some, but not for others.</span></span><br />
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And here's a funny thing about New Steine Mews. They don't actually like it when someone tells the truth in public about their hostel. They get worried. The last time I wrote about Jason's eviction from New Steine Mews on The Eye of a Needle, I sent an email to them with the link. They read and not a week went by before Jason had been strangely rehoused with them. I don't claim any credit for that - I put that down to an answer to prayer from God thanks to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. On his eviction, Jason asked a member of staff for my telephone number as I am Jason's 'next of kin'. Jason doesn't have family. He has friends. The staff member refused to give it to him because 'he (that is I) wrote nasty things about us'. So a staff member wouldn't give Jason my number even though Jason had asked the staff member to keep it as a next of kin number should anything bad befall Jason. This is Jason's 'data' and the staff won't give it to him! Why? Because I might publish something nasty about New Steine Mews?!<br />
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Well, it looks like that decision didn't work out too well now, did it? The way you treat the homeless is abysmal - a scandal - and those that I know who live or have lived at New Steine Mews tell me on a regular basis. Few residents respect you because it is obvious you don't respect them.<br />
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<br />The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-45848367012240470602012-03-26T00:01:00.001+01:002012-03-26T00:04:20.212+01:00Brighton and Hove City Council and Mears Group: A Perfect Partnership<h3 class="post-title entry-title"></h3><div class="post-header"></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4512309976514498797"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kD9NK-77iGs/T2-M1fLRp4I/AAAAAAAAB0A/8zZ1qPPUh-M/s1600/PICT0229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kD9NK-77iGs/T2-M1fLRp4I/AAAAAAAAB0A/8zZ1qPPUh-M/s320/PICT0229.JPG" width="240" /></a>This is the handiwork and Council house maintenance work of Mears. I took these photos recently.<br />
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Let me know what you think of their work.<br />
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A woman I know was recently moved here by the Council...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cztkStgCdRQ/T2-QlsBM-XI/AAAAAAAAB04/UuneZyoJxsk/s1600/PICT0234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cztkStgCdRQ/T2-QlsBM-XI/AAAAAAAAB04/UuneZyoJxsk/s400/PICT0234.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Nice touch! Welcome to your new home, with kind regards from Mears Group!<br />
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Sorry the place is a dive, because, frankly we couldn't be arsed with it but enjoy a cup of tea in one of our mugs!<br />
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Also, here's a brown paper bag in case you vomit once you realise how much money we're making out of this business! Crap decorating, great mugs! Or are the real mugs the poor people who have to live in accommodation maintained by Mears and the people of Brighton and Hove whose Council tax money is going to these cowboys?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fGKYZ-rMUWQ/T2-NEZgEHVI/AAAAAAAAB0I/d5Ew4xZVeXo/s1600/PICT0239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fGKYZ-rMUWQ/T2-NEZgEHVI/AAAAAAAAB0I/d5Ew4xZVeXo/s320/PICT0239.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
Damp extraction? What, even the weekend before she moves in? Yes! See, at Mears, they really care for their clients! Even though the company grosses huge profits annually, you get a good return because they are prepared to even extract damp out of walls <i>before</i> you move in! Days before!<br />
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Novel use for a Council wheelie bin...<br />
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'Did you say these guys also do Social Care?' I hear you cry.<br />
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Yes! <a href="http://ir11.mearsgroup.co.uk/review_of_the_interim_period/business_review/"><b>Yes, I did!</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fzuaxrF1niw/T2-OzE4H4DI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/WSeQqZCRNe4/s1600/PICT0232.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fzuaxrF1niw/T2-OzE4H4DI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/WSeQqZCRNe4/s400/PICT0232.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
See the attention to detail that the Mears boys go into to keep the customer satisfied!<br />
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Oh, but the customer isn't the tenant, no, its the Council, and they've already <a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/mears-secures-%C2%A3200m-brighton-contract/6505458.article"><b>given the Mears the £200 million contract</b></a>, so, actually, let's not bother with finishing the walls...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qu2mt5za_xo/T2-PJd-UX7I/AAAAAAAAB0Y/ZkfI8hP9vp8/s1600/PICT0231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qu2mt5za_xo/T2-PJd-UX7I/AAAAAAAAB0Y/ZkfI8hP9vp8/s400/PICT0231.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Lovely. A dream home. Or is that nightmare? Still, its only a council tenant so let's not bother to paint the walls or remove the existing wallpaper. Let's leave it somewhere in between!<br />
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She lives on a pittance on benefits so let her sort out the carpet and decorating. Maybe the local SVP will help.<br />
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Nice work, boys!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GtBLEkijDlQ/T2-Pb68TvaI/AAAAAAAAB0g/o39DwNy8s8g/s1600/PICT0230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GtBLEkijDlQ/T2-Pb68TvaI/AAAAAAAAB0g/o39DwNy8s8g/s400/PICT0230.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Sumptuous decorating. Interior decor that anyone would be proud of.<br />
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The Mears boys are well worth the local authority's massive expenditure.<br />
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What is that expenditure?<br />
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Wait for it...<br />
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<a href="http://openlylocal.com/suppliers/119391-mears-limited"><b>It's £2 million a month!</b></a> What a snip! These Mears boys are well worth the money! Great job!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FfWCW4YQUBU/T2-P2wb7UdI/AAAAAAAAB0w/WOJmGNqkBrc/s1600/PICT0235.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FfWCW4YQUBU/T2-P2wb7UdI/AAAAAAAAB0w/WOJmGNqkBrc/s400/PICT0235.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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Beautiful isn't it?<br />
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I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'When can <i>I</i> move in?'<br />
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Poor? Need accommodation in Brighton? Well, Brighton and Hove City Council have just the place for you, all courtesy of Mears, the firm that just loves to give back to the community...unless you're poor, that is. "Oh well, they're only poor, eh? Nobody's interested in what the houses of poor people look like anyway...right?"<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JM8foHhmhiY/T2-ZXwS8LxI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/9XNJdWRB9tE/s1600/PICT0227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JM8foHhmhiY/T2-ZXwS8LxI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/9XNJdWRB9tE/s400/PICT0227.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Two tone floor-boards? Something old, something new. Like it!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LaFC0piK20U/T2-Zt6Ei97I/AAAAAAAAB1Y/4R0WwHY3gM0/s1600/PICT0228.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LaFC0piK20U/T2-Zt6Ei97I/AAAAAAAAB1Y/4R0WwHY3gM0/s400/PICT0228.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Hmm...interesting. This is like 1970s British home mixed with a flavour of the Med. Or is it Moroccan-inspired?<br />
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Whatever it is, its fantastic!<br />
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Of course, this is an exception to the rule. Mears usually provide an exemplary service to the Council and their tenants. This is evidenced by video footage I took of the last place at which the occupier of this property lived. She had someone come round to examine it before she left. They told her that they suspected it had subsidence and that it could fall down any day. Still, that won't stop the Council moving someone in now that the previous tenant has been 'upgraded' to better accommodation, also maintained by Mears Group. <a href="http://the-eye-of-a-needle-brighton.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/welcome-to-world-of-mears-group-plc.html"><b>'Mears: Making people smile.' That's their company motto!</b></a><br />
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I fear Mears will not be smiling when they see this video below and the images above...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FnpCpd9sZoo" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Of course, the tenant could have decorated the last place herself with help from friends, or she could decorate the new place too, but, perhaps after having had five children taken into care by social services because she is 'drink dependent', maybe, at some point, she just lost the heart to decorate. And no, its not the same person that I talked with last night.<br />
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Five children, all removed by the State and taken into care. Now, that's what I call another victory for women's rights. Where are all the feminists when women really need them? Actually, where's <i>The Argus</i> when you really need them?</div>The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-77043479307092965792012-02-13T18:09:00.003+00:002012-02-13T18:10:00.050+00:00Dealing with Lazarus<div class="post-header"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7M8WJQnfzys/TzVaMJF7IUI/AAAAAAAABzo/tyEFweUJtIM/s1600/PICT0226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7M8WJQnfzys/TzVaMJF7IUI/AAAAAAAABzo/tyEFweUJtIM/s640/PICT0226.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
