Features / homelessness
Homeless in Bristol: The reality
There’s a buzz of anticipation in the cold night air as vast trays of food are placed on trestle tables ready for service.
The long, orderly queue in Champion Square in St Jude’s stretches almost back to the hotel beyond as people from all walks of life wait for what might be their only hot meal of the day.
It’s a crisp Friday night in early January and the sounds of cheerful banter and laughter can be heard as the team of volunteers from Feed the Homeless Bristol begin serving the meals they have spent the last few hours prepping. There’s homemade fudge from one volunteer, as well as little packages of chocolates for the children.
is needed now More than ever
“Do you want anything for the little one?” asks one of the servers. She is speaking to a couple who have been queuing patiently with their small toddler wrapped up in her pushchair.
A jovial character in a woolly green hat wanders over from the mobile food bank that’s set up by the Feed the Homeless team nearby and is fast distributing bags of essentials to those waiting.
Bill Hill has been visiting for about a year. “I’ve been down on my luck recently, sort of sofa surfing, and it’s a good community here,” he tells me.
“I think it’s still underground what’s really going on in terms of people on the breadline, it’s not really reported.
“I know so many people are sofa surfing. And you look in Bristol, there are so many empty properties around.
“Seven days a week you can get a hot meal in Bristol so you see people from all over. The government don’t want to know but it’s a social need. These charities are saving the government millions. This is a social crisis, isn’t it?”
Feed the Homeless Bristol volunteers provide food for some 100 people each Friday and Sunday
Hilary Barber (main photo) has been volunteering with Feed the Homeless for about five years and says there’s a real sense of community on the Friday and Sunday nights they serve food in Champion Square.
“I usually make 20 meals a week and all of my street bake cakes,” says Hilary. An incredible level of support means the charity can cater for more than 100 people each session. There are also plenty of donations from companies such as Pret a Manger and The Real Wrap Company.
“Bye lovely, take care, look after yourself,” says Hilary with a big smile, pausing mid-conversation to wave goodbye to one of the regulars.
She turns back to me, continuing: “We are seeing more and more people. More families and more people living on the street. And more refugees. We get the same faces again and again.”
Hilary adds: “It’s not just about the food, it’s the smiles and acknowledgement. I stopped to speak to someone on Boxing Day and he said ‘it’s just nice not to be invisible’.
“And that’s the most important thing. We have a bit of a laugh, and sometimes people are sad and you have to acknowledge that as well.”
A man stops by to embrace Hilary before he leaves.
“In Bristol, we are lucky because there’s loads of food provision,” he tells me. “Somewhere to live is a problem in Bristol, but we are never hungry for very long. We love Shada and Hilary and the Feed the Homeless team, they’re amazing. We’d be screwed without them, we would. Managing money is difficult for me so, without this, I’d be a lot thinner and a lot hungrier. There’s no judgement from any of the guys here, they are all really lovely.”
“While the wider environment is hostile, I see all the goodwill and people and organisations and companies who want to support what we do,” says Shada Nasrullah
Shada Nasrullah is the chair of Feed the Homeless, which started in 2016 as a mobile meal service in the city centre. She says the situation in Bristol is only getting worse, compounded by an acute shortage of housing.
We speak soon after former home secretary Suella Braverman labelled sleeping in tents a “lifestyle choice”, rhetoric Shada dismissed as “dangerous and divisive”, saying it only adds to an already desperate situation.
“The landscape has changed quite a lot,” says Shada, reflecting on the last eight years.
“Before, we were primarily feeding people who were sleeping rough on the streets. Now, the numbers have risen to more than 100 some nights and it’s people from all walks of life, some who live in homes but, for whatever reason, rely on us for their food.
“All these people are willing to stand out for half an hour or more for a meal because they really need the food. There are people who are in precarious employment who we never saw before but now need us.
“While the wider environment is hostile, I see all the goodwill and people and organisations and companies who want to support what we do.”
Just some of the Feed the Homeless Bristol team at the end of a busy night
There have been many promises. The Tory government pledged to end rough sleeping by 2024 in its 2019 manifesto and there was much talk during the pandemic of the ‘everyone in’ scheme acting as a catalyst to halt homelessness. Yet, against a backdrop of austerity, council cuts and cost of living crisis, the picture is looking bleaker than ever.
Late last year, Bristol City Council papers revealed more than 1,300 people are living in temporary accommodation in the city – a figure that has increased by 87 per cent over the last four years. The council spends some £1m a year on hotel accommodation due to the lack of suitable housing provision.
Dan Stevens and Katrina Brown were on the frontline of the homelessness crisis when I met them, sleeping rough in the depths of winter near Primark in Broadmead despite Katrina’s two-year battle to get a home. When I last heard from the couple, they had been moved into temporary hotel accommodation and were living each day with uncertainty.
Daniel and Katrina spoke about the “soul crushing” reality of life on the streets
“It’s soul crushing,” said Dan about life on the streets. “When we first came out here, Katrina was ready to burst into tears all the time. It is a very sharp wake up call and you never sleep very well. I’ve been called a homeless tramp and a scrounger.”
“We’re surviving,” added Katrina. “We don’t beg for anything, people stop by and say ‘do you want anything?’ We’ve been using the cafes and they’ve been brilliant, filling up our flask with hot water.”
But she said homelessness was taking its toll on both of their physical and mental health, and a home where she could be safe with Dan and the dogs would mean everything to her.
It is back in Champion Square that I begin a walk with two of the St Mungo’s outreach team. It’s just gone 8am on a chilly Wednesday morning in early February as we head out towards Broadmead. We pass the back of a hotel where a few people have set up makeshift homes by the vents blowing warm air out of the building.
