GMB North West & Irish Region
15 May 2013

The only emergency night shelter in Manchester and Salford has been forced to close, leaving the area's homeless people with little choice but to sleep on the streets.

Narrowgate night shelter in Pendleton was left with a massive funding gap after it was told by Salford City Council it could no longer accept housing benefit – its main source of income. As a result, the 28 men and women who use the shelter have been left without accommodation, while five staff have been laid off.
 
Salford council insists it has no say over the decision, which was taken following a legal case involving a shelter in Anglesey, Wales. In that case, a judge ruled that housing benefit was not payable to a night shelter because the way the accommodation was set up meant it could not be classed as a 'home'.
 
Councillor Gena Merrett, assistant mayor for housing and environment, explained the closure of Narrowgate: "It is a legally binding ruling which applies to all councils – we must obey the law. We are now exploring different options with the charity to try and help and are keeping a careful eye out for any increase in rough sleepers in the city. The court's decision has had a deeply regrettable impact on the charity's excellent work."
 
Alan, who has been homeless for six years and relied on Narrowgate for accommodation and support, was informed via text message that the shelter had closed. "At the end of the day it's a place where we all used to go, we all used to meet up," he explains, at a breakfast drop-in Manchester city centre.
 
Alan says the shelter put him in contact with the alcohol and drugs service, which is helping him overcome his addiction to alcohol. But since Narrowgate's closure, he has been sleeping on a friend's sofa.
 
Mark Cloherty is head of the Boaz Trust, a local charity that helps refused asylum seekers. Since Narrowgate closed some of the people his organisation works with have been forced to sleep rough. "It's had a big impact on us because our winter night shelter recently shut," he says. "We sent two people to Narrowgate unaware that it had closed and they were forced to sleep on the streets that night."
 
135 organisations across the city have referred 2,200 people to Narrowgate for emergency overnight help, of which 865 people have been found permanent accommodation. For Graham Ridge, a support worker at Manchester-based homeless charity Barnabus, the current situation with Narrowgate — which was the only night shelter in Manchester and Salford, following the closure of the Salvation Army hostel in 2011 — has had a "drastic" impact on the city's young homeless population.
 
"Narrowgate was particularly important for under 35s, as we can't get them in emergency B&Bs for this group due to housing benefit restrictions," he says, adding that he has spoken to a few individuals who have been forced onto the streets since the closure of the shelter.
 
"There's one lad who I'm trying to get into supported accommodation. He's been accepted, but there are no vacancies at the moment and there may not be for a couple of weeks or so. So in the meantime he's obliged to sleep rough."
 
Those who sleep on the streets are vulnerable to being attacked. Ridge says the person who he was looking to get into supported accommodation came to his office on Tuesday and told him that his bag and personal papers had been stolen when he was sleeping rough.
 
In a statement, Phil Brown, the manager at Narrowgate, insisted that an emergency night shelter was desperately needed in Manchester and Salford and said that both he and Manchester City Missions, the charity which ran the service, are looking at alternative ways to fund the shelter.
 
He said: "As a faith-based Christian organisation, we do not undertake fundraising activities among the general public. However, if individuals, companies or organisations would like to explore ways of assisting us to provide emergency help and longer term hope for homeless people, I would be very happy to talk to you."
 
A spokesman from the charity Homeless Link said it was not yet clear how other local authorities would interpret the tribunal judgement over the Anglesey case, but warned of the danger if "services are forced to close without alternative emergency accommodation in place".
 
The spokesman said: "It is not yet clear how the tribunal judgement will be interpreted across the country but there appears to be some confusion. Currently decisions are dependent on interpretation locally, and we know of several councils that appear to be interpreting differently the recent ruling in Anglesey.
 
"The danger is if withdrawal of housing benefit happens, and services are forced to close without alternative emergency accommodation in place, this could result in people sleeping rough. These services are sometimes the only form of emergency accommodation for homeless people and their loss can have a significant impact."