I've just heard from Mr Evans that New Steine Mews refused Jason his clothes from his room two days ago because of what I wrote on my blog.

I believe Jason because Jason didn't know I'd written anything on my blog therefore I don't require the 'other side to the story'.

New Steine Mews, however, did know because I sent them links to both of my blogs.

So, they make a man homeless, evict him with none of his possessions. Then, after he's been out in the rain for a few days and he needs his clothes, he goes back to see them to get them and he's told that he cannot have them because someone has written something unpleasant about the near total lack of compassion or empathy the staff there have with the homeless.

If you would like to make known your views on this, feel free to contact the staff at New Steine Mews at:

hostel@nsmhostel.org.uk

...and let your views be known.

Look, I know that Jason can be 'hard work' but talk about kicking a man when he's down. But hey, that's my fault for exercising free speech, isn't it? I guess that's why Our Lord told His disciples to clothe the naked. He knew the State wouldn't think to do it. They can consider it war, then. There must be a way for all of Brighton to know of their wicked treatment of the poor. I'll have a think. Still, its heartening to know that its not just the homeless that the State has it in for, but the disabled as well. Oh, and the elderly. And the unborn.

As someone has kindly commented, out in the world for those to whom law applies, what has taken place is theft. For those consider themselves above the law of both God and man, what has taken place is just revenge because if you're poor, or homeless or without power or status in this World, your rights mean nothing.

I've been sent this quite astonishing video by a reader which is worthy of attention and dissemination. You could be forgiven for thinking that maybe this council accommodation could do with some work. Maybe a spot of restoration and the removal of black mold that caused the children living in this accommodation to develop respiratory problems? Well, you'd be right, but the really astonishing thing about this video is not just the appalling conditions of the accommodation but that it was taken by the mother of a woman with 4 children after Mears Group plc had completed their 'work' on the council property.

The family, a mother with her four children in this two bedroom accommodation were moved out of the Hangleton property after repeated complaints by the family and extended family were made to the Council. To its great credit, The Argus newspaper also covered the story of the squalour of the property and their coverage of the shocking conditions of the accommodation may even have assisted the Council's response to the plight of the family.

The family were moved out of the property and placed in temporary accommodation elsewhere. They have expressed, already, the problems of having four children in a two room property, but were prepared to revisit the accommodation to view it after the Mears maintenance workers had done their work in renovating the property.

In the presence of a Council housing manager and a Mears surveyor, the family were shown the accommodation after the work had been done on it. Having watched the video and seen other pictures of the property, my personal assessment is that the black mold that caused respiratory problems to both adults and children in the property requires some more work. Perhaps Mears Group workers and council housing reps can see something we cannot. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is fine, of course, when you're not the one passing through the eye of a needle.

It suffices to say that this shocking video of the neglect of the Mears company of Council property - a neglect for which Mears are in receipt of around £2million of public money every month - might be a source of embarrassment for both the company themselves and the Council which reward them so handsomely for their 'services'. Maybe Mears, a company which, as we know, was floated on the stock exchange in 2005, don't believe tenants - children and adults - are 'worthy' of accommodation better than this. Maybe they are banking on the rest of the public in Brighton, in Hove and beyond to agree with them.

Perhaps they are banking on everyone in Brighton and others beyond being as heartless as they are. Of course, the ones doing the real banking are the shareholders. I wonder what they would make of this video? Companies which lose reputations have been known to lose some shareholders. Wouldn't it be a shame if Mears lost some of theirs? But hey, that's the world of 'risk' capital and surely, surely someone at Mears Group must know that by leaving residents in Brighton and Hove in such squalour there would always come with it a measure of risk that they might one day get found out.

Gradually, slowly, I hope and I pray that more and more people wi#ll come forward to expose the risks Mears have taken not just with their own reputation as a company in receipt of such vast amounts of public money, but also with the health, safety and well being of adults and children in Brighton...and, most likely, beyond.

You might think that this article couldn't get any more absurd. But you'd be wrong. The Council housing manager,Mr Graham Page, has told the mother of four children that this is the property that they should 'make arrangements to return to' after she has viewed it on the 14th of May and that he would be 'dropping the keys back to her on Wednesday'. Not surprisingly, the mother and her children remain in temporary housing and at this time and, as things stand, refuse to return to the property. Can you blame them?

Coming off methadone is worse than coming off heroin

A month or two ago someone I knew from Brighton's 17-19 Grand Parade, a terrible excuse for homeless provision that is known as 'temporary accommodation' was released from prison and had drifted back to Brighton.

A cradle Catholic who is perhaps on the periphery of the Church, but who wants to re-engage with the Faith, he told me about his struggles with heroin addiction and the substance that is used by the authorities to counter it - methadone. I must say, I have not yet read Damian Thompson's book on addiction, so I don't know whether he discusses methadone in his book.

While it is true to say that there are quite a few heroin users who are 'dual users' of both methadone and heroin, it is also true to say that many heroin addicts are provided with methadone as the replacement for heroin. There is, I believe, widespread ignorance of what methadone is and what it does.

Methadone is meant to 'hold' the heroin addict and so health authorities and 'substance misuse' services provide, through chemists, the amount of methadone deemed required by users to hold them. Methadone is an opiate based drink that acts as a legal replacement for heroin and has a degree of success in keeping heroin users off the illegal substance. It is, however, still an opiate and ensures that heroin users are for a long time, perhaps even for life, addicted to methadone.

The withdrawal effects of coming off methadone are extreme

The man I was talking to about heroin describes coming off methadone as twice as hard, far harder than coming off heroin. This is because of the great pain and suffering that comes from the withdrawal symptoms. He was in prison for about six months and used the opportunity of being in a 'safe place' with no distractions to come off methadone since the substance is actually quite toxic. For a start, being addicted to methadone ensures that your teeth rot away really rather quickly. It tastes vile. God alone knows what it does to your insides.

For three months, then, the man was in prison 'climbing up the walls' of his cell, unable to eat much and experienced at first hand the awful withdrawal effects that include vomiting, sweating, diarrhea, nausea, panic attacks, itching, stomach pains, constipation, headaches, skin rashes, urination problems, hallucinations and insomnia, to mention just a few. The withdrawal effects of coming of methadone, he says, are more powerful in intensity than coming off heroin and last longer.

The substance was developed by IG Farben during the Third Reich and is said to have been given to troops to keep them going through hardship in war. This was, let's remember, the same company that created and supplied Hitler with the necessary Zyklon B toxic gas for the extermination of millions of Jews, gypsies, dissidents and anyone else the Nazis thought to be not unfit for purpose.

1940s advertisement for IG Farben

The man claims that on the outside world, giving up heroin and certainly giving up methadone is nearly impossible without being in a safe place in order to go through the agony of the withdrawal symptoms. In Brighton, a massive proportion of the homeless and hostel dwellers queue up every morning for methadone as the replacement to their heroin addiction. They are, of course, all methadone addicts as well. On top of this, many are alcoholics.

The susbstance misuse service team daily breathalyse their 'clients'. If they have been unable to limit the alcohol, from even the night before which is still in their bloodstream and run over. If in being breathalysed, the 'client' goes 'over' and fails the test, they are refused methadone. Having been refused methadone, the 'client' is sent away and, not terribly surprisingly, then calls or finds a dealer, having begged enough money, in order to get his 'fix' of heroin because he has been refused the methadone.

Therefore, for many addicts, heroin is still a feature of their lives, something their bodies require urgently, because they have been refused the only replacement because of their other addiction to alcohol. One day they will get the methadone and this will 'hold' them, but it is unknown to many whether they will be able to maintain the discipline to limit their alcohol intake and therefore often find themselves begging or spending their benefits on heroin and supplying the heroin dealers with money.

Mill View Hospital in Hove, where addicts go for 'detox'

 The 'clients' then, in a terrible cycle of methadone, alcohol and heroin dependency await a precious place in Mill View Hospital where they can detox. However, while in Mill View Hospital, there is rarely, if ever any programme to help people come off methadone.

Methadone is supplied to the clients in the hospital as being the wonderful replacement for heroin that it patently is not. There are some stories of people successfully coming off methadone by having their amounts reduced, so long as these people are not alcohol dependent or are able to limit their alcohol intake the night before the morning after.

There is little will to help heroin addicts come off methadone. Even if the will and the funding is there, the priority is for addicts to be given a safe place to 'detox' off heroin or alcohol. Despite its abject failure, the services clearly do not recognise methadone replacement initiative to be the abject failure that it patently is. The homeless describe it as a vicious cycle, nearly impossible to get off. Few people understand the situation and dependency of the heroin addict. There is no one-off, miracle solution for it - it is a bodily dependency. The only way, it seems, to break free from the cycle of heroin and methadone addiction in modern Britain is to commit a crime, get sent to jail and start the 'recovery programme' yourself and what a 'strength of will' is required to do that!

A friend of mine is back in the slammer. His crime? Well, he was discovered walking on a street from which he is banned. This is one of the 47 streets in Brighton and Hove from which he is banned. He got six months for walking on the wrong road, but he will be let out after three months if he is good in prison.

I saw him today, he seems well but obviously is depressed and while he looks forward to his release, he knows that, as usual, upon his release he will be given £47 and a ticket back to Brighton where he will once again be homeless. A pound for every street he cannot walk on.

