Remember those anti-homeless spikes? Well, someone's decided to spruce them up and turn them into a "13% Increase In Homelessness Under Boris Awareness Garden".
Just walked past those "anti-homeless" spikes. They've had a bit of cosmetic work
(The full note also says the plants will act as a helpful carbon sink.)
It's true there are more people sleeping rough in London.
This is based on a report from the St Mungo's Broadway homelesssness charity. They say 6,437 people were found sleeping rough in London by outreach workers in 2012/13. This is up 13% year-on-year.
However, the Mayor of London-backed No Second Night Out programme, which aims to find new rough sleepers and get them off the streets quickly, does seem to be working as more than 80% of all new rough sleepers were not seen on the streets again: there's more people sleeping rough but also more of them getting help.
Still, the Mayor himself does not want to enjoy his newly-created garden. He wants the spikes removed.
Spikes outside Southwark housing development to deter rough sleeping are ugly, self defeating & stupid. Developer should remove them ASAP.