For quite a long time, I used to see a young man from our soup run sleeping at the back of the Church of Christ the King (CCK). In an alcove, he placed some cardboard boxes and would sleep there at night. I wondered to myself whether the regulars at CCK responded to him with Christian charity and love.<br />
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Then, a week or two ago, I noticed something incredibly strange. A wired, metal, grill had been erected where he once slept. It appears that this is how seriously CCK, who feed the homeless on Monday evenings, actually take the Gospel, when it comes to actually 'dealing with Lazarus'. I know that the Church of Christ the King, the evangelical Protestant community, take 'converting' people very seriously. I know how dedicated to the Bible they are. I also know that the church, undergoing some exterior work in the daytime, has a lot more money than most churches in the area could dream of. I'm just wondering whether they've read the parable of the <a href="http://www.bcbsr.com/survey/pbl36.html"><b>rich man and Lazarus</b></a>. Maybe its another area in which Protestant Evangelicals believe that Our Lord was only speaking metaphorically or 'symbolically'. This picture, to me, speaks volumes!The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-79152646780906880322012-01-03T03:04:00.007+00:002012-01-03T16:45:42.440+00:00New Steine Mews: A Place of Change<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://statics.192.com/estreet/original/large/1015/10156978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://statics.192.com/estreet/original/large/1015/10156978.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A friend called Jason has been evicted from New Steine Mews in this the Octave of Christmas. In fact, he was evicted on New Year's Day.<br />
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Part of the problem with Jason, well, in fact a great deal of the problem with Jason is his alcoholism and the 'anti-social behaviour' which is left in its wake. I've known Jason for quite a few years and I will not lie about him.<br />
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One day you see him and he's very likeable indeed. The next day you see him and you want to throttle him, so it is not the case that I have no sympathy with the staff at New Steine Mews.<br />
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However, one would have thought that what with all the specialist training staff undergo in the homeless sector of how to deal with 'vulnerable persons' with both substance misuse problems and mental health issues, staff at New Steine Mews would know how to deal with Jason. However, after what appears to be a series of anti-social behaviour incidents at New Steine Mews, Jason was evicted and sent into the cold and rain of January Brighton at 11am on New Years Day. This event of eviction seems to happen about every few months, Jason is kicked out and then a few months later he is welcomed back to New Steine where the same events occur.<br />
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Whatever <b><a href="http://www.nsmhostel.org.uk/">New Steine Mews</a></b> is, it is not a place of change, as its website claims. It is ran by Brighton and Hove City Council, which means that they apparently have a statutory duty to take back those who they evict eventually, and eventually Jason will be placed back there, because that seems to be the only hostel that will take him on, but I was interested to hear a rumour that, allegedly, a third of New Steine Mews is owned by Baron Homes Corporation Ltd. I wonder whether anyone can confirm that for me, as that would be more than simply an interesting footnote to the scandal that is Brighton and Hove City Council's relationship with Brighton's biggest and least ethical 'tramp-farming' landlord.<br />
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Jason claims that his eviction, just like the last time, occurred at a weekend because different staff are on duty at weekends and perhaps they are less tolerant of Jason. I can't say whether that is true or not. All I know is that I know Jason to be a 'challenging' person and a 'vulnerable person'. I know that Jason can be, at times, a very anti-social person indeed, but I know of no action so anti-social as to summarily kick someone out of their room onto the street and into the cold and rain because their behaviour is 'intolerable'. We are always told in modern society that we must be tolerant of different people. We must be tolerant of homosexuals, lesbians, transgendered people, bisexual people, people of different races and ethnicities and religions. Ostensibly, tolerance is a Council mantra, so much so that equality and diversity legislation is wired into every institution and item of legislation that comes from Parliament. We seem to tolerate everything but 'anti-social behaviour'.<br />
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This seems to be a feature of modern British life and certainly Brighton's hostels system. At any one time, it seems, men and women are being evicted from hostels for their behaviour by staff who have been trained specifically to, you know, work with homeless people, but when the tenant's behaviour doesn't change, the model for addressing the problem doesn't seem to be a sober committee with the guilty party, but instead a rather cruel and unmerciful slinging onto the street, whereby the guilty party can reflect on his actions in the bitter winter cold with not even a sleeping bag to keep him warm at night.<br />
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Oh, but don't worry about him, because, sooner or later the 'Rough Sleepers Workers' will find him, discuss his options with him, encouage him to quit drinking and eventually, after about 3-10 weeks of sleeping in the cold, place him back in the same hostel where history can repeat itself in the 'Place of Change'. I called New Steine and asked them about Jason:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">"Oh, we've tried working with him to get him to change his behaviour but he doesn't," said the receptionist.</blockquote><br />
Hmm. Interesting. Have, I wonder, the staff of New Steine Mews and whoever is Jason's keyworker attempted to talk to Jason about what he thinks could happen in order for his behaviour to change? I've no doubt at all that Jason needs detox at Mill View, where he is due to go hopefully soon, but I believe that a part of the problem with Jason is that he has absolutely nothing to do. Do the staff workers know that Jason is (apparently) a qualified and very competent chef? Perhaps his keyworker could help Jason to access either voluntary or employment opportunities in cookery. He loves cooking and if New Steine Mews really is a 'place of change' perhaps supporting Jason into some kind of vocational work like cookery would really help him. It's a long shot but it might just work. Or, I don't know, maybe the staff at New Steine Mews are just in their jobs for the paycheck and don't really mind too much if Jason, one winter, should just snuff it out in the cold concrete streets of Brighton and Hove or die of pneumonia or get beaten up by a gang of drunken thugs?<br />
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To be honest, I understand that 'policies and procedures' have to be followed at New Steine Mews in the wake of incidents that take place, but I do sometimes wonder whether the implementation of these 'policies and procedures' are rather, shall we say, draconian. After all, if the staff at New Steine Mews are going to welcome Jason back in 10 weeks anyway, as is 'procedure' why don't they show Jason some forgiveness, compassion and 'tolerance' and let him back in?<br />
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What's the point in an empty warm room if Jason is out in the cold? What has modern Britain come to when a homeless hostel ran by the Council is, at least in part, responsible for causing homelessness in mid-winter? If you're going to do that, why not give him a short sharp shock and kick him out for one night, and then tell him to come back in the morning and discuss things more calmly when he's sober? At least then it would only be one night on the street, which has to be advantageous to 30-40 nights on the street in winter? It all seems a little as if the punishing penance imposed on the sinner is rather disproportionate to the offense. How many pissed up people who didn't live in homeless hostels on New Years Eve woke up the next morning only to be told to get out of their dwelling, take whatever they can grab and go and live on the street? I can tell you I had more than a few and it didn't happen to me.<br />
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Unless, of course, there is money in eviction for New Steine Mews or whatever third party may or may not (allegedly) own a third of it. I heard a rumour that every time a tenant is evicted a new tenant has to come in to replace them and that every time a new tenant comes in, as well as the proprietor receiving the housing benefit, they also receive a bigger lump sum in terms of a deposit. I expect rent for New Steine is about £150-£160 a week for that tiny little room of Jason's that I've seen, so the deposit might be around a grand. If what I heard is true, that would be a nice little earner for any proprietor with a stake in New Steine Mews, wouldn't it?<br />
