UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman Plans Crackdown on Tent Use by Homeless, Proposes Fines for Charities Providing Tents

Braverman's contentious plan, part of the forthcoming criminal justice bill, touts preventing 'nuisance and distress' by banning tents in public spaces, targeting charities providing them, and criminalising organised begging, amid a 26% surge in homelessness and claims that key charities have not been consulted.

• UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, proposes a crackdown on tents used by the homeless, suggesting that many who sleep rough make it a lifestyle choice, causing 'nuisance and distress'. She aims to prevent a situation similar to US cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, which she claims are blighted by crime and squalor due to 'weak policies'.
• Included in the proposed plan, expected to be part of the criminal justice bill, are measures such as fines for charities providing nuisance-causing tents and criminalisation of organised begging, allowing for arrests if someone is transported to a location specifically to beg.
• Prominent homelessness charities, Shelter and Crisis, have declared they were not consulted over these plans. At the same time, the abolition of the Vagrancy Act, which made begging and rough sleeping illegal, has been followed by an overall expectation of new measures.
• Opposition to the proposal has been voiced by Shelter's CEO, Polly Neate, asserting that living on the streets is not a lifestyle choice, but a result of failed housing policies. These include a lack of affordable housing, surging rents, and rising costs of living. The charity Crisis has also criticized the plan, citing it as pushing vulnerable individuals further into destitution.
• The government had previously promised to invest £2 billion over three years to help people off the streets, but, in contrast, recent reports reveal a 26% increase in rough sleeping, reaching an estimated 3,000 rough sleepers in England alone. This contradiction has prompted calls for the government to meet its previous commitments.

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