Whenever he is released from prison there is no 'plan' in place for him to be housed. It is bizarre - surreal even - going to visit someone imprisoned for walking on the wrong street in Brighton. I mean that with the best will in the world, with abortion 'doctors' walking free and easy, even financially rewarded, that someone who will be forever tagged as a 'social menace' can be banged up in prison for walking on the wrong street - or, even - the wrong 'side' of the street.

"I could understand it," he said, "if when I was spotted on the wrong street, I was harassing someone or asking someone for money or something, but I wasn't. I was just trying to find a quicker way of getting to where I needed to go."

For the grievous crime of finding a quicker way of getting to where he needed to go, he is now inside. Tolerance is a word banded around everywhere nowadays, but really, it is only tolerance for some in certain 'communities'. There is no tolerance for poor men who have nothing to do, nowhere to go (nowhere they can go), who have had ASBOs slapped on them which are then extended into perpetuity beyond reason or justice - only through expediency. My friend keeps saying how much he wants to be baptised - he certainly desires Baptism and desires Salvation. If God takes mercy on me and I one day after purgation enter into Heaven, I really hope and pray my friend will be there since it is very likely that only in Heaven will this man be objectively free in any sense of the word.

He looked around at the other prisoners who had social visits.

"More or less everyone else is here for shoplifting and stuff," he said. "They're all here because they're poor and have a drug habit or alcohol habit so they've nicked something from a shop to 'get well'. That's it. That's why they are here - because they broke the law in order to feed a drug addiction. It's insane, isn't it?"

It is quite insane, I agreed, but it isn't quite as insane as talking to a man in prison for walking on the wrong street in a world in which politicians launch attacks, legally, against little human beings in the womb with total impunity.

Say a prayer for him, poor man. 

St Laurence of Rome distributes alms to the poor

On Thursday 5th September, Bill Gardner of The Argus wrote an astonishing article for the local newspaper that made its way into the national and then international press.  Newspapers that carried his story on Fr Ray Blake of Brighton included the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Times and The Telegraph as well as international news agencies.

The Legend of St Laurence of Rome

Bill Gardener’s article was, unfortunately for Fr Blake, an unscrupulous ‘hit-piece’ characterising the parish priest of St Mary Magdalen Catholic Church as a grim Dickensian villain who hated the poor of Brighton.  A whole month earlier, on August 10th, Fr Blake had penned a post for his personal blog entitled, ‘The Trouble With the Poor’. 

The blog post, to which Bill did not provide a URL link in his article was a meditation on the Feast of St Laurence, the Catholic Saint who, during the persecution against the Roman Church under Valerian, when asked to bring to the Emperor the ‘treasures of the Church of Rome’, brought to him the poor, the sick, the widows and ophans in the Church’s care and declared,“Behold, O emperor, the treasures of the Church of Rome!”

According to the legend of St Laurence, the enraged Valerian had Laurence slowly grilled to death. During his martyrdom, the legend says that Laurence said to his murderers, ‘Turn me over now, since this side is done.’St Laurence was the focus of the blog post by Fr Blake and it was against this backdrop that his post ‘The Trouble With the Poor’ - especially the homeless - was read by his readership. Of course, you would never know this had you read Bill Gardner’s astonishing character assassination of the Brighton priest whose Church operates one of only two nightly soup runs to the homeless and hungry of Brighton.  It is clear from the priest’s blog post that St Laurence is the focus of his reflection, since the Saint’s gruesome martyrdom is pictured in his piece.

Writing on the Church’s theology, Fr Blake wrote:

‘The Protestant argument was against the pre-reformation Catholic Pelagian practice of salvation through works.  The Catholic conter-reformation argument was against Protestant belief that once you were saved you were saved. Catholics believe the great danger in Protestantism is complacency, having received the ‘blessed assurance’ of Salvation one can relax. The Catholic doctrine is that complacency about salvation is dangerous, hence the counter-reformation and biblical teaching of ‘faith fruitful in good works’.  No ‘assurance’ can guarantee salvation, it is God’s free gift, unknown to us until judgement day.’

The Brighton priest’s August reflection continued:

'The sin of the Pharisees, of the rich man in the story of Dives and Lazarus is complacence. The rich man didn’t even notice the mess that Lazarus created at his front door.  He didn’t respond to it, he needed someone to bring him out of his complacency.’

Aninternationalcontroversybegins...

Fr Blake blesses the bench dedicated to Ann Roberts

It was within both this content and context that Fr Blake’s readership understood the following thoughts on the poor and homeless that Fr Blake ministers to on a near daily basis in his life as a Catholic priest.  Speaking of his experiences as a priest in Brighton, Fr Blake wrote:

‘The trouble with the poor is that they are messy. There is a secluded area between the church and our hall, a passage, occasionally we find someone has got a few cardboard boxes together and has slept there and if it has been raining leaves a sodden blanket, cardboard there to be cleaned up, often it also smells of urine and there is often excrement there and sometimes a used needle or two.

There is a man who comes into the church, especially during the traditional Mass and during the silence of the Canon will pray aloud, “Jesus, I want you to bless Fr Ray and ...., and God, can you persuade the good people here to give to the poor, I am poor”. Unchecked he will take his cap off and have a collection.  It makes a mess of our prayers, it stops some coming to Mass here.  If they are not doing that they are ringing the door bell at every hour of the day and night, and they tell lies. They tell you their Gran is dying in Southampton and they need the train fare, you give it to them and if you don’t find them drunk in the street they are back the next day and the other Gran is dying in Hastings this time.’

Harsh? Or just the honest, real life experiences of ministry in the ‘city by the sea’?  Bear in mind that Fr Blake greets members of Brighton’s homeless community day in, day out, at his door.  Few people in Brighton would suggest that all of Brighton’s homeless community are of either sound mind or are perpetually truthful, yet this does not stop both Fr Blake and his flock loving, feeding and caring for them, more than most in Brighton.

The Martyrdom of St Laurence

Themisrepresentation of an honest Priest who had does more than most to help the homeless

Just days after their cruel hit-piece, The Argus itself ran a poll in which 54% of readers said they would like the Council to ban ‘super-strength’ lager being sold in order to curb the ‘anti-social behaviour’ of members of Brighton’s homeless community. Fr Blake,  far from condemning the homeless, was simply reflecting on his experiences as a priest, but honesty can get you into hot water with The Argus, those great champions of Brighton’s homeless and of those who help them.

Nearly a whole month after his reflection on St Laurence, Bill Gardner wrote his piece with the headline, ‘”Lying” and “Messy” Poor Sent by God to Test Us’.  With stunning journalistic flair, Mr Gardner claimed that the Brighton priest had, ‘condemned’ street drinkers, ‘complained’ about a homeless man, ‘blasted’ homeless people who came to his door and that he found homeless people “quite a trial” to deal with and here began the international controversy of the Catholic priest who was characterised in the  local, national and international press as somehow ‘hating the poor’.

In his blog post, Fr Ray did no such thing.  He put the many troubles, difficulties and hardships of the poor in the context of St Laurence, the fifth century Deacon who died defending them as the ‘treasure of the Church’.  Fr Ray’s message was that we should imitate the kindness and charity of St Laurence, who loved the poor and showed us that they are the real ‘wealth’ of the Church.

Was The Argus’s motivation just good, old-fashioned anti-Catholicism?

St Mary Magdalen's Church feeds the homeless 365 days a year

The truth is that few people are as compassionate on the poor in Brighton as this good and faithful priest and the volunteers who work on the soup run, the financial support of which is due to his direct appeals to his congregation.

Whatever Brightonians make of the Church’s position on such issues as human sexuality, abortion and marriage, the accusation of meanness or hatred of the poor cannot be levelled at either Fr Blake or the parishioners of St Mary Magdalen’s Church, who entirely fund the soup run to the homeless from their own pockets and who also both co-ordinate and assist it for no pay whatsoever.

Replying to The Argus’sshocking article, Fr Blake said on his blog:

‘Perhaps Mr Gardner might like to help on our soup run.  It doesn’t have to be 365 day a year, once a week would be fine, providing he treats our clients with respect.  Or maybe he could take Jason or Daryl or Pawel or Dawn out for a cup of coffee or a meal, or just come a clear up the next time someone comes in and vomits or bleeds all over my kitchen because he is on drugs or has been beaten up.

Maybe, next time I run out of money I could tap him for a few quid when some vulnerable 17-year-old girl needs to top up her phone to speak to her mum because her boyfriend has beaten her up or she needs a roof over head because she is sleeping in a tent and it is just few degrees above zero and she is vulnerable. Or maybe the next time I am arranging a child’s funeral and someone comes to the door in need of someone to talk because they are suicidal, I can send them round to Bill’s place so he can spend a couple of hours listening to them.  Here, too, I am neither complaining, blasting, lambasting or anything else, just asking.’

There is little doubt that Mr Gardner removed from Fr Blake’s blog post both the context and much of the content of his reflection on the Feast of St Laurence.  Earlier in the same week, no less, he wrote a previous piece for The Argus in which he claimed Fr Blake had expressed‘outrage’ over a bondage bridal fair in Brighton. He had written nothing on his blog commenting upon the fair and Fr Blake merely gave a telephone reply to Mr Gardner re-stating the sanctity of marriage for Catholics.  What does a journalist expect a Catholic priest to say? So, it would appear that two mischievous articles in one week concerning the same priest might suggest a trend bordering on obession that leads some to believe that Mr Gardner may have ‘had it in’ for this Catholic priest.

