Outrage as ‘anti-homeless spikes’ spotted outside London building

Mirror – by Mikey Smith

Metal spikes designed to stop homeless people sheltering in doorways have caused outrage, after photographs of a London building went viral.

The property, a building of flats on Southwark Bridge Road, has a series of at least 17 inch-long metal studs embedded in the floor of an alcove next to the doorway.

The photographs were posted on Facebook last night, before being posted on Twitter, where they have been shared thousands of times.  

The pictures upset a lot of people, with many comparing them to spikes used to stop pigeons landing on buildings.

Although the anger of the internet was newly directed at these cruel devices, anti-homeless spikes are not new additions to our streets.

They’ve been in use for more than a decade, particularly on older, more ornate buildings where wide windowsills and ledges can seem like a relatively comfortable place to sleep.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, head of policy and campaigns at homelessness charity Crisis, said: “It is a scandal that anyone should sleep on the streets in 21st century Britain. Yet over the last three years rough sleeping has risen steeply across the country and by a massive 75% in London.

“Behind these numbers are real people struggling with a lack of housing, cuts to benefits and cuts to homelessness services to help them rebuild their lives.

“They might have suffered a relationship breakdown, a bereavement or domestic abuse. They deserve better than to be moved on to the next doorway along the street. We will never tackle rough sleeping with studs in the pavement. Instead we must deal with the causes.”

 

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