Hulme Greens: Support The Ark

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Support The Ark

Homeless Shelter on Oxford Road, Manchester

You may have noticed the ‘homeless camp’ that has set up on the edge of Hulme, specifically under the flyover on Oxford Road.

Since Manchester City Council evicted the camps in St Peters Square, St Anne's Square and King Street [1], the few individuals living under the flyer has grown into a small shelter. They call it 'The Ark'.

That shelter is now currently under threat of eviction by Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester City Council [2].

Its inhabitants, about 12 people, were served legal papers last week and are due in court from 7th September.

Deyika Nzeribe from Hulme Green Party said "That Manchester City Council is continuing its campaign to harass the homeless of Manchester is as scandalous as it is immoral. The fact that Manchester Metropolitan University is a partner in this action is deeply disappointing.

"It is common for the homeless of Manchester have to live together for protection from the attacks that they frequently endure in the city centre. The shelter, a mile from Piccadilly, can hardly be considered 'political' or 'campaigning'."

Over the six months Manchester City Council has embarked on dual high profile campaigns. The first is to highlight the proposed 1 billion pounds worth of housing investment planned for central Manchester [3]. The Council is planning to use the £300 million pound housing investment fund granted as part of the Devolution deal to do this [4]. So far, 22% of that funding has been committed to support luxury housing within similar developments earmarked [5].

The second is the pursuit of Manchester's homeless. The Council has spent over £100,000 on legal fees [6] to gain injunctions to move the homeless camps from the city centre. This was soon after cutting council funding to organisations supporting the homeless [7].

Manchester City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University are some of the largest institutions who, between them have recently spent hundreds of millions on buildings [8] or promoting buildings [9]. The pursuit and harassment of the homeless and particularly the Ark is shameful. Both institutions should stop this action immediately and put those resources to helping people get off the streets.

Notes

2 comments:

Unknown9 September 2015 at 13:40
There use to be some homeless people under the Railway viaduct beside the multi-story car park, Charles Street. The camp was cleared and Gates erected stopping even pedestrians using the footpath. I do not know if this was done under @ManCityCouncil orders or the University of Manchester? But another camp was set-up under the railway viaduct just off Princess Street, near to the Old Garrett (now renamed the Garrett). I do not know if this camp will come under the same order, as that on Oxford Road?
As I have informed @ManCityCouncil, there is over 5,000 empty dwellings in Manchester, of which 2,600 are long term empty. The @ManCityCouncil, response is, they have a department dealig with empty homes! It seems there are more interested in removing the homeless of our streets. So as not to tarnish the nonsense headline news, that Manchester is the best place to live. It might be, if you fully employed in a fairly well paid job. But 55% of Mancunians are 'economically inactive' and are struggling, sometimes on nothing (due to sanctions), hence the rise in homelessness. Which the @ManCityCouncil is trying to brush under the carpet.
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Hulme Green11 September 2015 at 09:26
Thanks for the comment, and its a good point on the empty properties, worth further investigation.
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Hulme Greens

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Support The Ark

2 comments:

Hulme Ward reports on FixMyStreet.COM

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