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Tell you what. Instead of making Jason sleep outside with not even a sleeping bag this Christmas time, given that eventually you're going to let him back in because of 'procedure', why not just show a little bit of Christmas spirit and let him back in now...or have you rented his room out to someone new already? In the liturgical season of the Catholic Church, it's Christmastide until the Feast of the Epiphany. Jason knows its Christmas, though I must say he irritated me so much I could have throttled him today. The cheeky blighter was trying to get a tenner out of me today and being filled with the spirit of Scrooge, I told him to p*ss off, but as for the staff of New Steine Mews, the question I want to know the answer to is...<b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cX_ncZLls">'Do they know its Christmas time at all'</a></b>?The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-44546653240365882492011-09-29T11:22:00.000+01:002011-09-29T11:22:35.316+01:00Welcome to the World of Mears Group Plc<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/Pictures/thumb/j/l/r/Mears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/Pictures/thumb/j/l/r/Mears.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>The company with a stranglehold over Council housing</b></td></tr>
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<b><a href="http://the-eye-of-a-needle-brighton.blogspot.com/">The Eye of a Needle</a></b><br />
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Recently, I visited a friend of George and Diane in her Council flat in Brighton. A young lady who suffers depression, having had 5 children taken from her in her life by social services, we talked with her and I asked if she would allow me to take some footage of her property.<br />
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She wasn't offended when I said that I wasn't very impressed by the Council if this was what they were offering as accommodation to Brightonians.<br />
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Thankfully, she is being moved soon to a new Council property, though she admitted she has not seen the place to which she will be moved. As you can tell from the video below, the walls of the house are in a shocking state of disrepair and are in need of plastering and decorating. Like a couple of Council houses I have seen, the Council and/or the <b><a href="http://www.mearsgroup.co.uk/">Mears Group</a></b> who are responsible for the upkeep of its property, don't provide carpet to its residents.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/article_images/articledir_1966/983497/2_200by200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/article_images/articledir_1966/983497/2_200by200.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>Bob Holt, CEO of Mears Group</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>According to <b><a href="http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/channels/entrepreneurs/business-leaders/983497/bob-holt-from-mears-to-mfuse.thtml">this article</a></b>, the Mears Group seem to be doing rather well financially. Its CEO, Bob Holt, boasts of the company with responsibility for the maintenance of social housing in Brighton having been 'debt free' for over 13 years. It is a company which, according to <b><a href="http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/channels/entrepreneurs/business-leaders/983497/bob-holt-from-mears-to-mfuse.thtml">Growth Business UK</a></b>, has brought the 'Mears Group from sales of £12 million when it listed on AIM in 1996 to £305 million today'.<br />
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Great. Well, I'm all for people being successful, but if this company are really doing that well then why do they seem unable to maintain this Council property in Brighton to a barely minimal standard. This company must need no reminding that they are on the receiving end of a staggering average of <b>£2,020,105 a year </b>from Brighton and Hove City Council for their services <b><a href="http://openlylocal.com/suppliers/119391-mears-limited">(Source: Openly Local)</a></b>, which, looking at the video below of a friend's Council house, seems to be rather an excessive pecuniary reward, for a not very good job. Certainly, the resident living there was rather down about where she lived.<br />
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Over winter she had to live on friend's sofas in order to keep warm because, as you can see from the video, the grill over the door that came off after a daughter tried to break in, having lost her key or left it at home, never was put back on the hinges. The wood was so rotten that the door came right off and couldn't be put back on. So the Mears team just grilled up the back door, but not particularly well, since it allows air and light through. So in winter, the resident was freezing cold when it hit minus 6 degrees. She asked the Mears team to sort it out, of course, but it never was. To be honest, looking around at the place, it kind of felt like the whole house could fall down at any moment. I hope a lot of people read this, I really do and I hope the 'House of Mears' that seems to have an iron grip over the housing of the poor in Brighton falls down like the house of cards that it is. They have a reputation in Brighton, does the Mears clan. They are, by and large, <b><a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8862746.Mears_brothers_guilty_of_Lapland_scam/">crooks and thugs</a></b> and they are <b><a href="http://www.brighton-hove-councillors.org.uk/index.cfm?request=b1148924">all over the Council</a></b>.<br />
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Not, that said, that it is only Brighton and Hove City Council that are in a cosy relationship with the Mears operations. Openly Local, the website that provides information on Council's spending and Council's suppliers makes it quite clear that the Mears Group provides exactly the same services for:<br />
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<ul><li><b>Birmingham City Council</b> (Total spend: £1,502,739, <b>Average monthly spend: £1,502,739</b>)</li>
<li><b>London Borough of Bromley</b> (Total spend: £169,749, <b>Average monthly spend: £169,749</b>)</li>
<li><b>Blackpool Council </b>(Total spend: £674,791, Average monthly spend: <b>£337,395</b>)</li>
<li><b>Newcastle upon Tyne City Council</b> (Total spend: £2,623,661, Average monthly spend: <b>£437,276)</b></li>
<li><b>London Borough of Lambeth </b>(Total spend: £471,040, Average monthly spend: <b>£471,040</b>)</li>
<li><b>Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames</b> (Total spend: £2,551,119, <b>Average monthly spend: £283,457</b>)</li>
<li><b>Cornwall Council </b>(Total spend: £1,874,663, <b>Average monthly spend: £468,665</b>)</li>
<li><b>Leeds City Council</b> (Total spend: £396,751, Average monthly spend:<b> £396,751</b>)</li>
<li><b>Peterborough City Council </b>(Total spend: £53,291, Average monthly spend: <b>£53,291</b>)</li>
<li><b>London Borough of Barking and Dagenham</b> (Total spend: £15,606, Average monthly spend: <b>£15,606</b>)</li>
<li><b>North East Lincolnshire Council </b>(Total spend: £85,777, Average monthly spend: <b>£28,592</b>)</li>
<li><b>Dover District Council</b> (Total spend: £338,107, Average monthly spend: <b>£112,702</b>)</li>
</ul><br />
It looks like Brighton and Hove City Council are the most generous in their spending on these boys. Ironically, after I'd visited this property, I went to get my hair cut at a barbers on the edge of town and the guy next door to me, also getting his hair cut, was a Mears worker. They wear t-shirts with the Mears logo on one side of the breast and the Brighton and Hove City Council logo on the other. In fact, Brighton and Hove City Council repairs team also have the Mears logo on them.<br />
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I guess you could say this is a mutually beneficial relationship. It is also Councillor Mary Mears of Mears and Sons <b><a href="http://thatthebonesyouhavecrushedmaythrill.blogspot.com/2011/01/brightons-open-market-to-be-re.html">who arranged for the destruction of the Open Market, for it to be renovated and for flats to built there on the site</a></b>. I think most people accept that Councils are a little dodgy and that how they award contracts is probably on the dodgy side. I think what most people would find a little shocking is just what little effort some of those contractors put into the properties over which they have responsibility and the appalling living conditions of those who have to live there, those who have no choice where they live. I don't know. Maybe they maintain the Council's housing stock well and this is something of an abberation. Or maybe, it is a case of the resident being <b><a href="http://thatthebonesyouhavecrushedmaythrill.blogspot.com/search?q=not+worthy+hyde">'not worthy' of having her house repaired</a></b>. I hope they get the place fixed up before the next poor soul has to live there, but I wouldn't bet on it...The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-72947835698488112702011-08-03T01:44:00.000+01:002011-08-03T01:44:24.141+01:00The Eye of Needle<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bAG67DBRen0" width="600"></iframe><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b>The Eye of a Needle</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">You’re down and out in Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">So now what you gonna do?</div><div style="text-align: center;">Though there’s ‘To Let’ signs everywhere</div><div style="text-align: center;">This city’s got no room for you</div><div style="text-align: center;">You’ve got some cash </div><div style="text-align: center;">But the agents they want more, more, more</div><div style="text-align: center;">You need a flat</div><div style="text-align: center;">But brother you are poor, poor, poor</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">So you go and see the Council</div><div style="text-align: center;">Maybe they’ve a room for you?</div><div style="text-align: center;">You drag your belongings</div><div style="text-align: center;">Down Crack Central avenue</div><div style="text-align: center;">You were full of hope but now that you’ve arrived-rived-rived</div><div style="text-align: center;">You see the room and you break down and you cry, cry, cry</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">There’s a soldier up above who’s been beating on his wife</div><div style="text-align: center;">He left Iraq but now he can’t cope with civilian life</div><div style="text-align: center;">And there’s a sad man rapping at your door, door, door</div><div style="text-align: center;">Asking, “Here, do you know where I can score, score, score?”