Street Meet soup kitchen reports increased demand for food during lockdown, and not just from Manchester’s homeless

Volunteers running an outdoor soup kitchen in city centre Manchester are reporting increased demand for food during the pandemic lockdown. People using the kitchen include many of the temporarily housed homeless, those still sleeping on the streets, the working poor and those struggling to survive on welfare payments. A band of volunteers responsible for outdoor […]

Proposed Order will ‘create a hostile environment for homeless people’ in Manchester city centre says open letter to the council

Manchester City Council will meet tomorrow to discuss the introduction of a controversial Public Space Protection Order. Fifty eight signatories to an open letter are calling on the council to oppose the proposal, which they claim will be severely detrimental to homeless people within the city centre. An open letter addressed to Manchester City Council […]

Banning begging, tents and obstructing highways under discussion at Manchester City Council

Manchester City Council launched a consultation yesterday to ‘promote a safe and welcoming environment across Manchester city centre’ – by introducing a Public Space Protection Order, or PSPO, to ban ‘Occupying a tent or other temporary structure…’, ‘Aggressive or intimidating begging’ and ‘Continuing to obstruct a building entrance/exit, stairwell or highway after being asked to […]

Rough sleeping increases 34% across Manchester in a year

Despite the well publicised efforts of the Greater Manchester mayor and Manchester City Council to reduce rough sleeping, the Manchester street count in 2018 has seen a 34% rise compared to 2017. The street count is a single night snapshot, carried out between 1 October and 30 November, of people sleeping rough in a local […]