Amy Wadsworth and Andy Jamieson are part of a team who check on the welfare of people sleeping rough in Bristol, offering support and signposting to services.
Amy Wadsworth and Andy Jamieson are part of the St Mungo’s outreach team – they say there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to homelessness
“It’s not always as easy as finding someone a roof over their head,” says Amy, explaining how the team takes a trauma-informed approach and recognises the complex reasons why someone might end up homeless.
“One commonality of people we work with is some kind of trauma,” continues Andy.
“And the environment out here is so difficult, it’s dangerous and it takes its toll.”
Amy adds: “We get people who come across with quite low support needs initially but, because they can’t get straight into housing, their needs become more complex.”
As we walk through Cabot Circus and on towards the harbourside just as businesses are starting to open for the day, Amy and Andy stop regularly to chat to people who have spent the night outside. Some give them a cheerful greeting, or hail them over when they are spotted.
One person who doesn’t want to be named says he has spent years experiencing homelessness on and off in Bristol. He says times are harder now with much of the B&B accommodation that used to be available now replaced by private residences and student flats.
Amy pauses to catch up with a woman she has been working with for a while who had a difficult night. “Sometimes it’s just about that human connection,” she says: “It’s not one size fits all. People need different things.”
Amy and Andy say one commonality with people they meet experiencing homelessness is some kind of trauma
One regular frustration facing the St Mungo’s team is the lack of suitable accommodation, meaning that there is a bottleneck in the system and people can’t move into suitable accommodation when they need to.
“We are seeing a lot of people are staying in higher support services for longer than they perhaps need to because their move on option isn’t available – or doesn’t come around all that often,” Andy tells me.
“So that means that people who are rough sleeping can’t move into accommodation because the move on process isn’t happening quick enough.”
Current Labour group leader Tom Renhard was the cabinet member for housing delivery and homelessness when we spoke, prior to the local elections.
“There are two main reasons for homelessness in Bristol. One is section 21, no fault evictions. And the other is friends and family who can no longer host that individual,” says Renhard.
The councillor says that part of the issue that puts a huge strain on services is the subsidy loss from housing people in temporary accommodation – of which there are more than 1,300 in Bristol. The amount the council can claim back from the government is based on 2011 rates, meaning the cost to the council totalled more than £11m last year, even with grants for things such as homelessness prevention.
Tom Renhard is an advocate for the ‘housing first’ model
Renhard wants to see the subsidies reviewed to reflect today’s costs. “The problem with that, of course, is it doesn’t really deal with the problem,” he says.
“It would just help to give us some breathing space while we try and do more to address the housing crisis. Because, whilst we’ve got specific issues in Bristol, this is a national problem. If we can’t get more people moving through the system, we’ve got less properties available and renting is getting more expensive as well. So what we’re now trying to do is get more homes built that are for social rent.”
Renhard is also an advocate for the ‘housing first’ model, which focuses on getting a roof over someone’s head as a priority, and providing wraparound support.
Sean Suleman founded Blonde Angel Street Team after meeting a number of people sleeping rough in Bristol one night and asking what they most needed. For many, it was basic supplies and items such as clean, dry socks.
Sean filled a rucksack with items and went back to meet them the next day, and a grassroots movement to provide support for people facing homelessness was born.
The safety expert, who lives in Yate, and tours the world as a drummer in the band Mesh, says he wants to bring some kindness and humanity to those facing difficult times.
“I say I’m bringing safety to the streets,” he tells me.
Run as a not-for-profit Facebook group, Blonde Angel – named in memory of Sean’s cousin’s wife, Rachel Ross – works to address immediate need and, ultimately, hopes to help people into accommodation.
Sean says he met one man who was living in a tent on a roundabout by the Ministry of Defence HQ in Stoke Gifford. He was still working a full time job but had lost his home and was relying on coffee shops and going to the gym for showers each day.
After a fundraiser to pay for temporary hotel accommodation, the Blonde Angel team was able to help the man find accommodation with Help Bristol’s Homeless.
It’s one of countless examples of small groups and individuals stepping in where the government and authorities have failed.
Emily Williams and Lauren Cherry say the reasons for increasing levels of homelessness are complex
Back at St Mungo’s HQ on New Street in St Jude’s, outreach manager Emily Williams and coordinator Lauren Cherry reflect on the increasing number of people they see who are experiencing homelessness.
“I think the reasons in Bristol are complex, obviously, but with the local housing allowance being frozen for so many years, it meant that a lot of properties were unaffordable if you are on benefits,” says Emily.
“Within our supported housing pathways, there’s just a complete bottleneck because there’s nowhere to move people on to. There’s not enough social housing, with it being sold off and the housing stock not being replaced.”
St Mungo’s has also witnessed a significant increase in the number of people who have been granted asylum in this country, only to be quickly evicted from their government-provided housing before they can get sorted with a job or home.
Emily continues: “We have, I believe, quite a progressive local authority and we’ve got a lot of really good services in Bristol to support people.
“But I guess it’s also our success and our failing. We have brilliant services, which attracts more people and that’s why we’ll have lots of people here who don’t have local connections.”
There are, the pair say, many positive things in the city that can act as a model for across the country – including work with HMP Bristol to reform prison resettlements and the dedicated adult social care team for people experiencing homelessness.
The severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP), which was activated several times this winter, also acts as a catalyst for getting people off the streets long-term.
“We accommodated 30 people off the back of SWEP last month,” confirms Emily, adding: “SWEP works because it’s ‘no strings attached’.”
It’s an opportunity to engage with people in a relaxed environment and find out what support they need, say Emily and Lauren.
Asked what the one biggest thing a member of the public can do to help someone sleeping rough, Lauren says it’s to report via Street Link, which connects people sleeping rough with local services.
All photos: Ellie Pipe
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