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Then you lay on your mattress, </div><div style="text-align: center;">Out the corner of your eye</div><div style="text-align: center;">You spy a used needle that an addict’s left behind</div><div style="text-align: center;">You’ve never stayed anywhere like this before-fore-fore!</div><div style="text-align: center;">There’s a dry patch of blood upon the floor, floor, floor, floor, floor!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Oh this is Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Welcome to Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">17/19 Grand Parade</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">There’s a sad man rapping at your door</div><div style="text-align: center;">His arms are cut to shreds and now he’s asking for your support</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">You get a letter from the Council</div><div style="text-align: center;">Telling you the room’s price</div><div style="text-align: center;">You ask, “How can it cost that for this squalid little dive?”</div><div style="text-align: center;">Then another letter comes up to your door, door, door</div><div style="text-align: center;">You’ve got to pay 'top-up' or you’ll be out in the morning</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">You ask who runs this joint</div><div style="text-align: center;">You find out that its Baron Homes</div><div style="text-align: center;">They’re making money out of you</div><div style="text-align: center;">It chills you to the bone</div><div style="text-align: center;">The owners making loads of cash, cash, cash</div><div style="text-align: center;">You see another tenant in a body bag, bag, bag</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">You’re down and out in Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">So now what you gonna do?</div><div style="text-align: center;">When the eye of a needle is just what you’re passing through</div><div style="text-align: center;">You tell the Council but they don’t really mind, mind, mind</div><div style="text-align: center;">Do they care if you should live or die?</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">You wait for 7 hours at the Council</div><div style="text-align: center;">Maybe there’s another room</div><div style="text-align: center;">“There must be more to Brighton than Crack Central”, Oh , but you?</div><div style="text-align: center;">You’re not welcome in this town because you’re poor,</div><div style="text-align: center;">"Here’s a ticket to the town where you come from,"</div><div style="text-align: center;">The rich they are welcome here, that’s all</div><div style="text-align: center;">But not you, no, you're not really their sort,</div><div style="text-align: center;">Then a stranger walks straight through your door, door, door</div><div style="text-align: center;">He’s got the keys he’s the tenant from before-fore-fore!</div><div style="text-align: center;">There’s a bad man rapping at your door, door door!</div><div style="text-align: center;">Asking, “Here brother, do you want to score, score, score?”</div><div style="text-align: center;">The Council ask, “Have you ever considered Eastbourne?”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">This is Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Welcome to Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">Brighton</div><div style="text-align: center;">17/19</div><div style="text-align: center;">Grand Parade </div><div style="text-align: center;">Brighton</div>The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-81361820110992719092011-07-21T20:32:00.001+01:002011-07-21T20:32:04.383+01:00Olympic Homeless Coming to Brighton<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/4/20/1240241346533/Olympic-sites-London-2012-004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/4/20/1240241346533/Olympic-sites-London-2012-004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Is there anything more absurd than the Olympics?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9147052.Olympic_homeless_on_Brighton_and_Hove_Streets/"><b>The Argus </b></a>carried an interesting story yesterday concerning Brighton's increasing homeless community being caused by the grotesquely expensive efforts being put into putting on an exhibition of fast runners, high jumpers and good swimmers. The new homeless have been described by the local press as the 'Olympic homeless'...<br />
<blockquote><br />
'Homeless people are heading to Brighton and Hove to escape a purge of London’s streets ahead of the Olympics.<br />
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Charities have reported “harassment” of rough sleepers in the capital as London mayor Boris Johnson looks to eradicate homelessness before the 2012 Games.<br />
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As people look to escape the operation, Sussex Police has been forced to include the impact into its plans to deal with homeless people. It comes as city bosses reported dramatic increases in both rough sleeping and homelessness with hundreds more possibly affected due to changes in Governmóent benefits.<br />
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Hove MP Mike Weatherley said: “If there has been some sort of drive to reduce homelessness in London, I can only hope that it has been carried out in a responsible manner. Moving on a problem, rather than tackling it, is hardly fair. I look forward to looking into this further as soon as I receive full confirmation of the facts.”<br />
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The campaign to end rough sleeping in London for good began in 2005 after the capital was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. Within this is Operation Poncho, a joint council and police initiative which has been criticised by charities for “harassment” tactics.<br />
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It included reports of people being woken in the night and forced to move on. Previous Olympics in Sydney in 2000 and Atlanta in 1996 saw reports of forcible removal of the homeless during the games for image purposes. Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bill Randall said the latest rough sleeping figures were “indicative of the housing issues we face”.<br />
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Council officials have counted 42 rough sleepers in the city – three times the 14 reported by the Government in December. The latest figure is comparable to 1998 when there were 48 rough sleepers recorded on the city’s streets. However, council counts are generally recognised as including only a fraction of the true level of rough sleeping in Brighton and Hove.<br />
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Chief Inspector Bruce Mathews, of Sussex Police, said it was hard to gauge the reasons why homeless people move from one place to another. However, he said: “There is always a possibility that if somewhere else is focusing on homeless people, they may displace any problem or issue. It is one of those issues we are aware of but I can’t say whether it is having an effect on either London's volumes or the type of person that is homeless in the city.”<br />
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Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas recently claimed 840 people in the city could be affected by Government changes to housing benefit. She said: “My surgeries are full of people who are struggling to pay rent and find alternatives to overcrowded and overpriced accommodation “Ministers must now heed the warnings and reverse this measure to avert an epidemic of homelessness amongst the most vulnerable in our community.” </blockquote>The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-49872860331271248662011-07-12T21:45:00.012+01:002017-06-17T22:10:00.591+01:00The Scandal of 17-19 Grand Parade, Baron Homes and Brighton and Hove City Council<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BKNLGY3_6YM" width="500"></iframe><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Princes House, Brighton</b></td></tr>
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Residents of 17/19 Grand Parade agreed to be interviewed about the living conditions of the “emergency temporary accommodation” of inner Brighton. <br />
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Each resident interviewed has a different story of the shameful squalour and scandalous neglect of the accommodation into which Brighton and Hove City Council’s housing and ‘rough sleepers’ teams place homeless and vulnerable persons.<br />
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Their stories speak well for themselves. You will see from our website’s video footage that 17/19 Grand Parade is a sorry excuse for “emergency temporary accommodation”. Some residents have been left there for over two years. You will also see the appalling manner in which the premises are run.<br />
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However, the story does not end there. There is more to this story than at first meets the eye. Video evidence on our blog provides proof that the “emergency temporary accommodation” is ran by Brighton-based company, The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd.<br />
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<b>Baron Homes: making money out of poverty </b><br />
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The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd is, in fact, a sister company of Baron Estates, a fact conveniently overlooked on their website. Their address is 22A East Street Arcade. At 12 East Street Arcade reside the plush offices of Baron Estates. The same premises of Princes House, with luxury flats for sale for £700,000, appears on both websites.<br />