Introducing the ‘irritating little b******’



Speaking on the phone to Mr Gardner, Fr Blake had told The Argus reporter that one man who comes to the Church every so often is an ‘irritating little b******’.   This was then emblazoned in headlines and sub-headlines in such newspapers as the Daily Mail, those other champions of the poor and homeless. This was indeed the same man as Fr Blake mentioned in his blog post.  While Fr Blake and the parishioners at St Mary Magdalen love him dearly, the gentleman he was describing is on an ASBO which forbids him to walk on 44 different streets in Brighton and Hove.

ASBO: Something not mentioned in Bill's hit-piece

Still, Mr Gardner did not seem too interested in who the gentleman Fr Blake was describing is, who is known to Brighton’s residents, business community, churches, local authority, police and probation services to be very challenging indeed.
  
In fact, the gentleman is banned from St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, having disturbed their services last Christmas, when he inadvertently set his own head on fire while lighting a candle, because his ‘Santa hat’ caught alight. 

Unfortunately for the reputation of Fr Blake, who did not expect his passing comment on the man to be published, Brighton people believe he has in some way injured the right reputation of a perfectly reasonable gentleman when, in fact, his behaviour is so destructive, his begging techniques so very intrusive, that he is on one of the most restrictive ASBOs dispensed to any of Brighton’s citizens, whose ‘anti-social behaviour’ causes distress to others.  Yet, the individual at the heart of Fr Blake’s comment has himself vindicated Fr Blake on a You Tube video in which he praises Fr Blake’s compassion for the poor.



It is a great pity that Mr Gardner opted to go with a sensational quote about the gentleman concerned, rather than to ask more questions about who the ‘irritating little b******’ could be.  Of course, it is also a complete misrepresentation of the truth to suggest that Fr Ray Blake does not care for this individual.  Both he and his parishioners do care about him and in fact, while he is banned from many of Brighton’s churches, he is still consistently welcomed back to St Mary Magdalen Church, despite having disturbed Mass there on several occasions, something known in the Catholic Church as sacrilege, unless worship is disturbed in an emergency.  We love this gentleman, named Jason, very much and he knows it.  If only Bill Gardner had done what journalists are meant to do and investigate. Now, of course, the faithful of St Mary Magdalen Church must ponder who is more irritating and socially menacing...Jason, or rogue reporter, Bill?

A priest's reputation destroyed by appalling journalism

How sad it is, that thanks to Bill Gardner, the erstwhile cub reporter for The Argus, the people of Brighton and Hove, as well as people across the country and across the World, believe the shocking misrepresentation of Fr Blake that Mr Gardner gave to them.  I hope you are pleased with yourself, Mr Gardner.  You have destroyed, for the time being, the reputaion of a good, caring,  faithful, honest priest in the local and now national and international press.  The measure you give out, however, is the same that will be measured back to you.  Do the honest thing, the right thing, the just thing and apologise to him - in print!

Chance would be a fine thing...

This is the very least that Bill Gardner and his editor, Michael Beard can do for a priest who has been misrepresented in their newspaper with devastating effects for his public reputation and the image of the Church. If only they put as much zeal into writing on homelessness, as they do in destroying Catholic priests, Brighton would be a very, very different place.  Until a public apology is made to Fr Blake, we urge Brightonians to boycott the newspaper and for advertisers to reconsider using their advertising space.

If readers of The Eye of a Needle would like to show support for Fr Blake, you can contact the editor of The Argus here.  Its US parent company, Gannett can be contacted here and its holding company, Newsquest, can be contacted here.

If you would like to contribute in any way to St Mary Magdalen Church’s feeding of Brighton’s homeless community, they are always in need of volunteers who are willing to sacrifice their time in order to serve those in whom the Catholic Church teaches Jesus Christ is especially served.

We welcome feedback from readers and aim to build a relationship of trust and mutual respect with the readership of this magazine.  Trust and respect is important.  If only it was important to Bill Gardner and The Argus.

Mill View Hospital, Hove

Pray for a friend of mine who has been sectioned. I've known this individual since about 2003. He is a baptised Catholic, despite being unable to drag himself away from the Book of Mormon and retains a stubborn refusal to worship on Sundays.

It turns out he has been there for about five weeks. Like I say, I've known him quite some time and I've often thought he needs proper 'care'. I don't know whether that is something given at Mill View Hospital. The staff seemed relatively indifferent to the patients all in all.

I went to visit him with a friend whose other friend was sectioned two weeks ago. It can't be pleasant being sectioned. When you walk into a mental hospital you imagine that through the opening of the doors, you'll be confronted by something out of a zombie film, or at best 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' but it really isn't that way. They all seem 'normal' people - whatever that is in the modern world. They're normal and of sound enough mind to say things like...

"It's terrible here. The staff don't care."

Yes, I know they are on medication and that 'helps' (to make things easier for the staff). My friend was sectioned having missed his 'depo' injection by a week or two. I am suspicious, but not 'paranoid' about mental health hospitals and even the medication. A little research on the net always reveals how many British Eugenics Society members went into mental health, obviously for 'rewarding careers' - if you enjoy sterilising and lobotomising the mentally ill. Much medication and injections given to schizophrenics co-incidentally makes them infertile or sterile. Because he has been so unwell for such a long time, I am also suspicious of motives for my friend's sudden sectioning. For example, I was told by another patient that my friend was 'in a really bad way' when he came to the hospital, but as long as I have known him he's been having conversations with Jim Morrison and the 'angel kingdom', spending his dole money on day one, leaving him skint for two weeks, hitting his own head in frustration at the voices he hears and developing a 'communicative relationship with my spit'. He is on a 'Section 3' which means he could be there until Christmas, perhaps beyond.

Brighton's most vulnerable are on an accommodation merry-go-round

Despite the severity of his schizophrenia, my friend is perfectly able to hold a 'normal' conversation. He always has done, despite the 'voices'. He can't look after himself, hears voices, takes drugs and doesn't come to Mass, but that really is nearly all of Brighton covered, isn't it?

He tells me how depressed he is, how even to have a cigarette, he has to go to the reception in the ward and ask a nurse to go outside with him to the garden to smoke. He's pale and withdrawn. He talks of his powerlessness in this situation:

"If I had committed a crime, or been sentenced to prison I would understand. Prison would be better than this, because at least then I would know what I have done wrong. Here, I have no freedom, my freedom has been taken from me. I don't understand."

So often, it seems, those professionals in the State's 'care' machine are unable to communicate effectively with those in 'their care'. There seems to be a lack of what Pope Francis calls 'dialogue' or a 'culture of encounter'. The staff are 'trained professionals'. It all seems like a job involving 'observation' and 'assessment' of the patients, but as in hospitals the 'bedside manner' seems to be lacking.

West Pier: Less 'project' and more dumping ground

Of course, I'll happily concede that my friend really does require proper 'care and support' with his condition - even a measure of 'supervision' - but the place is so depressing for him. All he has in his room is a blanket or two.

To add insult to the injury my friend feels (since whatever your condition and the treatment it requires it can never feel right or just to be held against your will in a mental hospital) he has been told that he will lose his flat before he is released and that he will be rehoused at 'West Pier Project', a 'temporary emergency accommodation' hostel in Hove, which is - helpfully for him - full of people with mental health problems, smack and crack addiction and alcohol issues. Nice, eh?  I believe this may well be accommodation owned by Baron Homes Corporation Ltd - Brighton's 'biggest property company'.

He's very confused and very depressed. I'm sure he'll have a simply splendid time in the largely unstaffed 'hostel' where tenants are known for injecting 'bath salts during deadly poke parties'. That was an article by an unscrupulous journalist, by the way.

Pray for my friend and pray too that you never fall into such dependence on the State that you are at its total mercy, since mercy isn't really its abiding quality. On whether he 'deserved' or 'needed' sectioning I'm content to defer to the judgment of trained professionals and experts, but whether my friend should become another victim of Brighton's absurd homeless hostels merry-go-round is another matter. More news on that subject to come in the next few days. It is a little scary to think how much power the State has over the individual in this country and a sobering thought that as society becomes more and more secular, the religious will be considered more different or 'insane' as time goes by.

"No pinky, don't do it!"..."Shut it, Rose!"

Meanwhile, I would really ask the question whether this art student could do with some time in a mental hospital himself - not because he is homosexual, but because he wants to lose his 'virginity' in front of a hundred strong art studio audience and then undergo a 'question and answer' session ("So how was that for you?") from the audience immediately afterwards. Welcome to the new age of 'normal'. It sounds like he needs help, but instead he gets headlines.

Oh and the revellers at Halloween, especially the 'zombies' - they're 'normal' too, aren't they? Despite their condition, which involves great suffering, schizophrenics I have met retain a great dignity, since they never choose the sorrowful and degrading experiences they regularly suffer. The same cannot be said for many in Brighton.

