Response to Oxford City Councils statement of April 9th the proposed implementation of a Public Spaces

Protection Order (PSPO) on rough sleeping

As we state in our petition, we recognise Oxford City Councils efforts, so far, to support people who are homeless;
however, we remain concerned about this particular policy for the following reasons:
1) PSPO legislation states that PSPOs may only be implemented against behaviour that has a detrimental
effect on the quality of life of local residents. Oxford City Council states that it wishes to introduce a PSPO
on street sleeping as this spoils the experience of the city centre. This makes it clear that this measure is
not being proposed in order to help those who are sleeping rough, but in order to make Oxford look more
attractive.
2) If Oxford City Council truly think that this measure will help those who are sleeping rough, then why are they
only implementing it in the city centre? This implies that the appearance of central Oxford is still the key
concern, and that they have no problem with people continuing to sleep rough out of sight.
3) The Council states that the PSPO would not criminalise rough sleeping. However, violation of a PSPO is a
criminal offence, which is subject to a fine of 100. Therefore it seems that this measure would indeed
criminalise a rough sleeper who disobeyed it. It is highly likely that imposing a fine of 100 on rough
sleepers will make their situation worse rather than better. Moreover, having a criminal record would further
hinder a rough sleeper from finding paths out of homelessness, as it will hinder them from obtaining a job,
opening a bank account, etc.
4) The Council has stated that the powers would only be
A Big Issue vendor on Broad Street, who
used on entrenched rough sleepers who have refused
has been sober for two years, talks about
accommodation. We still believe that it would be wrong
why he doesnt accept hostel
to implement a PSPO on this very specific group. People
accommodation:
who are sleeping rough are people. They should have the
autonomy to choose whether they want to be in a hostel
[The residents] stand there drinking all
or not. It is difficult to imagine that any other group of
day long, and they try and get you out of
people would have their right to decide about matters
your room to drink with them, to make you
such as these taken away from them. There are often
fail, to make you go backwards. They dont
understandable reasons why people who are sleeping
like to see people succeed.
rough do not take up offers of accommodation, such as:
fear, worry about contact with users of alcohol or drugs,
Source: Raphael Hogarth
or mental health problems. We remain concerned that
banning these people from the centre of town will force
them to sleep in places where they are less safe rather than more. As comments on our petition have shown,
the welfare of Oxfords rough sleepers is at risk if they are pushed out of the city centre.
5) Oxford City Council has been unclear about how they would guarantee that the PSPO would only be used on
the specific group of entrenched rough sleepers who have been offered accommodation. We are concerned
that there would be little protection to stop the measure being used more widely against anyone who is
sleeping rough, especially as the idea of a PSPO is to improve the experience of the centre of the city. If
Oxford City Council has the time and resources to do this, we would ask that they find a more compassionate
solution to helping individual rough sleepers.
6) We feel that this policy does not treat people who are rough sleeping as people, but treats them as a
nuisance to be solved it is a sticking plaster solution. Furthermore, this policy adds to the huge stigma that
people who are sleeping rough already face.
We would also like to take this opportunity to call for greater transparency on the part of Oxford City Council about
how this policy would play out in practice. At the moment, the Council seem to be releasing details gradually as the
protest support increases, but the proposals remain vague. We are looking out for the rights of rough sleepers and
the public deserves full knowledge of what this would really entail.
Oxford City Councils statement is available here.