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And as if to demonstrate just how ‘close’ to Brighton and Hove City Council these estate and lettings agents are, the addresses of both offices are just yards away from Brighton and Hove City Council’s Housing and City Support Team, who keep a steady stream of homeless clients flowing into 17/19 Grand Parade and Baron Homes’s other properties. Baron Estates website advertises that their ‘London Office’ resides at 121 Park Lane, Mayfair, which, conveniently, is also the site of the, global, ‘Guild of Professional Estate Agents’, which boasts of its ability to access “the lucrative London and international investor markets”.<br />
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither the website for Baron Estates or The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd say anything about Baron Homes’s responsibility for 17/19 Grand Parade, their ‘emergency accommodation’ in Brunswick Square or Windsor Court in Windsor Street.<br />
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Baron Homes do, however, list the large array of rather more lavish properties for which they also have responsibility. These include Princes House on North Street and other commercial and residential properties. Baron Estates also act as agents for properties around Brighton and the surrounding area, with some advertised for sale for as much as £2.4 million. <br />
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And it is no wonder the property companies are able to afford to acquire such property for their portfolios. On average, Brighton and Hove City Council transfer into the bank account of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd a staggering £1.2 million a year, presumably in housing benefits. Not bad for a company that claims to have been established in 1994, is it? <br />
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The Eye of the Needle has established that the Baron property empire are not just ‘agents’ for 17/19 Grand Parade, but owners and it is incredible that an agency who are beneficiaries of so much housing benefit and whose sister company are selling properties for six figures, are unable to remind themselves, or indeed be reminded by the Council, to maintain their property even to a barely minimal standard. With their vast wealth they could even employ staff to care for Brighton’s most vulnerable.<br />
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Baron Homes charge the Council in excess of £150 a week in order to accommodate Brighton’s poor. This is double what would be charged by an ordinary landlord for far better accommodation in Brighton. Yet, the accommodation is truly abysmal. How can it be that a company making so much financial return out of the misery of 17/19 Grand Parade can put such a minimal effort into the living conditions of the premises, while at the same time boast of the stunning beauty of its more expensive, luxury accommodation in Brighton and beyond? We at The Eye of a Needle would suggest that this company may find public knowledge of their responsibility for 17/19 Grand Parade rather embarrassing, and, hopefully, so too will their shareholders.<br />
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How can it be that Baron Homes can be beneficiaries of so much public money when as yet it appears nobody from the Council has ordered an inquiry into the “emergency temporary accommodation”? How can a company be so vastly wealthy and yet give nothing in return to the very poor from whom they profit? How can Brighton and Hove City Council, who have a duty of care for Brighton’s most vulnerable, preside over this astonishing neglect of the poor?!<br />
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How can this wealthy empire demand from their poor tenants the £10 a week “top-up” fees that are compulsory for the residents of the 17-19 Grand Parade, a fee for which they receive scant in return in terms of quality of life? What grave and scandalous injustice, that this Brighton mafia robs from the poor from their weekly allowance just to get more wealthy than they already are!? Does their avarice know no bounds!?<br />
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<b>A scandal worthy of the attention of the local and national media</b><br />
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The story of Baron Homes and their all too cosy relationship with Brighton and Hove City Council is unclear, rather murky so to speak, but it is surely worthy of local and perhaps national media attention. For under the responsibility of Baron Homes is also accommodation of a similar nature in Brunswick Square from which more horror stories emerge. We are certain that if all of the poor homeless men and women of these residences knew of the vast wealth of the international company which has responsibility for these premises they would be utterly scandalised, as would many of the good people of Brighton and Hove. <br />
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It is a wonder how the local press has never picked up on this story, but then with the amount of money involved in this scandal it is perhaps unsurprising. It may be that a company as big as Baron Homes Corporation Ltd are simply ‘too big to touch’. They are not, however, too big for this magazine. Nor, for that matter, are Brighton and Hove City Council, the leaders of which should be ashamed of themselves for not investigating and ordering the improvement of 17/19 Grand Parade, oiled, as it is, by public money. It is a national scandal and our videos of interviews with residents will communicate the depth of this scandal more adequately than we can do in words.<br />
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<b>Huge wealth made from the misery of Brighton’s poor, homeless and destitute</b><br />
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Indeed, someone, somewhere, is getting very wealthy off the backs of these poor tenants trapped in the squalour of 17/19 Grand Parade, Brunswick Square and other rented dumps in Brighton and they are giving nothing back to them in return. Unlike The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd, Baron Estates is able to boast of its membership of the Guild of Professional Estate agents and its approval by the Government’s Property Ombudsman scheme, a Guild of which we can only presume that Baron Homes Corporation is not a member. <br />
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Perhaps the ‘Property Ombudsman’ scheme for lettings agents should still be informed of Baron Homes’s terrible management of the premises of 17/19 Grand Parade. It reflects rather badly on Baron Estates.<br />
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More generally, howver, the whole nature of local Government’s relationship with the The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd is rather mysterious. It is interesting that Baron Estates are members of the ‘Guild of Professional Estate Agents’, but The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd appears not to be, but given that the Guild shares office space with Baron Estates’s office in 121 Park Lane, Mayfair, one wonders whether it exists only to serve their interests in “lucrative investment” operations.<br />
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Regardless to say, the relationship between Brighton and Hove City Council and this company stinks to high heaven and all the more in the light of the fact that Baron Estates boast of their other services.<br />
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These ‘services’ include their ‘Shops Department’, their ‘Office Space’ department, their ‘Industrial Property Department’, their ‘Valuation Department’, their ‘Commercial Land Development Consultancy and Town Planning Department’, ‘Motor Trade and Roadside Property Department’, their ‘Hotels Department’, ‘Nursing Homes Department’, ‘Business Sales Department’ and ‘Investment Property Department’. It rather looks like, between them, The Baron Homes Corporation and Baron Estates have Brighton pretty much sewn up!<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Quite what is the nature of the relationship between Brighton and Hove City Council and The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd, when the same company that runs the most squalid, wretched emergency temporary accommodation in Brighton is also able to buy up the much sought after Regents Arcade, as reported by The Argus, for £10 million pounds, in 2004?<br />
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Perhaps it is not surprising that The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd were able to afford Regents Arcade. As well as the housing benefits and “top-up fee” revenue, just look at what Director of the company, Mrs Nazila Blencowe, is ‘President’ of: Baron International, Inc. The Director of the mysterious Baron organisation has been living in Beverley Hills, USA! Lucky for some! What the tenants of 17/19 wouldn’t give!<br />
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<b>The Blencowes: The Barons of Brighton</b><br />
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So who is the Director of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd and who is the Director of Baron Estates? Well, our investigation has discovered that Mrs Nazila Blencowe is Director of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd. Michael Blencowe, is Director of Baron Estates and Michael is the son of Nazila Blencowe. Now there is a co-incidence! Could it be that the public money flowing into the account of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd is assisting, in some way, the acquisition of new property for the Baron Estates portfolio as well? Surely not! It couldn’t be!<br />
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And it appears that Mrs Nazila Blencowe, at least, is one very wealthy lady, indeed. According to property website Blockshopper, Mrs Blencowe’s Beverley Hills property at 1121 Marylin Drive was bought on 31 March 2009 by her and her now deceased husband, Richard Blencowe, for $6,685,000. By 2nd April 2009, ownership had changed hands to Baron Holdings International Llc. Now, it is being marketed for sale by ‘owner’ Mr Curt D Cassingham and is being offered for $7,995,000. Mr Blencowe may have gone to his Maker, but Nazila still appears to be cashing in on her ‘investments’.<br />
