Warming Up The Homeless charity make a two-and-a-half-hour round trip every Monday visiting the town centre’s rough sleeping hotspots to give care and advice to some of the most vulnerable members of society. The group starts at 7.30pm on the seafront, with around 10 homeless people queueing up for supplies including a young mother and her three young children, who are currently living in temporary accommodation. WUTH offers breakfast packs, water, hot food, bread, pizzas, stews, pastries, toiletries and clothes, among other items. The group made its way down King Edward’s Parade towards Grand Parade and stopped off at the bottom of the Wish Tower slopes, where three rough sleepers were camped underneath the seafront shelter. Volunteers had a chat, offered hot food and supplies and then made their way towards the next stop-off at the bandstand to repeat the process. From the bandstand the group then walk down the top of Terminus Road, where more rough sleepers lay in shop doorways, and towards TJ Hughes – where there was a mix of rough sleepers and members of the street community. The charity’s team leader Trudy Hampton said the difference between rough sleepers and the street community is the latter have a home but choose to spend their time on the streets maybe due to addiction, mental health issues or other factors. The group then made their way to the railway station with a sleeping bag delivery for one of the rough sleepers. After that there were two more stop-offs until the night was over at around 10.30pm. WUTH volunteers include Eastbourne mayor Steve Wallis, who has been helping since November after becoming concerned with the increase of homelessness in the town, and team leader Trudy, who has been running the service for three years across Eastbourne, Bexhill, St Leonards and Bexhill. Trudy said, “The aim is obvious. We need to reduce homelessness in all its forms. Local authorities, governments, charities and volunteers all do their bit, but a determined and structured approach is required. We need to tackle the immediate crisis as well as looking into a permanent shelter, which will offer a range of services to those most in need.” Steve said, “Sometimes you read on social media or in the local paper there are 30 or 40 homeless people in Eastbourne. It’s double that. If you take into consideration you’ve got the street homeless and people in temporary accommodation, they all need to find permanent homes so they can start rebuilding their lives. “They’ve all got back stories. No one solution fits all. Some of their issues are quite complex and they need specialist care to help them sort out addictions, any mental health issues, any domestic violence they may have been involved in, chaotic upbringings that were not their fault. They need specialist care. “There’s a cost to that, there’s a cost to paying someone to section them and get them off their addictions, re-educated and working. If you could do that, they would be working, paying taxes, getting their own home, their own foundations but we seem to struggle to do that in this country. “So we, as a group, listen, advise when we can and try and elevate the situation to the top of the agenda, where it should be. “You’re probably never going to eradicate homelessness, to be honest. But, we have got to make sure signposting is there, facilities are there and people know where to go to, and that’s what we’re trying to do here, which is to offer the basics. “We need empathy. It’s really interesting because people walk past people and make an assumption. Someone sleeping in a doorway with a can of Strongbow next to them, a member of the public may just turn the other way, but there’s a back story there, some people have been falsely evicted, drug and alcohol addictions, sometimes no addictions people are just homeless. We don’t know what’s round the corner for any of us. “My message to the public would be don’t turn the other cheek. And smiling at people goes a long way.” Emmanuel Cornel Cimpeanu, 41, originally from Romania, came to the UK in 2013 for a chance to work and has been in Eastbourne for the past four months. He is currently in temporary accommodation after a bad infection in his right leg meant he was unable to work and subsequently pay the rent. WUTH volunteers helped him fill out the prescription forms to get his medication. He said, “I became homeless when I got a blood clot, which then got infected. The council in Brighton and Hove helped me with temporary accommodation and they sent me here, to Eastbourne. I’m very happy, so happy, about this and the people who helped me with treatment. I’m so happy to be living here in the UK. “I used to work but I lost everything because of this problem. I couldn’t work. I hope to find a job here. I’m very lucky and very happy with the council, without them I would be on the streets. “WUTH volunteers are very good people. They help us. It doesn’t matter where you’re from they will help all of us. I’ve never seen in my life people like that. They help us with everything we need.” Emmanuel said he needs to renew his passport to be able to apply for universal credit and start contributing to the temporary accommodation rent. He hopes to find work as soon as he has recovered and has a keen interest in ‘anything involving wood’. Laurence Bolton, 24, from Hailsham, became homeless after a bout of depression and anxiety saw him lose his job as a kitchen associate at Wetherspoons. He said he lost family support after a communication breakdown and is now living in a hotel with his 17-year-old girlfriend and trying to pay the accommodation bills without a source of income, which is proving difficult. He said, “Our hotel bill is going up and up and to make things worse I’ve got depression and anxiety. Wealden District Council look the other way at it, they just want to throw you out on the street and don’t really want to help at all. “I did have a job, which I recently lost because of the depression and stress. I’m trying to get the council to help out with the hotel but I don’t know how far I’m going to get with that. “Everyday is hard. Sitting there and trying to think how are you going to eat? Sometimes we manage, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes I can go a day or two without eating anything. “It’s not a future anyone wants but it can happen to anyone.” A Wealden District Council spokesperson said, “We are sorry to hear of the circumstances Mr Bolton finds himself in. We can confirm that Mr Bolton first made an approach to the Council in July 2019, following which his case was closed in August 2019 when he failed to respond to our repeat attempts to make contact. “Following a second approach from Mr Bolton in October 2019, the Council considered his case as it was presented and acted in accordance with its duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act (2017). “Should Mr Bolton require further help with his housing situation, he should contact our Housing Options Team for advice and assistance.” Margaret Robinson, a former Eastbourne councillor and WUTH volunteer, said, “99.9 per cent of homeless people are not aggressive. They treat us with respect. They value us coming round every Monday. I think the public walk past homeless people and are fearful, they don’t need to be. WUTH has built up over the last four years thanks to Trudy, our leader. I have to say we have to thank the residents of Eastbourne, they’re just so generous. They give every week. This tonight is just the tip of the iceberg we’re seeing in the town centre and the seafront. We’ve got homeless in Old Town, Hampden Park, Langney. There’s a lot more than just in the town centre.” A Wealden district Council spokesperson said, “We are sorry to hear of the circumstances Mr Bolton finds himself in. “We can confirm that Mr Bolton first made an approach to the council in July 2019, following which his case was closed in August 2019 when he failed to respond to our repeat attempts to make contact. “Following a second approach from Mr Bolton in October 2019, the Council considered his case as it was presented and acted in accordance with its duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. “Should Mr Bolton require further help with his housing situation, he should contact our housing options team for advice and assistance. “Wealden District Council has an excellent track record of preventing homelessness, with 296 households prevented from becoming homeless in 2018/19. Another 230 cases were prevented or relieved in the first three quarters of 2019/20.” A WUTH spokesperson said they have two vans to collect supplies. Donation drop-off points include the AXA business in St Leonard’s Road, some Sainsbury’s, Aldi and the Co-op in Polegate. l See www.warmingupthehomeless.org.uk/
