Homeless in the City
Sergeant James Green of the City of London Police is
responsible for dealing with the homeless, begging and people
sleeping rough on the streets, as well as people with mental health
issues.Homelessness, begging and rough sleeping are regularly
raised as community issues and regularly appear as priority issues
for the Safer Wards Team to focus on.
James works closely with:
- The City of London Corporation social services
- Local London boroughs
- The Broadway Homeless and Support charity
(www.broadwaylondon.org)
- Ex HM Armed Forces Homeless charity: Veterans Aid
(http://www.veterans-aid.net/)
- Local primary healthcare trusts
- Metropolitan Police Service
- The Royal British Legion
(http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/) to
assist ex services rough sleepers and
- Other agencies to assist rough sleepers in the City to access
specialist services and accommodation.
The government has set all local authorities the target of reducing
rough sleeping in their areas to zero by 2012 and the City of
London Police partnership are working together to meet this
challenging target.
Assisted by five Police Community Support Officers
(PCSOs), James regularly patrols areas where the community
have identified people sleeping rough or begging. Welfare is the
key issue for the police team as it is acknowledged that people
sleeping on the street are twice as likely to be the victim of
violence coupled with a reduced life expectancy. The key to
engagement is to help people access the specialist support they
need, whether that be detoxification programmes, assistance to
access accommodation or training.
There are also obvious links between rough sleeping and minor
crimes and anti-social behaviour which does have a significant
impact on the community, particularly when trying to access open
space areas and alleyways. Urination, violence, criminal damage,
theft and drunkeness are all issues which are regularly raised by
the community and associated to rough sleeping. Therefore James and
his team work in partnership with Broadway and the City of London
Corporation to regularly visit rough sleepers, check on welfare,
offer acces to specialist services and cleanse general sleeping
areas where appropriate.
We would encourage the community to report the location of any
rough sleeper or anyone begging to the City of London Police. The
rough sleeper community are very transient and it is essential that
the police can identify rough sleeper locations at the earliest
opportunity to enable us to put in place a coordinated support
programme. If you wish to report the location of a rough sleeper or
person begging please contact James via email on
community@cityoflondon.police.uk
or telephone 020 7601 2452.