Brighton's hostels system: A veritable 'merry go-round'

There has been much hype concerning the shipping containers that now adorn the New England Quarter of Brighton. The project has won media attention in both local and national outlets and much positive publicity has been generated for Brighton Housing Trust (BHT), but is there more to this story than at first meets the eye?

Upheaval and relocation for residents of Olympus House

Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) claim responsibility for Olympus House, on 80-81 Marine Parade. This accommodation is set to close, only to re-open again as a hostel specifically for mental health patients under the care of the local authority. According to the receptionist working at Olympus House, the hostel will still be run by BHT, but it will become a ‘half-way house’ for those leaving mental health hospitals in the region.



Quite what this means in the long-term for current residents we have no idea, but the short term outlook for some residents of Olympus House has been placed into utter confusion. A significant number are to be placed in the new 'shipping containers' or 'sea containers' placed in the New England quarter of Brighton. Some are being promised accommodation in Eastbourne, some in Brighton and one couple, nothing, leaving a proportion of tenants confused.

The current residents of Olympus House have received notification to quit by January 2014. Some have been told where they will be re-housed, but one couple have not. They were told this only a month or two ago but for how long BHT and the Council has known of its refurbishment and morphing into a 'half-way house' for those leaving mental health facilities is as yet unknown.

Olympus House, Brighton

Olympus House tenant expresses anxiety over re-housing

The Eye of a Needle spoke with residents at Olympus House in order to find out more about the plans to shut and re-open under a new remit, with new tenants, along with a planned refurbishment of their not particularly pleasant interior, in order to house those leaving mental care facilities as a 'half-way house' before they are moved to more permanent residences.

'We've been living here for over two years,' said one resident. 'They've told us that we have to leave in January, but they won't tell us where we will be placed. I've got mental health problems. Not knowing where I will live is doing my head in. Wouldn't it do your head in?'

The Eye of a Needle can tell you in truth that this woman, ironically, does indeed suffer mental health conditions and that the wait in learning where she will be living after Christmas is having a severely negative impact on her mental health.

The individual has a history of suicide attempts and overdoses as well as the bi-polar mental health condition. This wait in hearing where she will reside after Christmas is not helping her mental health situation. Unfortunately, the Council claim to have dropped their 'duty of care' for her, so she remains in 'limbo', waiting for news to arrive. The couple fear being placed back in Percival Terrace or 17-19 Grand Parade.

Coincidence: BHT is advertising for new tenants for the 'sea containers' in Olympus House

Meanwhile, having made a visit to the premises, I can confirm that there is an advertisement - a poster in the hallway of Olympus House for those residents who wish to apply to live in a shipping container on the site where 'The Cobblers Thumb' pub used to stand.This is unusual, given that the narrative being given the general public in Brighton is that BHT have acquired shipping containers in an effort to ease the homelessness problems in Brighton. Through both local and national media, the charity have acquired a great deal of publicity for their initiative to house the homeless.

BHT's new shipping containers arrive 'co-incidentally' in time for the closure and re-opening of Olympus House

This picture above belongs to Brighton Housing Trust. The BBC confirms that BHT are the organisers of the shipping containers idea and, indeed, so do BHT themselves. So the organisation makes no secret of their involvement in the project. And yet, to this day, news that Olympus House is to close and current residents are to be evicted from the building in January has yet to hit Brighton's streets despite it being announced to residents over two months ago. Why?

Why has the closure of Olympus House and its re-opening not been announced by BHT?

If Brighton’s good people knew that BHT had generated so much publicity over the ‘sea containers’ while withholding the vital information that they knew they were to close and re-open their own accommodation, then perhaps that recent ‘great publicity’ for 'great publicity' for BHT and QED have been quite so favourable since it may raise suspicions as to the motives for the sea containers in the first place, motives which may well be pure in a set of unrelated coinciding events.

Andy Winters: 'Imaginative' solutions' needed for homelessness

Still, credit where it is due. BHT deserve some good publicity. At least, for example, BHT did not throw the poor of Olympus House onto the streets to the elements of winter and have confirmed that they will be housing a number of these tenants in the 'sea containers'.

Co-incidence, perhaps, is all it is yet, I must confess I find it an incredibly strange co-incidence, given that the closure of Olympus House and its re-opening should coincide nearly perfectly with the arrival of the shipping containers.

To my mind, it raised suspicions that the sea containers could be a temporary solution to a problem in part created by BHT themselves, who have agreed to continue to manage Olympus House as a 'half-way house' in order to accommodate Brighton's mental health patients. Andy Winters of BHT, however, maintains this is coincidental.

Concerning the new shipping containers housing scheme, BHT maintain on their site that...

'This is an exciting moment in this project. We have identified 21 of the first 36 residents and they are being prepared to move into their new homes. The residents will have completed one of BHT’s programme for change and will free up space in other services that will be able to take in men and women who are currently on the streets. There is an acute shortage of affordable accommodation in Brighton and Hove and, in a landlords’ market, particularly for those with a history of homelessness.'

The message makes it sound as if BHT are fulfilling a need, which certainly exists in Brighton, for temporary housing, or 'imaginative' housing options for the homeless of Brighton and those in need of 'affordable accommodation'. Yet, neither BHT, nor any report I have seen so far, has announced the closure of BHT's very own Olympus House. This is strange because it appears the opening of the sea containers is welcome news for BHT, but the closure and re-opening of Olympus House, with its attending evictions, appears not to be considered by BHT or the local press to be news at all. And it is this that is bound to raise suspicions in some quarters.

BHT are, in part, fulfilling a need created by their own decisions in terms of the closure and re-opening of Olympus House in Marine Parade but have not mentioned it to the general public. If Olympus House was not closing to take in new clients under a new remit in mental health care, would the organisation have decided to order sea containers for the homeless? Andy Winters assures us that there is no link between the two events.

A strange turn: BHT advertise the 'sea containers' in Olympus House

According to their own blog on November 8th, 'BHT have identified 33 of the first 36' residents who are to be moved into their 'new homes' (that's shipping containers). How and from where were these 21 residents identified? What proportion of them have come from Olympus House?

An eerie coincidence...

As yet we do not know for certain, yet it seems a strange co-incidence, does it not?

The story that BHT and the Council are putting about is a narrative that suggests they are proactively tackling homelessness and a shortage of accommodation in Brighton for those on a low income or benefits.

When the sea containers open, I will be happy to talk to all the residents to discover where they lived prior to their move to the sea containers.

How much will it cost to live in a shipping container?

£165 per week. That's the truth and it is advertised as such in Olympus House. Yes, Olympus House is advertising the sea containers to those awaiting re-housing by the local authority. This, I think you will agree, is a strange co-incidence.

Like many hostels in Brighton and 'temporary emergency accommodation' solutions in Brighton, Olympus House has been charging Brighton and Hove City Council a similar amount per week in order to house Brighton's vulnerable homeless, those with mental health problems, alcoholism and drug addiction. On top of this, they have been charging residents on average around £10 a week 'top up' fee which they have to pay out of their meagre benefits allowances. Residents are always expressing confusion in relation to exactly what this 'top up fee' is for.

Nevertheless, just because perhaps most residents will be leaving the security of a room in a hostel to live in a shipping container on New England Road, does not mean BHT will not be charging a similar amount in order to live in their 'affordable accommodation'. No, heaven forbid!

Indeed, a poster at BHT's Olympus House tells residents living there who are desperate for just about any accommodation and who do not have the luxury of choice that is open to Brighton's rich exactly how much it will cost to live in a shipping container. Even by Brighton's inflated rental prices, it is a princely sum, I think you will agree.

Would you pay £165 per week to live in one of these?

Of course, your average person would not (and perhaps could not) pay nearly £165.00 a week to live in a shipping container, but then, like so many 'charities' and  temporary emergency accommodation companies, 'the average person' is not what this particular sector seems to be interested in. The truth is that to fall into Brighton's hostels system you have to be on your knees. You have to depend on the mercy of others.

The Homelessness Business

BHT, like so many of Brighton's hostels and 'temporary emergency accommodation' dives are beneficiaries of the public money that comes with housing the homeless, destitute and poor in a town in which affordable accommodation is scarce and in which landlords who accept DSS are so rare as to be virtually non-existent. The fact is that most, if not all of the poor of Brighton are locked out of Brighton's housing market because even if they have enough for a deposit, they cannot offer landlord's a guarantor because they do not have the job and income to do so and don't have rich friends and/or family to back them up.

Sea container 'utopia' as illustrated by an artist: Otherwise known as a slum

Yet, the Council will act as guarantor to those on benefits and some landlords are happy to accept this, but seemingly only in exchange for charging exhorbitant rent to the local authority and, by extension, accept the money of both local and national taxpayers while objectively fleecing both taxpayers and the poor simultaneously. None of this is specific to BHT, and this magazine does not address them in particular. Its just 'the business' it seems, in housing the homeless.

Andy Winters: Questions and Answers

Indeed, BHT have made much PR mileage out of this 'shipping containers' story, especially in publications such as The Daily Mail, in which Andy Winters purrs about the scheme, neglecting to mention that his own organisation is, perhaps, a contributory factor in its sudden urgent requirement.

The Daily Mail article reads thus:

'Andy Winter, chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust, said 'imaginative solutions' were needed to deal with the 'desperate' housing situation in the city.