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Mrs Nazila Blencowe, as the Director of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd., I would say you owe the poor of Brighton and Hove, living in the disgusting excuses for “emergency temporary accommodation” an explanation. You and your son clearly manage a considerable array of Brighton’s property, both residential and commercial. Your firm are clearly very, very wealthy and so are you. You have profitted, at least in part, from your ownership of Brighton’s most appalling ‘emergency temporary accommodation’. This accommodation is by no means adequate for Brighton’s most poor and defenseless and you quite blatantly charge the Council at least double what it would cost for them to place Brighton’s most vulnerable in more adequate property with different landlords. <br />
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Perhaps, in the light of this investigation, you could put some new locks on the doors of the tenants at 17-19 Grand Parade so they’ve got some security. Perhaps you could show a little more generosity to the people who have to endure harsh poverty and the unsupervised mayhem of the premises who contribute to your company’s great wealth.<br />
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Perhaps you could live there for a week and see what it is like. Within those walls are housed people with addictions, people with mental health problems, people who have suffered greatly and still suffer. Their sufferings are compounded by the poor quality of your accommodation. <br />
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Your money and your vast property empire may make you happy, but ultimately, the rich who spit upon the poor in this life will have some serious explaining to do at their tribunal before Almighty God and all your money that you stole from Brighton’s poor will never buy back your immortal soul. Your company must literally be swimming in public money. For the love of God and the sake of your soul, give something back to those in your care.<br />
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<b>What is ‘Baron International, Inc’?</b><br />
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The vast wealth of the operation and Mrs Blencowe’s status as an agent of ‘Baron Holdings International LLC’ and President of ‘Baron International, Inc’, means that this company, presumably encompassing Baron Estates, is highly interested in investors, stocks and shares. Even with the revenue of housing benefits, no company can emerge out of the blue in 1994 and acquire so much, so quickly and our investigation has uncovered that ownership of ‘Baron International, Inc’ is shared between different parties.<br />
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The Veromi Business Search website informs us that ownership is shared between at least five people. These parties include Nazila Blencowe, Maria S Freebairn, Robert Freebairn, Arthur Hernandez and Mark R Jones. Mark R Jones just so happens to link Baron International with Best Beverage of America Inc. It just so happens that the corporation of Baron International, Inc is a name associated with beverage equipment distribution.<br />
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'Baron International, Inc., a multi-million dollar a year revenue operation,was founded in 1982 by Mr. Robert Ingala and Mr. Norman Kushner. Since its inception, the company built many restaurants and has sold several beer systems and equipment. The company serves major companies such as Applebee's, Pepsi and National Amusement (Mr. Summer Redstone, Viacom), among many other major corporations.'</blockquote>
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Well, well, well. Who would have thought it, eh? 17/19 Grand Parade, the most filthy dive of “emergency temporary accommodation” in Brighton, is, in fact, run by a multi-million dollar company in West Orange, New Jersey, USA. Now, we don’t know about you, but that is what we call a story! <br />
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How can it be, that a small cabal of wealthy Americans can chunks of Brighton? Wouldn’t you say that Brightonians have a right to know about it? The poor of Brighton sure deserve to know it, because with a wealthy empire like that, “emergency accommodation” in Brighton could become rather more pleasant in a matter of a year or two. Perhaps, with that vast wealth, 17-19 Grand Parade could be transformed into a decent, staffed, safe, secure, caring home for Brighton’s most vulnerable. You may not think they are worth it, but they are and they deserve the truth and more than that, they deserve justice!<br />
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<b>Brighton and Hove City Council’s neglect of their duty of care to the homeless</b><br />
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As for Brighton and Hove City Council, well, we think you may be hearing from some of the residents of 17/19 Grand Parade quite soon. You have been well and truly exposed. You thought that the people of Brighton would never hear of your disgraceful and perhaps dangerously close friendship with the Baron empire. You were wrong. You had thought that <i>The Argus</i> could be relied upon not to investigate 17/19 Grand Parade and sorrowfully you were right. But now, at long last, a new publication tells the truth, the truth is out and the people of Brighton will know of Baron Homes and their exploitation for profit of Brighton’s most poor and defencesless! We condemn your indifference and your exploitation of their sufferings and the Council that neglected to bring you to book and this, we assure you, is just the start.<br />
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<br />The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-22451575375759931702011-06-16T11:31:00.009+01:002011-06-16T18:06:37.185+01:00Letting Agents Change Lock on Brighton Couple's Door While They Are Out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gravessonandpilcher.com/images/intro-replace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://www.gravessonandpilcher.com/images/intro-replace.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon their honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.</i><br />
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<i>Article 12 of the Human Rights Act</i><br />
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A Brighton couple were shocked yesterday to hear that the locks of their home had been changed while they were out and now find themselves homeless.<br />
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The couple, George Horvath, 48, and Dianne Brennan, 47, of Arundel Court, Brighton were evicted suddenly and without due warning for breach of their licence agreement with Brighton and Hove City Council following a short series of disputes over noise with a neighbour.<br />
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According to the couple, this action against them has taken place without formal written notice or fair warning of eviction and after reassurances from KEM maintenance agents that no such action would take place.<br />
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Mr Horvath spoke yesterday of his shock at hearing the news.<br />
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<blockquote>"We were in a local public house when we heard the news that the locks had been changed on our doors and that the maintenance agents would allow us into the property to collect some things, but that this was no longer our home. I understand that we have had a dispute with our neighbour who lives in the flat below us, but this is totally unfair."</blockquote><br />
What makes the news of this action, taken by managing agents, Graves Son and Pilcher all the more shocking is that Diane Brennan is a mental health services client of the Council who suffers bi-polar disorder. When Mr Horvath tried to obtain information concerning the nature of complaints made against him to the managing agents, he maintains that he was stonewalled. <br />
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<blockquote>"Graves Son and Pilcher wouldn't tell me anything about the nature of the complaints against us or who was making the complaints. When I asked for written evidence or any correspondence that there was any evidence against us, I was told that the worker for the firm could not help me and then had the telephone put down on me."</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.locksmithbristol.co.uk/images/yale%20x5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.locksmithbristol.co.uk/images/yale%20x5.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The Brighton couple are now concerned about where Brighton and Hove City Council will place them next. Diane Brennan, a mental health and Substance Misuse Service (SMS) client of the Council, expressed fears that the couple would be placed in Percival Terrace or another emergency homeless hostel in Brighton. <br />
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<blockquote>"I only associate Percival Terrace with drugs and addiction. Since I have been at Arundel Court, I have been in rehab at Mill View and have given up both drink and drugs. I don't want to go back to that place in Percival Terrace. There are too many drug takers there and I will be tempted to go back to my former lifestyle. How can the Substance Misuse Service (SMS) allow this to happen to one of their clients?"</blockquote><blockquote>"Moreover, how can Brighton and Hove City Council allow this to happen to one of their mental health clients as well? I feel on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Can you imagine being out of the house and suddenly hearing that you are homeless, unable to pick up more than a few of your belongings and that you are out on the street?"</blockquote><br />
<b>Homeless in Brighton with Nowhere to Store their Possessions</b><br />
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Ms Brennan, upset at the couple's treatment, spoke yesterday of her fears for the future.<br />
