The number of beds available in Cambridge’s homeless shelters is set to fall this year, as the problem of homelessness continues to worsen in the city.

Jimmy’s Night Shelter, situated just off Parker’s Piece in the centre of the city, which funds much of its operation through donations, is set to lose 11 of its 31 beds.
Similarly, 222 Victoria Road is also set to reduce its complement of beds by 17, as part of a strategy of providing better support to fewer ‘clients’. The restructuring will involve the 74-person hostel closing its doors for 11 months this September, with no plans afoot for the provision of alternative beds elsewhere whilst the redevelopment continues.

It has been suggested that as a solution to the problem disused pubs could be requisitioned for use as shelters. This idea has, however, been criticised by one councillor, Catherine Smart, on the grounds that they could ‘attract people from outside to come to Cambridge’, filling up the Cambridge shelters with people not from the city.

Currently the policy of the Council is to refuse help to those who have not lived in the area for at least six months of the last year, in order to avoid depriving the homeless of Cambridge from the already limited shelter spaces available in the city.

Tensions between local government cutbacks and the growing dearth of, and demand for housing are emerging across the UK. In Westminster, a proposed cap in housing benefit may make rents prohibitively high for over 2000 families in Cambridge this year; nationwide, this figure leaps to 800,000.

In an example of resistance to housing cuts, activists from Lewisham People Before Profit are currently occupying and renovating some of the council’s 2000 unused houses for use as shelters.

The number of people sleeping rough is also increasing: government figures suggest a 23% increase, while a report by the homeless charity Broadway revealed that in 2010, 60% of rough sleepers in London were ‘new to the streets’.
This problem is one that is set to become an issue in Cambridge as well, with the situation faced by homeless people in the city seemingly likely to deteriorate significantly. A local police consultation warns that “the numbers of rough sleepers in Cambridge is increasing and that this has had an aggravating impact on anti-social behaviour. This situation is likely to deteriorate as the spring and summer approaches”.

A teenager was recently convicted of the murder of homeless man Raymond Boyle in an unprovoked attack last June, with one homeless Cambridge man warning local news of a spate of ‘dosser-bashing gangs’ which attack the city’s homeless.
Aggression is far from the only danger faced by homeless people in Cambridge: the body of 40-year old Sean Murray was found in a church doorway after he had frozen to death during the cold weather of early February.