Andy Winters delights in the good news of the shipping containers for the Brighton homeless community:

'I have to admit that when it was first suggested to me that shipping containers be used for housing I was a bit sceptical. 'However, having seen what can be achieved, I was quickly won over. The WC and shower unit is exactly the same as my daughter had in her student accommodation and she much preferred it to having to share bathrooms and toilets with other students. Who wouldn’t? 'What really excites me about this opportunity is that land that might otherwise lie idle for five years will be brought back into life and used to provide much-needed temporary accommodation for 36 men and women in Brighton and Hove.' 

Yet no public mention of Olympus House's closure then and still not now. Why is that? Had the deal for Olympus House to be turned over to become a 'half-way house' for mental patients not yet been brokered in November 2012, when these quotes were given?

'Mr Winter added: 'This appears to me to be very attractive from a sustainability perspective.' 

'Sustainability perspective', Mr Winters? They are shipping containers for Heaven's sake!

On the 7th November, Mr Winters posted on his BHT blog the following:

'The residents who will be moving in are known to BHT and have a track record of paying the rent, service charge and other bills. We cannot take the risk of having tenants who do not pay their rent.'

Yet why no mention that at least a proportion of the incoming tenants to the shipping containers are known to BHT themselves as residents of BHT's very own Olympus House? A statement from Andy Winters of BHT on his personal blog says:

'The timing of the closure of the Olympus House Project and the opening of Richardson’s Yard are co-incidental.

The Olympus House project is closing for refurbishment works and will reopen in February providing accommodation for 24 men and women with high support needs. The timing of this transition is dictated by a contract awarded to BHT to provide this accommodation.

The opening of Richardson’s Yard was originally planned for the late summer but, because of the demolition of the Cobbler’s Thumb pub (not a consequence of or linked to the Richardson’s Yard development), delayed the arrival of the containers.

I am pleased that some residents of Olympus House will be moving to Richardson’s Yard where they will get self-contained accommodation and of an improved standard.'

Further questions for Mr Winters arise. For example: When was the contract for Olympus House to take in those leaving mental health institutions brokered? And when were was the contract for Richardson's Yard brokered? Exactly what proportion of the new tenants of the sea containers will be coming from Olympus House itself?

On 8th November, Mr Winters, again on his personal blog says of the 33 new residents:

63% are in accommodation proving support, either by BHT or one of our partner organisations. 9% are in emergency accommodation, and 24% are sofa-surfing with family or friends. One is a rough sleeper.

91% are either in paid work (36%), voluntary work (27%), training or education (18%), or in work but currently signed off sick (9%).

In just over two weeks, 100% will have their own front door, their own kitchen, their own bathroom, their own home. 

 
In other words, according to BHT, 63% of those moving in are in accommodation 'either by BHT or one of our partner organisations' and 63% of these tenants are on benefits. Well, Mr Winters, to my mind that 36% should be in paid work (therefore not on benefits?) is surprising, because, as a cafe assistant, I don't think I could afford to live in a shipping container for £165 a week! Some of these homeless must be big earners!

Still, one couple, among 17 other residents of Olympus House are yet to be housed after their promised eviction from Olympus House. Pray for them all. It is a terrible thing to be at the mercy of Brighton and Hove City Council.

I have incurred the displeasure of a homeless hostel in Brighton, from which I have been banned.

Brighton's mysterious West Pier, after which the hostel is named

West Pier Project, a Council ran temporary emergency housing establishment in the heart of the city centre, has, I am informed in person by the staff on the reception, barred me from entry, following their discovery of the above video which I filmed of a friend who lives in the hostel explaining living conditions and the astonishing rental fee charged by the West Pier Project for his living there.

I asked them whether it was illegal for me to film an interview with a friend in his room and they maintained that it was, so it looks like I'll need a lawyer. Having been told I was no longer welcome to visit my friend Daryl, who let's face it, doesn't receive many visitors as things stand, because I had basically exposed something the West Pier would rather not be brought to light (quite what that is, I was not told) I had time only to wish Daryl happy birthday and give him his birthday present, birthday card and a bit of cash for some tobacco.

Among those who wish people to be silenced in today's society are those who exploit the misery and destitution of the poor for personal gain, who extort from the poor exhorbitant housing benefit charges in rent in order to fill their pockets and live in luxury, since, I was told by a worker that the building is privately owned and we can therefore safely assume that the rental money of nearly £200 a week goes to the owner. They don't seem to do much to improve the building. Only a week or two ago another man I know there tried to open a window and had to go to hospital because a window pane fell out and sliced his hand open. The staff kindly paid for a taxi, but you should have seen the guy's hand. It was a total mess. I told him he should sue.

I asked the staff member who the owner of the property was, but was not given a name. The team member denied knowledge of such information. Perhaps the staff do not know who owns the property. You can bet Brighton and Hove City Council, however, do!

Pope Francis calls us to serve the poor and to highlight and expose the injustices that take place in their regard.

Just for the record, here is another picture I took of the inside of West Pier Project. I know this is a general sign that warns that there is some dangerously strong heroin 'out there' in big, bad Brighton, but for an establishment that serves its residents a needle exchange service and whose residents number many a heroin addict, perhaps telling everyone that there is some 'seriously strong s**t' available in Brighton, and telling them what colour and texture it takes, maybe isn't that great an idea?

After all, they all know the next hit could kill them, but many of them are just out for the best hit they can get.

We often take it for granted that an age and society that fosters moral relativism and that promotes hedonism will lay few, if any, curbs, restrictions or moral codes upon others.

Debates that surround the issues of same-sex marriage, abortion and assisted suicide readily deny, despite sound reasoning that points to the opposite, the real societal impact of such lifestyle choices upon others, preferring to enshrine personal freedom as paramount in the public sphere. The sanctity of life and marriage is thus sacrificed for a new sanctity – that of personal choice. Those who oppose the new ‘freedoms’ of the age are vilified as intolerant, narrow minded bigots.

Diversity, Equality and Discrimination

Bizarrely, however, the new found ‘freedoms’ of the modern age do not extend to everybody. Even in an age of moral relativism, in which everybody has their own truths, certain lifestyles, which for many are grounded in addiction and illness, are still singled out for their effect on the public square.

Recently, while walking down a street in Brighton, I came across a sign in a newsagent doorway that read, ‘The Sale of Alcohol to Street Drinkers is not Permitted on these Premises – The Management’. It so happens that street drinkers have been on the end of near constant attention from the police and PCSOs in Brighton. Doubtless the authorities have their own reasons for doing so, so as not to put off the tourists, to curb antisocial behaviour, to keep the city ‘safe’. However, reading the sign I could not help but think what authorities are saying is somewhat discriminatory, prejudiced and insulting.

What is a ‘street drinker’?

What is a ‘street drinker’ might sound like a question with an obvious answer. It is someone who drinks alcohol on the street. One might ask whether, however, a couple sitting in a park in Brighton drinking champagne are ‘street drinkers’ and whether these persons would be refused champagne once word got around to newsagents to, ‘Watch out for the guy who drinks champers in parks with his wife.’ The word ‘street drinker’ seems to have other connotations of the poverty and misery of the outcast, denoting a ‘tramp’ like existence. These people, I assume – a certain ‘type’ of drinker - who cannot afford to drink in pubs, clubs and bars, but who drinks cans outside, is the real target. It would be too simplistic to say that this message from Brighton newsagents was of the ‘No Irish, Blacks or Dogs’ variety, because this kind of outlawed ethnic (and canine) discrimination was more clear cut. The term ‘street drinker’ is more subjective, a little more ambiguous and left very much to the arbitrary opinion of the newsagent who is being encouraged to think of a client base which is ‘out sort’ and a kind of customer who is ‘not our sort at all’.

Refusal register

The age of peculiar double standards

Our age, it appears, is to be the age of acute double-standards. For instance, what would the reaction be if, say, a wedding cake maker put a sign up today in his shop window saying that wedding cakes will not be available to same-sex couples who wish for such for their celebration?

Doubtless there would be an outcry, even a clamour for the delicatessen to be closed down by the vociferous LGBT community, especially in Brighton, even though the owner was acting in accordance with his sacred conscience. Where is the political movement for the rights of alcoholics, street drinkers and homeless people? Of course, it does not really exist, because these people either have no voice in the public sphere or are deemed unworthy of having a voice. Of course, one may reply, each shopkeeper has his own right to sell what he chooses to each and every customer as they come, as they appear and I could agree with that principle. It is one that I would say extends to the B&B owner who does not want homosexual activity in his establishment.

Yet, here in Brighton at least, it would appear that this is not the whole story. The decision by newsagents not to sell alcohol to street drinkers is one that has been made with the local authority in what appears to be a city wide action that singles out street drinkers for rejection, enforcing the idea that all are ‘equal’ before the law, but some are less equal than others. The initiative also has the striking effect of reinforcing the notion that somehow, because someone is homeless, poor, or alcoholic, that they are to be treated as pariahs or, at least, second-class citizens.

Local authority Initiative

As the pictures suggest, this is a Council initiative, to which various newsagents and retailers have signed up, we must assume, voluntarily. Other councils around the United Kingdom are doing similar, therefore one has to wonder whether what we are witnessing here is a national targeting of the homeless and street drinkers to be refused alcohol, dressed in the cloak of combating ‘anti-social behaviour’.