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<blockquote>"We have nowhere to store our belongings. We are going to lose everything. If we are not found somewhere to live other than an emergency room, then all of our belongings will be taken away and destroyed. Where can we store our things? The way we are being treated is disgusting. Our human rights have been violated and trampled upon. Even if you are going to evict someone from a property because they have had a dispute over noise with a neighbour, you surely can't just lock them out of the house and throw them on the street without even a court order? We don't deserve this treatment. Nobody deserves this kind of treatment." </blockquote><br />
The couple had been placed at the property in temporary accommodation at Arundel Court, Brighton by the local authority, having been moved from their long-term emergency accommodation at Percival Terrace, Kemptown.<br />
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The distressed couple stayed at a friend's house last night, but for the time being are without a fixed address as Brighton and Hove City Council determine to find the couple emergency accommodation. At the time of writing, Graves Son and Pilcher were unavailable for comment.<br />
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Mr Horvath, fed up with the situation commented, "I hear there are a few people in tents protesting and asking for 'Real Democracy Now'. After this experience, I am tempted to join them. Where are our human rights?"<br />
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<b><i>If you wish to make your views of this matter known to those with responsibility for this couple's very sudden homelessness and eviction...</i></b><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You can contact <b>Graves Son and Pilcher Estate and Lettings Agents</b> <b><a href="http://www.gsp.uk.com/Contact.html">here</a></b>.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You can contact <b>Brighton and Hove City Council <a href="http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=b1153064">here</a></b>.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><b>UPDATE: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">At 3pm George was due to be let into the flat. At 3.30pm he was called by KEM maintenance firm and told that they could not come and see him to allow him into the flat. Diane has yet to pick up her medication from the property because they are not allowed back into their home.</span></div>The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-55821403979566650952011-06-07T09:07:00.005+01:002011-06-08T13:11:05.295+01:00Brighton and Hove City Council Paying Nearly £600 a Week in Housing Benefit, Keeping a Couple Apart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://thelatest.co.uk/homes/files/2010/04/latest-homes-features-city-council-pavilion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://thelatest.co.uk/homes/files/2010/04/latest-homes-features-city-council-pavilion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In an interview with <i>The Eye of a Needle</i>, a couple who reside in different homeless hostels tell of their frustrations with Brighton and Hove City Council, and their aspirations to build a better life together...<br />
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Outside the Baptist church on London Road, I talk with 'John' and 'Mary'. Both are watching the World go by in Brighton, as they often do. Neither are sleeping on the street, though both have suffered homelessness in the past. Both are tired and frustrated with life in Brighton and Hove, and really a country, that crushes the aspirations of the poor. 'John' and 'Mary' are sceptical about the idea of a magazine that challenges the prevailing attitudes of the city to the homeless.<br />
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'John', however, though doubtful that a magazine can or will 'make a difference', still wants to discuss the issues that he and 'Mary' faces everyday. 'Mary' wants to discuss their housing situation.<br />
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<b>Housing</b><br />
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We are often told that the housing situation in Brighton is criticial, that there is a lack of affordable housing, that the housing stock is low and that waiting lists are long for council housing. Some people, however, are excluded from the 'ladder' altogether.<br />
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<blockquote>"'John' and I live in separate hostels. I am in St Patrick's Nightshelter. He is at Glenwood Lodge. We are forced to live separate lives. He is in Brighton and I am in Hove. In September, we want to get married. We've wanted to get married for a long time because, even if we've had ups and downs, we love each other. Our situation is absurd. As it stands, Brighton and Hove City Council are paying out <b><u>over £600 a week in Housing Benefit to our hostels</u></b>, which keeps us apart. £600 a week is a huge amount of money to be paying a couple to live apart, I think you'll agree."</blockquote><blockquote>"The Council pay <b><u>£288 a week</u></b> to Glenwood Lodge in Housing Benefits for 'John'. There is also a 'top-up- fee' of £18 a week that 'John' has to pay. To my hostel, the Council pay <b><u>£298 a week</u></b>. I have to pay £10.50 a week extra in a top-up fee for St Patrick's hostel. That is a huge amount of money for Councils to be paying out at a time of recession. Of course, we want to get married and live together. We'd like to live together now. Why are the Council paying out nearly £600 a week to keep us apart, when they could save money in the long term if they helped us to either get council housing to raise a deposit for a one-bed flat or studio flat in Brighton? Even if a one-bed flat in Brighton costs £600 a month, though we'd accept a studio for £450 a month, the Council would still save loads of money in putting us through a private tenancy. A private tenancy of £600 a month would still only work out as £150 a week in terms of housing benefit. <b><u>That would save the British taxpayer £450 a week</u></b>! The Council are just squandering money like its water!" </blockquote><br />
It has long been the opinion of the editor of <i>The Eye of a Needle</i> that all is not what it seems with regard to the homeless hostels of Brighton and, in particular, their relationship with Brighton and Hove City Council. Brighton and Hove City Council are at the coal face of the homeless epidemic in the United Kingdom, caused by various individual circumstances. However, it is clear that the hostels, most of which are not ran by the Council, but by private limited companies, are making a great deal of money off the backs of the poor.<br />
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If the average British taxpayer understood just how much private hostel companies are creaming off the system, there would be a sense of national scandal. Brighton and Hove City Council preside over this staggering waste of taxpayers money and have never done anything to bring the hostels of Brighton to book. Neither do they look at alternative options for the poor and homeless. The hostels system is a merry-go-round in which the poor are used and exploited so that extortionate rates of housing benefits can be paid to unscrupulous hostel owners. The poor get meagre accommodation (often just a room), while whoever owns the hostels in Brighton, presumably, drives around in an expensive car. This is a scandal that recently hit St Patrick's Nightshelter when it was discovered that the board of trustees was made up of the family of the vicar who founded the shelter - and they were paid handsome salaries.<br />
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'Mary' maintains that when she talked to St Patrick's hostel and asked whether they thought she would be able to get onto the council housing ladder with her fiance, she was told, "Don't bother. You're not even going to get accepted onto the list." Why? "Because of my criminal record and history, it is unlikely, perhaps impossible, that the Council will accept me and John onto their housing waiting list. The only way we could do it is if we went privately with a landlord."<br />
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Whatever Mary and John's background, history and past crimes, mostly drug-related, neither of them are extortioners - neither are they racketeers. For that is what the hostels system is in Brighton - extortion - the exploitation of the poor for profit - an exercise in racketeering. Not only that, but it is a system oiled by the Council itself and at huge public expense.<br />
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It all makes one wonder why many of these hostels operate at all. Is it in order to 'help the homeless'? Or is ensuring a steady stream of homeless 'clients' just a way of exploiting their situation in order to make alot of money for the hostel owners? The editor leaves that for you to decide.<br />
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<b>Jobs, Unemployment, Public Perceptions and Crime</b><br />
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'John' is depressed about his and 'Mary's' situation. <br />
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<blockquote>"The worst thing about my situation is that I know I can't get work. The only work I can get is a little bit of building and labouring here and there, but at the moment my body couldn't take it. I think people look at the homeless and the poor and think they are idle and just want to live off the State. Nothing could be further from the truth. If companies actually employed me, and many of the people who live in hostels to work for a living - a real living - then offending rates would be cut half probably overnight. What me, and these kids who are coming out of prison for drugs, need, is work - a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Something to do! I want to work!"<br />
"I want to be able to work and to come home after work and be able to look at 'Mary' and know that I am providing for her. </blockquote><blockquote>"Living off state benefits does nothing, absolutely nothing for my self-esteem or anybody elses! If they paid people £25,000 a year to live on benefits, they'd still take drugs and commit crime - but if people were <i>employed</i>, then it would be different. Ex-cons don't, I believe wouldn't, rob off an employer because, as the saying goes, we don't "sh*t on our own doorstep". We have a morality. We have morality. It is just that there is no incentive to <i>be</i> law abiding, because good behaviour isn't encouraged - only crime is punished!"</blockquote><br />
