Reclaim Croydon Winter Shelter – An Act of Love

Last week the Resistance kitchen had the honour of visiting an amazing project – Reclaim Croydon’s Winter Shelter. Run entirely by dedicated volunteers, Reclaim Croydon’s Winter Shelter is an independent housing group that provides shelter to the street homeless over the winter. They do incredible work supporting the most vulnerable in our community.

Scandal of empty properties

According to the housing charity Shelter every 1 in every 25 homes in England is vacant, there are nearly 700,000 empty unused houses whilst at the same time there are over 309,000 homeless people in England. Croydon is amongst the top 5 worst for empty homes with 1,606 empty unused properties whilst 5,700 people in Croydon are homeless. If we could make use of those empty unused properties to house Croydon’s homeless, then all the homeless people in our borough would have a home.

This is essentially what Reclaim Croydon does. They focus on empty unused council property and reclaim them for the community to house rough sleepers.

Rough Sleepers

Due to austerity policies of successive governments, designed to squeeze the poor to fatten the rich, more and more people cannot afford the basics for survival and are being made homeless. The number of rough sleepers in London has shot up by 32% this year. According to the CHAIN database, commissioned by the mayor of London, there are 449 verified rough sleepers in Croydon. It is this most vulnerable group that Reclaim Croydon focus on.

Reclaiming and the law

This year they have reclaimed an abandoned children’s home owned by the council that has been vacant for 12 years. They have repaired the dilapidated building and converted it into living accommodation for rough sleepers to stay during the winter. Already they are housing 20 homeless people – 15 directly from the streets.

According to the law, squatting in empty commercial buildings is not illegal, but the council can get a court order to evict them. Croydon council is bankrupt, they can’t afford to house people, if they had any sense they would figure ways to productively work with Reclaim Croydon and support them, as essentially they are doing the councils work by housing rough sleepers. But this probably will not happen. The hope is that if the council does file for eviction, it could take several months. This will give enough time to shelter rough sleepers through the critical winter period.

Housing Asylum Seekers

We first came across Reclaim Croydon in April when we were campaigning with other migrant rights groups against the Rwanda Bill outside Luna House, the Home Office, from where asylum seekers were being abducted to detention centres for forced deportation to Rwanda.

We met several homeless asylum seekers, which the Home Office are legally obliged to house but have abandoned and are forced to live on the street, they came to us for help. For several hours we tried all the official avenues to get them a shelter, like the council and Salvation Army, but to no avail. Then someone suggested Reclaim Croydon, who immediately helped no questioned asked. We decided then that we wanted to work with this impressive organisation which was focused on practical solutions rather than bureaucracy.

At the time, their winter shelter was coming to an end, facing eviction, so we didn’t get the chance. But this winter they contacted us, and we jumped at the opportunity to work with them.

Homelessness and the Resistance Kitchen

Homelessness is central to our work. 48% of the people that we serve at our kitchen are homeless. 14% of which are rough sleepers. They have endured some of the most harrowing experiences living on the streets.

A lady in her mid 60s forced to sleep in a car for months after being evicted from her ‘council’ home, a person having to sleep on the night bus, another sleeping in A&E pretending to be waiting for his turn, one sleeping in someone’s garden shed, many in tents in the park – one unfortunate person who didn’t have a tent told us the foxes bother him through out the night.

But the biggest threat isn’t animals but fellow humans. Research from the charity Crisis shows that 1 in 3 rough sleepers have been physically attacked, 1 in 10 have been urinated on, and more than 1 in 20 have been sexually assaulted. Women are particularly vulnerable. A young homeless man who came to us seeking warm cloths for his girlfriend, told us that for her safety they pitch their tent on the flat roof of a commercial property. The number of women rough sleepers have increased this year by nearly 25%.

Systemic racism also plays a huge factor in homelessness. A 2022 report shows that black people are three times as likely to face homelessness as white people, 84% of our guests are non-white.

The Winter Shelter

We visited Reclaim Croydon’s winter shelter last week. The amount of work they have put into refurbishing the run down building, transforming it into a warm cosy living space for the most vulnerable in our community can only be described as an act of love.

A sticker on the front door affirms that refugees are welcome, as you enter you are greeted with an arty message on the wall “treat others how you would like to be treated”, which sums up the ethos of the shelter.

On another wall there is a volunteers rota to ensure two volunteers are present at all times to support the residents, and there is a to do list with items like fixing leaks, insulating pipes, and setting up a compost bin. They were installing an electric shower when we visited.

It was touching to see that whilst their focus is on the homeless, they are not oblivious to the injustices around the world. A hand drawn ‘free Palestine’ flag adorns the shelter, a testimony to their commitment to freedom and justice for the Palestinians people. Also next to it is the Romani flag with with words Opre Roma (Up Roma) – a reference to the national anthem of the persecuted Romani people.

In the entrance hall they have a “Free Shop” with donated cloths, sanitary products, and other items the residents can help themselves to.

In the kitchen, attached to the food cupboard is a list of recommended supermarket skips that they forage to recycle wasted food. Apart from Resistance Kitchen they receive food from a nearby church and from South Norwood Community Kitchen. The local community is appreciative of their work and is very supportive.

All the food is shared, they cook together and they eat together.

They have a great common area which has an old projector. Once they source a hdmi cable they will have movie nights.

Everything is about creating a friendly, caring, sharing community, which is very different from traditional shelters where inevitably a culture of giver and receiver divides people. Perhaps there are lessons in this for us at the Resistance Kitchen and the rest of the community.

It’s a great privilege for the Resistance Kitchen to support the winter shelter. We urge the community to support this fantastic initiative, their social media has information on how you can best support them.

Instagram: @reclaimcroydon

Email: reclaimcroydon@ptoton.me
Mobile: 07717107891