In an age that raises personal freedom to new heights of protection – even to the cost of society itself in terms of the common good, the personal rights of many who wield no power or influence in society are at the same time disregarded. I would personally defend any newsagent or barman from refusing an alcoholic more alcohol on the premise that he or she believes the alcoholic has had too much to drink and therefore should not be served. Yet this initiative does not appear to be objective but entirely arbitrary, depending not necessarily upon the drunkenness of the individual being served, but perhaps appearance only – on the basis that this person is a ‘street drinker’.

It goes without saying that alcoholism in general is a huge problem in the United Kingdom and that the social evils associated with alcoholism, in terms of domestic violence, family break up, marital difficulties and other issues are prevalent. Yet the ‘refusal register’ of Brighton and Hove City Council does not apply a single, objective or reasonable law to all citizens, but is obviously applied to the homeless, the poor and those living either in hostels or on the street. It goes without saying that for the chronic alcoholic, deprivation of alcohol can lead to fits, palpitations and other medical symptoms that most of us would find to be most distressing.

Wikipedia alone notes that ‘the withdrawal syndrome is largely a hyper-excitable response of the central nervous system to lack of alcohol. Symptoms typical of withdrawal include agitation, seizures, and delirium tremens.’ Ironically, the Brighton newsagents in which I took photographs is on a road in Brighton which is about to open new accommodation for 350 students. University students, for all of their academic gifts, are well known for ‘living it up’ and, from my own university days, I can attest that ‘the best days of your life’ are, for many a student, not days, evenings and weekends of careful sobriety. It appears that in Brighton, though not just Brighton, one law will apply to the drunkards who are homeless, poor or who live in hostels, but, I suspect, another law will apply to those who Brighton and Hove City Council believe will benefit the local economy and who come from more privileged and protected backgrounds.

New student accommodation being built on London Road

 Are ‘rights’ only for the wealthy?

As Brighton welcomes its first same-sex marriage, the defenders of this new law will say that marriage’s redefinition is grounded in the human rights of the individual to exercise personal freedom for the sake of love. How ironic, that in the same time such draconian discrimination will simultaneously be applied to the poor and homeless, many of whom will say they just need a drink because they have ‘the shakes’.

The laws that govern the public sphere in modern Britain often appear to be grounded in language and logic that at first sounds just and fair, but end up being entirely arbitrary, imposed on the populace from above and applied in a totalitarian manner. Catholics shouldn’t be quick to jump on a campaign for drunkenness in public spaces, but we should condemn the unjust discrimination against the poor whose only crime in the eyes of the authorities, it would appear, is not to be just ‘too drunk’, but not rich, socially mobile, or just not respectable enough and, in a city like Brighton, where hedonism and personal freedom are raised to the secular altar, that an initiative like this should be in operation aimed chiefly at the homeless is surely nothing short of scandalous.

Human nature is wounded and while redeemed, we are frail, fragile and fallen creatures. We need grace in order to overcome our vices. One suspects that the puritans of ages past were not at all times quite so pure as they led others to believe. Here in Brighton – and perhaps in your town or city too – we are witnessing not only the rise of anti-social behaviour, but the unstoppable rise of the powerful and certainly aggressive and certainly dogmatic, new puritans.

We should ask why the poor, the defenceless, the voiceless, the homeless should be made to be the scapegoats for the sins of so, so many. Are Brighton’s homeless and its ‘street drinkers’ take consolation in the fact that while the local authority considers them unworthy of being able to buy a drink in a newsagent or off-licence, they are free to get married to someone of the same gender. Is it time Brightonians asked ourselves exactly what criteria makes some drinkers better drinkers than other drinkers, because, let’s face it, we all like a drop and it’s not always in moderation. Brighton is known for many things, but moderation is hardly one of them.

Courtesy of Vice

So, how did artist Charlie Devus come to call a 40-foot metal shipping container home? “In this place, we’re all God’s polyps.

All of us flow according to the tides,” he explains, as he gives me a guided tour of his new abode. The process began when Brighton Housing Trust, a local housing charity, found him a flat that had been flipped straight out of an Irvine Welsh novel.

“I couldn’t stay there. There was this giant hole just pouring water down through the ceiling. It was just insane – and I had to leave, quickly,” he shudders. So, a few months later, while construction was still being carried out on a new flagship housing project, Brighton Housing Trust suggested he move in and try it out.

Along with its stony beach and gigantic seagulls, Brighton has another defining factor: It’s home to one of the biggest homeless populations on the South Coast.

For full article click here.

A couple sit hunched over with their dog under the arches of Brighton station.  Kristian, who sits with his girlfriend, complains of what he suspects is urine that has run from the top of Trafalgar Street down the pavement in a stream to hit his blanket.  He hopes it is beer, but he isn’t so sure.  This isn’t Calcutta. This is Brighton.  Welcome to Brighton & Hove: the ‘city by the sea’.  His girlfriend is tired, her head covered by a dirty sleeping bag.  Kristian is alert, if tired, and is keen to talk about what is going on in his life at the moment.  He says it is nice to be able to “off-load” some of what he experiences in Brighton.

At 33, he has seen a lot of life and more the dark side of life than we would ever wish to see.  We did not speak for too long, but for enough time to get a sense of the desperation of life on the streets of Brighton, a life dispossessed, largely abandoned to the elements by the local authoritiy and left voiceless and powerless.

The Local Connection

For what feels like the hundredth time, I am told about the injustice of Brighton & Hove City Council’s ‘local connection policy’.  Kristian explains to me the absurdity of the couple’s situation with the Council.

“We arrived here seven years ago.  We have been on the streets in Brighton since then.  When we got here, we went to the Council and were told that because we were not from the area, that we would only be considered for housing if we had a ‘local connection’.  This has been the Council’s position for seven years. I mean, how long do you have to be living in a town before you are considered ‘local’ or to have a connection with the town?”

In Brighton, if you don’t have a ‘local connection’ then you are out on a limb.  The Council’s policy of only coming to the assistance of ‘residents’ who have family in the area leaves many of the homeless stranded, without access to shelter.  This policy does not just mean that you won’t be considered for the Council housing waiting list.  It also means that you will find it nearly impossible to gain access to a hostel in Brighton or Hove, since all referrals to hostels in Brighton are made through the Council.  This is a situation presided over by the Council, not a situation that has happened because of the policies of hostels themselves.

Of course, the quality of local hostels, in terms of care and provision is highly questionable.  Many of the hostels that do exist are run as private businesses that make great profit out of housing benefit, but give very little to the ‘clients’ in terms of accommodation. Still, while this itself is a scandal, it is one to be treated separately and for many on the street, any room is better than the squalor of the streets of Brighton.

The reality for Kristian is that the Council have relinquished any duty of care to the couple.  They are left to roam the streets, to sleep there, in all weather conditions, in every season.  It always astonishes me how the homeless cope in winter.

Kristian’s response is stoical, spoken by a man so accustomed to sleeping outside in winter that it is now routine.  “We have three sleeping bags.  We just survive with those.”  

Dignity

Kristian explains that streetlife is about more than being without a house.  It is not just shelter that you lose, but active participation in society, or even, membership of that society.

“The worst thing is the way we are seen by others.  People look at us, sitting here with a dog and just assume we are ‘scumbags’ or something.  I think people generally assume we are on drugs.  We’re not.  I managed to come off my drug habit.  I have a few beers but that is it.  People look at us and I think have a great deal of prejudice.  We carry a stigma.  On a Saturday night, drunk locals or visitors will come and sit with us but they’re not really interested in us.  The reality of being homeless in Brghton is that you are largely ignored and treated as if you are dirt.  We aren’t treated as people.  We aren’t treated with dignity.  Even when some people give us money, they’ll often kind of drop it at our feet.  It would be nice if people gave it to us in the hand as you would for anyone else.”

Brighton’s Heart of Darkness

Graham Greene, in his classic novel, ‘Brighton Rock’ portrayed a vision of Brighton that was dark at its heart, a sinister town that was brutal and violent, a place of warfare and criminality, gangsterism and murder.  The image that most people receive of Brighton nowadays is somewhat different.  The slum clearances of the 1930s, 40s and 50s led to a widescale ‘gentrification’ of inner Brighton, while the poor who had lived in the city were displaced and relocated to Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb.  Brighton and Hove is now a city in which money speaks, but people without it are voiceless and some, homeless.

Despite attempts to turn Brighton into a place of wealth, leisure, tourism and the ‘gay capital’ of the United Kingdom, Brighton is also the ‘drug-related death’ capital of the whole country.  This isn’t just something that affects the homeless, although it is they who are most penalised and they who suffer most casualties in the culture of death for which Brighton is famed.  Brighton’s hedonistic culture comes at a cost of human lives, tragically cut short by drug-fuelled suicide, overdoses and crime.

The recent senseless, brutal and shocking murder of a local Brighton man is still fresh in Kristian’s mind.  Detectives working for Sussex Police described the wounds and injuries of the man in the fatal attack as the worst they had ever seen.  Kristian and his girlfriend knew the victim well and were good friends with him.  They are still grieving over the loss of their friend.  The motive of the murder is still mysterious and the case is yet to go to trial.

