A mother and son have been living on a bench for more than four years. Why haven't they been housed?
Me: But if the council gives you a flat would you move into it?At this point the mother starts laughing and the son starts chuckling too. It's contagious, something to do with absurdity - I laugh as well. They can tell I find their situation bizarre and I sense they in turn find my questions bizarre, as if their answers are obvious and I am being obtuse. I tell them I'm writing something about them for the BBC. The son says he knows the BBC.
The Somali community feel hurt by the case. They have repeatedly offered the mother and son lodging in people's homes, but, like the council, each time they have been rebuffed. I am shown a Somali language news report on YouTube interviewing Somalis in Tooting about the case. A woman in an embroidered headscarf says:"I am saddened by it. We have tried everything - she refused to listen to our advice." A man in a leather cap says:"It's a massive embarrassment.
Later that night I'm walking home from the tube. It's 9.50pm and the temperature is 5C, the temperature of a fridge. Their blue tarpaulin is pulled down. It's going to be a low of -3C tonight, according to the BBC forecast. Whereas, even with the heating off all day, my house will be 13 or 14C.It may be because the offer"doesn't fit their needs" says Hannah Gousy, policy manager at the charity, Crisis.
The best approach for getting people into accommodation, Gousy argues, is Housing First - currently being piloted in Liverpool, Manchester and the West Midlands. It gives homeless people with the most entrenched problems their own home, backed with"wraparound" support. Maybe Housing First would be able to persuade the mother and son to try moving into a flat, but it's not widely available in London.
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