"The people of Salford never cease to amaze me, but the bastards in power amaze me too...How are they getting away with it?" Simon Williams
It's 10:30pm on the night before Christmas Eve and reports are coming into Coffee4Craig's HQ at Lancaster House that two young lads are sleeping rough in a bus shelter in Little Hulton...
"We're going to take the Coffe4Craig wagon and see if we can find them and help them" says Fie Lancaster, who co-founded the project in September last year.
She and fellow volunteer, Simon Williams, who got more than heavily involved after featuring the project on his radio show, head out into the driving rain to search for them and to hopefully bring them back to this makeshift night shelter where there's a roof, warmth, food and nine other homeless people sleeping on mattresses strewn across the floor.
Originally Positive Lifestyles which runs Lancaster House had donated an office and HQ for Coffee4Craig, but the office was soon cleared to make room for an emergency night shelter for people finding themselves homeless over Christmas. On the first night there were three guys in there, one of whom has since been found accommodation. Tonight there are nine with numbers growing every day.
"When you think no-one gives a shit, they came and helped us, they came with food, clothes, everything" says Daniel "If I wasn't here tonight I'd be on the streets..."
Salford people have been absolutely brilliant backing Coffee4Craig. Around four thousand tins of food and loads of other things have been donated from companies, shops and residents via schemes like the Five Tin Challenge* and Tin In A Bin which have enabled food parcels to be delivered to the city's needy and street food kitchens to be set up.
But Coffee4Craig is more than a festive goodwill gesture. Its help for the homeless runs all year, although the Christmas Salford night shelter closes on January 5th. And its volunteers are angry at the lack of action from authorities...
"I feel like it's part of a protest, part of a bigger picture because when we come to the end of this I'm going to really struggle to say to somebody `You're going to have to go back to where you were before'" says Fie "I think it's a culmination of all the agencies not working together, it's policies, it's procedures it's health and safety, EU guidelines, the Coalition Government, the Council, although not the front line council workers, I think they're dropped right in the shit...
"...It's the big charities like Shelter who throw millions in one direction, the smaller charities not getting enough support and the bigger ones getting too much...Who's not to blame?" she asks
"Coffee4Craig is a protest" she adds "We can dress it up as much as we like that we're not politically affiliated or religiously affiliated, and we're completely non-judgemental and we're open to all and we'll support anyone and work with anyone... but essentially we're doing something the Government doesn't want us to do so that's a protest isn't it?
"I'm an activist" she adds "We've got Bez as our patron, what more can I say? But this is saying `Wake up, this is 2014!'. I want to go into the Council office a week after we finish, with all our figures and everything that we've been able to achieve by just opening the door, and say to them `Look!'"
Salford officially has 14 people sleeping rough but Fie reckons it's probably above forty, based on the accounts of those she's spoken to on the streets. And the issue can only get worse as less and less social housing is available in the city.
In Pendleton over the last few months, affordable flats at places like Apple Tree and Pear Tree Court that could have easily accommodated all of the city's homeless have been bulldozed to make way for more expensive new properties as part of the Pendleton Together PFI scheme...
"It's all aimed at first time buyers, graduates, people who have prospects and jobs" Fie explains "It's the haves and have-nots now isn't it? There's a massive divide. I never believed a year ago that this is how far we'd slump, the numbers have increased massively."
And while Salford Council boasts about the city's new unaffordable housing in places like Chapel Street, Media City and Pendleton, not one single Salford councillor or MP, nor the Mayor, has even put their nose around the door of Lancaster House to see the incredible work that's going on, or to speak with the homeless blokes who have ended up here.
"They all want to talk on polling day, but come here and knock on this door now, come and have a cup of tea and spend some time with these and listen to their stories, find out what it's about" says Eddie Smyth, a joiner who voluntarily came down to fix the kitchen cupboards, realised there was no food in them and immediately decided to help.
The Tin In A Bin scheme, where dustbins to be filled with food are placed in pubs, shops and even in five wards at Salford Royal Hospital was his idea but Eddie and others are angry that the authorities don't seem to be helping and that ordinary people are having to deal with the fall-out of ConDem Government policies themselves.
In London yesterday, the Love Activists took over a former RBS Bank to open as a Christmas kitchen and shelter for the homeless before being forcibly evicted by the Met police. In Salford, Eddie noted a huge Council-run changing room building that is only used on Sunday mornings and could provide a homeless shelter for the rest of the week.
"There's changing facilities for 14 teams, it's closed all week and only opens for two hours on a Sunday morning, you could walk into that building tomorrow and put fifty blokes in there. It's a simple as putting a mattress on the floor, there's so many solutions but the Council doesn't seem to want to know."
Simon Williams is also scathing of the politicians...
"I got involved because I interviewed the Coffee4Craig people on my radio show and then went out with them and saw poverty on the streets" he recalls "I thought `It's time for people to wake up and address this issue', so I did the Five Tin Challenge for them and the ball started rolling. Salford got behind us and backed us. The people of Salford never cease to amaze me, but the bastards in power amaze me too...How are they getting away with it?"
It's not just the homeless who Coffee4Craig is helping this Christmas. It's also anyone who needs food to get by over the holidays. Earlier, Simon drove to Swinton to deliver a food parcel and hamper to an emotional Kathy who works forty hours a week and gets no in-work benefits. She's got a daughter at college and has £250 to last her until she next gets paid at the end of January.
"My wage just isn't covering it, I just scrape by on what I earn now" she explains "I can't afford Christmas. It's probably a pride thing that I go out to work and you feel that you should be able to stand on your own two feet but it really is impossible.
"You've got a job, you drive a car and people expect that you're doing ok" she adds "I'm probably one of the world's worst for putting on a smile. It's frustrating that I'm going out to work and finding myself in this position. I'm sure there are plenty of people like me who go out to work but can't make ends meet."
If Kathy's future is uncertain, for the moment she has a roof over her head. Those in the Lancaster House shelter have a roof only until 5th January and if the agencies can't sort them with accommodation after that, they're back on the streets.
"If I wasn't here I'd be living rough, in doorways, wherever I feel safe and warm basically" says Shaun who's been at the shelter for two nights "I would say it's the Government and councils fault for not putting in the effort for homeless people. One of the big issues is that because I'm a single man I'm not a priority. It is starting to get better for food but when it comes to getting places to sleep no-one else will take me on, and the places are all full. After this closes I don't know what will happen."
And Shaun's has his own Christmas message for councils, governments and agencies...
"Do more for the homeless and try and make these places last...put a roof over people's heads or they're going to die. Especially at this time of year, it's freezing..."
And Fie has her own message as she sets off for Little Hulton...
"We're all one race, the human race" she says "And the only time you should ever look down on someone is when you've got a hand out and you're helping them up..."
The Coffee4Craig night shelter is open at Lancaster House, Lancaster Road, Eccles until January 5th. Anyone is welcome to pop down and help out, have a chat or bring some food.
For further details and updates see the Coffee4Craig Facebook page click here and website click here
* See also previous Salford Star article on the Five Tin Challenge click here
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