“I saw his mutilated, bloody body laying on his bed. His skin had been ripped from his face, a deep, huge gash in his head, his body totally unrecognisable from the man I had known.  By then he’d already lost 80% of his blood.  I will never forget that image.  It will always haunt me, when I am awake and when I sleep and when I sleep, I cannot sleep well.  Apparently, Police received counselling because of what they saw.  We have received none and he was our friend.”

Kristian expresses his frustration with the system in Brighton that condemns many homeless to destitution.

“When we went to the Council, after that, again seeking assistance with housing, the lady behind the counter, on hearing of the death of our friend said, ‘Oh, that’s unfortunate’. Unfortunate? Unfortunate is having your foot ran over by a car.  Losing one of your best friends isn’t unfortunate. It is terrible! Devastating!”

The couple have all but given up hope that the Council will recognise their plight and assist them.

 “They don’t want to help us and that is that.  They have this local connection policy and they are sticking to it, in our case, at any rate.”

Inconsistencies in the Local Connection Policy

I have met many of the homeless of Brighton and noticed that while the Council operate a stringent local connection policy, it appears to be open to interpretation in different cases.  I know one man who arrived from another city.  For months he slept rough by the Babylon Lounge in Hove.  For months he was told that he had no local connection and so therefore could not be helped.  Then, to my surprise, he told me that he had been housed.  He, too, was surprised by the Council’s sudden decision to make an exception of him.  I was happy for him, of course, but wondered exactly what criteria the Council have for coming to the assistance of the homeless in Brighton.  Not too long after he was housed in a hostel in Brighton, he was informed that he had been found a flat where he could live independently.  He struggles by and is poor, but it appears that the local connection policy suddenly was dropped for this individual.

Few would doubt that the Council have a huge task on their hands in responding to the homeless population of Brighton and that the policy which the Council operate is a response to Brighton’s popularity as a destination for those who have fallen out of mainstream society and have become street homeless or who wish to live here to gain accommodation.

However, it is also true that many people are welcomed to Brighton with open arms.  The rich and the wealthy, for example, have no problems gaining property.  Indeed, some use Brighton as a second home.  There is also a great deal of vacant property in Sussex, The Argus newspaper reporting last year that some 21,000 properties remain unoccupied across the county. The Council also employ a number of people to be ‘rough sleepers workers’ and have a ‘Rough Sleepers Street Services and Relocation Team (RSSRT) which must cost a considerable amount of money.

Meanwhile, there is urgent need for quality hostel accommodation in Brighton, as well as provision for the homeless in terms of shelter and care.  For people like Kristian and his girlfriend, however, one policy makes them destitute.  The vast majority of private landlords and lettings agents require huge deposits of rent which the poor cannot afford.  Brighton is a place for the wealthy only, a place where many of the poor and the homeless are excluded from both housing provision and mainstream society.

‘Equality’ and ‘Diversity’

Much is said in modern Britain, and certainly modern Brighton, about ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’.  It is lamentable that these two fashionable buzz words do not apply to the treatment of the poor in the city by the sea.  Where, it must be asked, is the campaign group for the inviolable rights of the homeless? Where is their voice?  Who will speak up for them in Parliament, or in the Council or in any of the corridors of power and influence in the United Kingdom?  That is why this newsletter and blog, The Eye of a Needle, has been started: to give the homeless a much needed voice.

This newsletter is aimed at raising awareness of the plight of Brighton’s homeless community, to document their courage and their sufferings and to encourage social change which will see their urgent concerns addressed in a concrete way.  Human rights, nowadays dressed in terms of personal freedoms have become distorted.  Real human rights are documented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It is high time that the rights of courageous couples like Kristian and his girlfriend were defended and upheld by the people of Brighton.  Like us, Kristian has dreams and aspirations for the future.

“My hope is that we can one day get a place of our own.  I used to be a carpenter.  I’d still love to do it, but where would I keep my tools?  It is hard to get the motivation when you are sleeping on the streets and you have nothing.  Maybe, if I could get myself on my feet, I’d be able to do it, but also, who would take me on?  Because of my past I have a list of convictions for petty crime and then there is the stigma of how we live. You can’t just lift yourself off the street and into normal life.” 

For many on the streets in Brighton, there is no ‘local connection’ and Brighton is, sadly, very much the ‘end of the line’.

Are you homeless?  Do you have a story you want to share? Contact The Eye of the Needle to have your story told.

Grand Parade, Brighton

A Brighton man named Ben has alleged that Glenwood Lodge homeless hostel evicted him at the weekend on false allegations that he spat at one of the workers. The hostel in Grand Parade (pictured left) left the man outside for reasons which left the man totally mystified.

Ben, aged in his 40s, insists that the worker at the hostel refused to allow him into the building so that he could sleep in his room - something which has never happened before.  He was told that he was no longer welcome at the hostel, yet he maintains that he was not given any valid reason for this being the case.

Having been refused entry into the hostel, where he has been resident for around 6 months, he became angry and visibly upset by the actions of the worker. Due to his behaviour upon hearing that he was no longer welcome, he was then arrested by Sussex Police and spent 14 hours in Hollingbury Police Station only to be released on bail. The Brighton man awaits a decision from Sussex Police as to whether he is guilty of anything, or not. In the meantime, however, the man is homeless.

He was refused entry to the hostel and was told that he had spat deliberately at one of the workers. He maintains that this allegation is without substance and that it is false, claiming that the CCTV would show any evidence of such an action on his part.  The man has been made homeless by the hostel, and he alleges that the hostel worker did not fetch him any clothes, food, or even his sleeping bag, from his room, so that he could keep warm at night.

He alleges that this is the second time in a year that this has happened to him. The last time it occurred was at New Steine Mews and he was evicted in winter. Again, he was arrested, only to be found innocent of any crime. Still, however, despite his innocence, the hostel kept by their decision to evict him, even though the police found no reason to take any action, to prosecute or follow up the allegation. He was left, once more, in deep winter, to survive in the cold with no duvet, sleeping bag or any of his belongings.

Princes House, Brighton

Residents of 17/19 Grand Parade agreed to be interviewed about the living conditions of the “emergency temporary accommodation” of inner Brighton.

Each resident interviewed has a different story of the shameful squalour and scandalous neglect of the accommodation into which Brighton and Hove City Council’s housing and ‘rough sleepers’ teams place homeless and vulnerable persons.

Their stories speak well for themselves.  You will see from our website’s video footage that 17/19 Grand Parade is a sorry excuse for “emergency temporary accommodation”.  Some residents have been left there for over two years.  You will also see the appalling manner in which the premises are run.

However, the story does not end there. There is more to this story than at first meets the eye. Video evidence on our blog provides proof that the “emergency temporary accommodation” is ran by Brighton-based company, The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd.

Baron Homes: making money out of poverty 

The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd is, in fact, a sister company of Baron Estates, a fact conveniently overlooked on their website.  Their address is 22A East Street Arcade.  At 12 East Street Arcade reside the plush offices of Baron Estates. The same premises of Princes House, with luxury flats for sale for £700,000, appears on both websites.

And as if to demonstrate just how ‘close’ to Brighton and Hove City Council these estate and lettings agents are, the addresses of both offices are just yards away from Brighton and Hove City Council’s Housing and City Support Team, who keep a steady stream of homeless clients flowing into 17/19 Grand Parade and Baron Homes’s other properties. Baron Estates website advertises that their ‘London Office’ resides at 121 Park Lane, Mayfair, which, conveniently, is also the site of the, global, ‘Guild of Professional Estate Agents’, which boasts of its ability to access “the lucrative London and international investor markets”.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither the website for Baron Estates or The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd say anything about Baron Homes’s responsibility for 17/19 Grand Parade, their ‘emergency accommodation’ in Brunswick Square or Windsor Court in Windsor Street.

Baron Homes do, however, list the large array of rather more lavish properties for which they also have responsibility. These include Princes House on North Street and other commercial and residential properties. Baron Estates also act as agents for properties around Brighton and the surrounding area, with some advertised for sale for as much as £2.4 million.

And it is no wonder the property companies are able to afford to acquire such property for their portfolios.  On average, Brighton and Hove City Council transfer into the bank account of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd a staggering £1.2 million a year, presumably in housing benefits.  Not bad for a company that claims to have been established in 1994, is it?

The Eye of the Needle has established that the Baron property empire are not just ‘agents’ for 17/19 Grand Parade, but owners and it is incredible that an agency who are beneficiaries of so much housing benefit and whose sister company are selling properties for six figures, are unable to remind themselves, or indeed be reminded by the Council, to maintain their property even to a barely minimal standard.  With their vast wealth they could even employ staff to care for Brighton’s most vulnerable.

Baron Homes charge the Council in excess of £150 a week in order to accommodate Brighton’s poor.  This is double what would be charged by an ordinary landlord for far better accommodation in Brighton.  Yet, the accommodation is truly abysmal.   How can it be that a company making so much financial return out of the misery of 17/19 Grand Parade can put such a minimal effort into the living conditions of the premises, while at the same time boast of the stunning beauty of its more expensive, luxury accommodation in Brighton and beyond?  We at The Eye of a Needle would suggest that this company may find public knowledge of their responsibility for 17/19 Grand Parade rather embarrassing, and, hopefully, so too will their shareholders.