So, why is the re-offending rate so high?<br />
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<blockquote>"Look. You've got all these kids and adults going to jail for drug-related offenses. They go to jail, but, at least in jail, they get three square meals a day and they work there. They work. It might be menial work. It might be kitchen work, it might be gardening or cleaning. They even do courses and NVQs. I've got NVQs coming out of my ears. But it makes no difference to your life on the outside, because when you come outside, back into the World, no employer wants anything to do with you. You'll apply for work, like I've applied for so many jobs, but you'll never find work because of your criminal record. They talk about rehabilitation. There is no rehabilitation for the man with a criminal record because no employer wants to know you! They run a CRB check. They get the CRB check back and then they don't even write to you to explain why you have not been selected for a job! As soon as you've got a criminal record, that's it! There's no forgiveness. There's no mercy. Your life is over, it's all over after your first sentence!" </blockquote><blockquote>"If they could set up a workshop of some kind in London Road, or Brighton or outside of Brighton and <i>employ </i>men and women to make things, or employ them to do things, then you'd see the offending rates drop dramatically. We'd probably even make money for our employer, or the Goverment and offending would drop? Why? Because we'd all suddenly have a reason to live! Something to live for! We don't want to sit here all day drinking and being 'anti-social'. But because of our past we are excluded from the rest of society. What else is there to do? What motivation is there to change your life?"</blockquote><br />
I suggest to 'John' whether he could do volunteering.<br />
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<blockquote>"I could volunteer for a while and get three days a week working in a charity shop, but then what? Suddenly, I'm not 'available for work' seven days a week and the jobcentre would cut my benefits because I'm not out there 'actively seeking work'. I'd be punished by the State for volunteering in a charity shop and I'd lose my entitlements because I'm not 'available for work' all week. I wanted to do a course recently. I want to change my career, I'm too old and not well enough for building work, but as soon as I told them that I wanted to do a course in computing, they told me that I'd lose my entitlements because I'd be no longer available for work all week. So, you can't win! If you try and do something positive you are punished." </blockquote><blockquote>"Anyway, why should I volunteer when not only would I lose my benefits, but shouldn't I be able to work! Work is a human right! It is about dignity. But no, once you've got a criminal record, you could get all the qualifications in the World, you could volunteer for months and still never get a job at the end of it because once that CRB comes back, and they know your past, they'll never so much as write back to you. If anything is going to change, then at least <i>some </i>employers have to take on people with a criminal record so that they can live a positive life and contribute to society. Either employers should do it or the Government should do it, instead of paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds to probation workers to sit on their backsides in offices all day long dealing with repeat offenders. That is why poor people are kept down, kept poor and why so many re-offend and get involved with drugs again and again. You carry a stigma and that stigma of crime and drugs never leaves you. That is why these ex-cons have no self-esteem or self-worth. You lose your dignity and you can't participate in society. You are excluded from employment, housing and society and then they wonder why people keep re-offending!" </blockquote><br />
<b>The Stigma of Crime, Poverty and Drugs Stops People from Fulfilling their Potential</b><br />
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'Mary' picks up on the theme that 'John' has been at pains to emphasise - <i>stigma</i>.<br />
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<blockquote>"It is exactly the same with housing. The reason that we're not considered worthy to get onto a housing list is because of our past. I'll admit, I've done a lot of drugs, but I want to move on in life and get married to 'John', live in a house or a flat and live normally, but we won't be considered for housing because of our criminal records. It is a stigma that never leaves you. People don't understand this. If you've got a criminal record or you are known to the authorities for any kind of criminal behaviour then you won't be considered for either work <i>or </i>housing. That is what condemns us to the hostels system and that is why the Council will happily pay a hostel a ridiculous amount of money - keeping us apart - perhaps for as long as we live. With no work, the only way we could afford to raise money for a deposit for a private landlord would be through robbery, or drug-dealing, or something else illegal. Obviously, I don't want to go back to anything like that and neither does 'John' but it becomes the only remaining option. To get a house we'd have to commit crime because the Council won't consider us for housing because of our past crimes. We are punished whatever we do and nobody allows us a chance to work, to get employment, to get housing, to lift ourselves out of our situation."</blockquote><br />
When John and Mary get married (they are marrying for love, not housing) will it make any difference at all to the Council or to their future? Are the Council really going to preside over a situation where a married couple will be living separate lives because they are too poor to access private rental? Are the Council going to continue paying a hostel nearly <u><b>£600 a week</b></u> in housing this couple separately? I am sure that at this time of economic austerity, some people would like to know about this astonishing waste of public money.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-31568709806848965442011-06-06T21:46:00.003+01:002011-06-06T22:16:41.273+01:00Brighton Man Alleges Eviction from St Patrick's Nightshelter for Suicide Bid<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/698898/?type=display" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/698898/?type=display" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>St Patrick's Nightshelter, Hove</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>A Brighton man has alleged that staff at St Patrick's Nightshelter have evicted him on the grounds that he attempted to hang himself in his room. The man was recently informed of the death of his 7-year-old daughter and had hit 'rock bottom'.<br />
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In attempting to hang himself, he damaged some property in the room. His suicide bid was not met with compassion, he alleges, but was served with an immediate eviction, making him homeless at a time of deep personal trauma.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597629062109351664.post-15719154827954461692011-06-06T21:29:00.002+01:002011-06-06T22:17:07.882+01:00Brighton Man Alleges Glenwood Lodge Evicted Him on False Grounds<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://imganuncios.mitula.net/grand_parade_brighton_93319886414817007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://imganuncios.mitula.net/grand_parade_brighton_93319886414817007.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Grand Parade, Brighton</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>A Brighton man named Ben has alleged that Glenwood Lodge homeless hostel evicted him at the weekend on false allegations that he spat at one of the workers. The hostel in Grand Parade (pictured left) left the man outside for reasons which left the man totally mystified.<br />
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Ben, aged in his 40s, insists that the worker at the hostel refused to allow him into the building so that he could sleep in his room - something which has never happened before. He was told that he was no longer welcome at the hostel, yet he maintains that he was not given any valid reason for this being the case.<br />
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Having been refused entry into the hostel, where he has been resident for around 6 months, he became angry and visibly upset by the actions of the worker. Due to his behaviour upon hearing that he was no longer welcome, he was then arrested by Sussex Police and spent 14 hours in Hollingbury Police Station only to be released on bail. The Brighton man awaits a decision from Sussex Police as to whether he is guilty of anything, or not. In the meantime, however, the man is homeless. <br />
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He was refused entry to the hostel and was told that he had spat deliberately at one of the workers. He maintains that this allegation is without substance and that it is false, claiming that the CCTV would show any evidence of such an action on his part. The man has been made homeless by the hostel, and he alleges that the hostel worker did not fetch him any clothes, food, or even his sleeping bag, from his room, so that he could keep warm at night.<br />
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He alleges that this is the second time in a year that this has happened to him. The last time it occurred was at New Steine Mews and he was evicted in winter. Again, he was arrested, only to be found innocent of any crime. Still, however, despite his innocence, the hostel kept by their decision to evict him, even though the police found no reason to take any action, to prosecute or follow up the allegation. He was left, once more, in deep winter, to survive in the cold with no duvet, sleeping bag or any of his belongings.The Boneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10271719805983763595noreply@blogger.com3