On World Homelessness Day a local charity in Croydon, which has been caring for homeless people in the community for over 50 years, is battling a legal challenge from Croydon council.
Nightwatch, a homelessness charity based in Croydon, runs a soup kitchen every night at Queens Gardens on Fell Road at 9.30pm.
The charity chair, Jad Adams, told EastLondonLines: “We are currently serving around 100 people a night at the weekends and 60-70 people a night on weekdays.” Adams also explained these numbers have doubled in the past five years.
Croydon council recently threatened legal action due to some clients who they said were behaving antisocially.
In an email to Nightwatch on September 23, the council said it will seek a court injunction prohibiting the charity operating in and around Queen’s Gardens. The charity sometimes uses Bernard Weatherill House, a council building nearby, to take shelter when it is raining.
Adams told ELL the charity offered to build and fund their own shelter in Queens Gardens, to avoid relocating to Bernard Weatherill House in poor weather.
“We’d like to provide a shelter – just a simple bus shelter kind of arrangement. It would be fitting with the surrounding area, surrounding buildings, and it would be designed by people who already work with the council”, they added.
This legal threat has also provoked an outcry within the council.
On September 30, Croydon Labour, Greens, and Liberal Democrats wrote a letter to the Conservative Mayor Jason Perry, demanding that the council support Nightwatch in their operations, as they continue to provide food for those in need, rather than behaving in a “hostile manner”.
Adams told ELL: “Having talked to these senior people in the council about it, they’ve really backed up our view. Now that doesn’t actually get us very far in terms of trying to get our shelter, but we’re certainly not feeling that we’re being directly threatened now, as we might reasonably have been feeling, having got that sort of threat of legal action.”
Adams said the work of Nightwatch; “brings the entire community of Croydon together.”
“It’s harvest festival season right now and many schools in Croydon are collecting food for us, helping us reach even further into the community. In this way, we’re not only supporting the homeless, but we’re also educating the wider community about homelessness and showing those in need that they are supported by everyone.”
World Homelessness Day is marked on October 10 every year around the world.
Victoria Jezuseck, one of the volunteer coordinators, told ELL: “It’s great that there is a day to raise awareness of homelessness, but I don’t think it should be just one day. It’s something that needs more awareness every single day.”
Nightwatch are connecting with schools, churches, Hindu Temples, Muslim groups, and “have volunteers from all walks of life—young and old, from various ethnic and faith groups helping us”.
Jad Adams, Nightwatch
Anita Rowley, a regular client of Nightwatch, told EastLondonLines: “These guys are absolutely amazing, they give so much time and support to us. They are out on streets every night and they really don’t have to be doing that. I have endless admiration for them.”
Eastlondonlines also approached the council to ask how they would mark World Homelessness Day. “Homelessness and rough sleeping are growing, complex problems, and we need to find long term solutions that help people off the street and into accommodation, with support from services such as health and drug and alcohol misuse. That is why we have been working with a range of local organisations and national bodies to develop a new approach.”
“Following the adoption of our new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-2029, we recently invited Nightwatch and others to be local partners on a new strategic partnership board focused on joint working to address homelessness in Croydon. We are pleased that they have accepted the invitation and look forward to them joining the conversation.”