How can it be that Baron Homes can be beneficiaries of so much public money when as yet it appears nobody from the Council has ordered an inquiry into the “emergency temporary accommodation”?  How can a company be so vastly wealthy and yet give nothing in return to the very poor from whom they profit?  How can Brighton and Hove City Council, who have a duty of care for Brighton’s most vulnerable, preside over this astonishing neglect of the poor?!

How can this wealthy empire demand from their poor tenants the £10 a week “top-up” fees that are compulsory for the residents of the 17-19 Grand Parade, a fee for which they receive scant in return in terms of quality of life?  What grave and scandalous injustice, that this Brighton mafia robs from the poor from their weekly allowance just to get more wealthy than they already are!?  Does their avarice know no bounds!?

A scandal worthy of the attention of the local and national media

The story of Baron Homes and their all too cosy relationship with Brighton and Hove City Council is unclear, rather murky so to speak, but it is surely worthy of local and perhaps national media attention.  For under the responsibility of Baron Homes is also accommodation of a similar nature in Brunswick Square from which more horror stories emerge. We are certain that if all of the poor homeless men and women of these residences knew of the vast wealth of the international company which has responsibility for these premises they would be utterly scandalised, as would many of the good people of Brighton and Hove.

It is a wonder how the local press has never picked up on this story, but then with the amount of money involved in this scandal it is perhaps unsurprising. It may be that a company as big as Baron Homes Corporation Ltd are simply ‘too big to touch’.   They are not, however, too big for this magazine. Nor, for that matter, are Brighton and Hove City Council, the leaders of which should be ashamed of themselves for not investigating and ordering the improvement of 17/19 Grand Parade, oiled, as it is, by public money.  It is a national scandal and our videos of interviews with residents will communicate the depth of this scandal more adequately than we can do in words.

Huge wealth made from the misery of  Brighton’s poor, homeless and destitute

Indeed, someone, somewhere, is getting very wealthy off the backs of these poor tenants trapped in the squalour of 17/19 Grand Parade, Brunswick Square and other rented dumps in Brighton and they are giving nothing back to them in return.  Unlike The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd, Baron Estates is able to boast of its membership of the Guild of Professional Estate agents and its approval by the Government’s Property Ombudsman scheme, a Guild of which we can only presume that Baron Homes Corporation is not a member.

Perhaps the ‘Property Ombudsman’ scheme for lettings agents should still be informed of Baron Homes’s terrible management of the premises of 17/19 Grand Parade. It reflects rather badly on Baron Estates.

More generally, howver, the whole nature of local Government’s relationship with the The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd is rather mysterious. It is interesting that Baron Estates are members of the ‘Guild of Professional Estate Agents’, but The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd appears not to be, but given that the Guild shares office space with Baron Estates’s office in 121 Park Lane, Mayfair, one wonders whether it exists only to serve their interests in “lucrative investment” operations.

Regardless to say, the relationship between Brighton and Hove City Council and this company stinks to high heaven and all the more in the light of the fact that Baron Estates boast of their other services.

These ‘services’ include their ‘Shops Department’, their ‘Office Space’ department, their ‘Industrial Property Department’, their ‘Valuation Department’, their ‘Commercial Land Development Consultancy and Town Planning Department’, ‘Motor Trade and Roadside Property Department’, their ‘Hotels Department’, ‘Nursing Homes Department’, ‘Business Sales Department’ and ‘Investment Property Department’.  It rather looks like, between them, The Baron Homes Corporation and Baron Estates have Brighton pretty much sewn up!

Quite what is the nature of the relationship between Brighton and Hove City Council and The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd, when the same company that runs the most squalid, wretched emergency temporary accommodation in Brighton is also able to buy up the much sought after Regents Arcade, as reported by The Argus, for £10 million pounds, in 2004?

Perhaps it is not surprising that The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd were able to afford Regents Arcade. As well as the housing benefits and “top-up fee” revenue, just look at what Director of the company, Mrs Nazila Blencowe, is ‘President’ of: Baron International, Inc. The Director of the mysterious Baron organisation has been living in Beverley Hills, USA!  Lucky for some! What the tenants of 17/19 wouldn’t give!

The Blencowes: The Barons of Brighton

So who is the Director of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd and who is the Director of Baron Estates?  Well, our investigation has discovered that Mrs Nazila Blencowe is Director of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd.  Michael Blencowe, is Director of Baron Estates and Michael is the son of Nazila Blencowe.  Now there is a co-incidence!  Could it be that the public money flowing into the account of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd is assisting, in some way, the acquisition of new property for the Baron Estates portfolio as well?  Surely not!  It couldn’t be!

And it appears that Mrs Nazila Blencowe, at least, is one very wealthy lady, indeed.  According to property website Blockshopper, Mrs Blencowe’s Beverley Hills property at 1121 Marylin Drive was bought on 31 March 2009 by her and her now deceased husband, Richard Blencowe, for $6,685,000.  By 2nd April 2009, ownership had changed hands to Baron Holdings International Llc.  Now, it is being marketed for sale by ‘owner’ Mr Curt D Cassingham and is being offered for $7,995,000.  Mr Blencowe may have gone to his Maker, but Nazila still appears to be cashing in on her ‘investments’.

Mrs Nazila Blencowe, as the Director of The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd., I would say you owe the poor of Brighton and Hove, living in the disgusting excuses for “emergency temporary accommodation” an explanation. You and your son clearly manage a considerable array of Brighton’s property, both residential and commercial. Your firm are clearly very, very wealthy and so are you. You have profitted, at least in part, from your ownership of Brighton’s most appalling ‘emergency temporary accommodation’.  This accommodation is by no means adequate for Brighton’s most poor and defenseless and you quite blatantly charge the Council at least double what it would cost for them to place Brighton’s most vulnerable in more adequate property with different landlords.

Perhaps, in the light of this investigation, you could put some new locks on the doors of the tenants at 17-19 Grand Parade so they’ve got some security.  Perhaps you could show a little more generosity to the people who have to endure harsh poverty and the unsupervised mayhem of the premises who contribute to your company’s great wealth.

Perhaps you could live there for a week and see what it is like. Within those walls are housed people with addictions, people with mental health problems, people who have suffered greatly and still suffer.  Their sufferings are compounded by the poor quality of your accommodation.

Your money and your vast property empire may make you happy, but ultimately, the rich who spit upon the poor in this life will have some serious explaining to do at their tribunal before Almighty God and all your money that you stole from Brighton’s poor will never buy back your immortal soul.  Your company must literally be swimming in public money.  For the love of God and the sake of your soul, give something back to those in your care.

What is ‘Baron International, Inc’?

The vast wealth of the operation and Mrs Blencowe’s status as  an agent of ‘Baron Holdings International LLC’ and President of ‘Baron International, Inc’, means that this company, presumably encompassing Baron Estates, is highly interested in investors, stocks and shares.  Even with the revenue of housing benefits, no company can emerge out of the blue in 1994 and acquire so much, so quickly and our investigation has uncovered that ownership of ‘Baron International, Inc’ is shared between different parties.

The Veromi Business Search website informs us that ownership is shared between at least five people.  These parties include Nazila Blencowe, Maria S Freebairn, Robert Freebairn, Arthur Hernandez and Mark R Jones.  Mark R Jones just so happens to link Baron International with Best Beverage of America Inc.  It just so happens that the corporation of Baron International, Inc is a name associated with beverage equipment distribution.

'Baron International, Inc., a multi-million dollar a year revenue operation,was founded in 1982 by Mr. Robert Ingala and Mr. Norman Kushner. Since its inception, the company built many restaurants and has sold several beer systems and equipment. The company serves major companies such as Applebee's, Pepsi and National Amusement (Mr. Summer Redstone, Viacom), among many other major corporations.'

Well, well, well. Who would have thought it, eh? 17/19 Grand Parade, the most filthy dive of “emergency temporary accommodation” in Brighton, is, in fact, run by a multi-million dollar company in West Orange, New Jersey, USA. Now, we don’t know about you, but that is what we call a story!

How can it be, that a small cabal of wealthy Americans can chunks of Brighton?  Wouldn’t you say that Brightonians have a right to know about it? The poor of Brighton sure deserve to know it, because with a wealthy empire like that, “emergency accommodation” in Brighton could become rather more pleasant in a matter of a year or two. Perhaps, with that vast wealth, 17-19 Grand Parade could be transformed into a decent, staffed, safe, secure, caring home for Brighton’s most vulnerable. You may not think they are worth it, but they are and they deserve the truth and more than that, they deserve justice!

Brighton and Hove City Council’s neglect of their duty of care to the homeless

As for Brighton and Hove City Council,  well, we think you may be hearing from some of the residents of 17/19 Grand Parade quite soon. You have been well and truly exposed. You thought that the people of Brighton would never hear of your disgraceful and perhaps dangerously close friendship with the Baron empire. You were wrong.  You had thought that The Argus could be relied upon not to investigate 17/19 Grand Parade and sorrowfully you were right.  But now, at long last, a new publication tells the truth, the truth is out and the people of Brighton will know of Baron Homes and their exploitation for profit of Brighton’s most poor and defencesless!  We condemn your indifference and your exploitation of their sufferings and the Council that neglected to bring you to book and this, we assure you, is just the start.