{"id":3709,"date":"2015-04-16T12:04:37","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T11:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3709"},"modified":"2015-04-16T17:04:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T16:04:58","slug":"when-the-homeless-are-criminalised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3709","title":{"rendered":"When the homeless are criminalised"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of people took to the streets of London yesterday, bringing traffic to a standstill as they marched on Parliament to raise awareness of the treatment of homeless people in the UK, Ireland and beyond.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s action in London (April 16) – centred on the theme of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098No more deaths on our streets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122-saw grassroots campaigners, housing and homeless groups – directly involved in the fight against homeless – come together to serve food and distribute essential items to the homeless in a carnival atmosphere, complete with speakers, music, performances and workshops.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Protesters made their way down Whitehall towards the Houses of Parliament to the sound of beating drums and a mobile band singing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098no more deaths on our streets.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/span><\/div>\n
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Pilgrim Tucker, Unite Community coordinator, said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is proud to support this important day of action.\u00c2\u00a0 David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coalition government has inflicted misery on millions and is now guilty of turning a blind eye to the horrendous plight of our society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most vulnerable citizens.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/span><\/div>\n
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Homelessness has risen by a staggering 55 per cent since David Cameron became prime minister in 2010, with 742 people sleeping rough every night in the capital alone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a 37 per cent increase on 2013.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Legislating against homelessness<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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As if the shocking rise in homelessness wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bad enough, the coalition government has also been at the helm of a sustained crackdown on homeless people in recent years.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Campaigners argue that new wide sweeping police powers, a clamp down on begging and the introduction of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098anti-homeless spikes are leading to the criminalisation of homelessness.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In London, the police and local councils people are regularly removing sleeping gear and food donated by the public, while in a number of London boroughs it is now even illegal to commit the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098crime\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of rough sleeping under Operation Encompass.<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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Tucker added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHomelessness has risen by a shocking 55 per cent under Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s watch, but to make matters worse we are now witnessing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098criminalisation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of homelessness on our streets.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/span><\/div>\n
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Speaking after the protest, Jon Glackin, Street Kitchen coordinator and Unite Community member, said, “We would like to thank all the very many people who helped make #March4Homeless a success. It was a carnival atmosphere with a very serious message carried through the streets of London.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/span><\/div>\n
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He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat made the march a real success in our opinion was the number of homeless people involved on the day. It’s vital in any fight against the ongoing housing crisis that those at the very extreme end are part of the solution too. Plans are already in place to continue this momentum.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/span><\/div>\n
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For more information on how you can support the fight against homeless go to:http:\/\/streetskitchen.co.uk\/?p=1828<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people took to the streets of London yesterday, bringing traffic to a standstill as they marched on Parliament to raise awareness of the treatment of homeless people in the UK, Ireland and beyond. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s action in London (April 16) – centred on the theme of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098No more deaths on our streets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122-saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[76,179],"wps_subtitle":"Protestors march against national homeless scandal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3712,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3709\/revisions\/3712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}