'Heated' debate over tackling rough sleepers in Portsmouth

By Fiona Callingham, Local Democracy Reporting Service

Rough sleepers in Portsmouth could still be fined for acts of anti-social behaviour despite calls for the system to change during a ‘heated’ debate.

City councillors were reminded by Lord Mayor Cllr Rob Wood to be courteous to each other as a discussion on the treatment of homeless people saw tempers flare at a virtual full council meeting this week.

Labour member Cllr Cal Corkery brought forward a motion asking for rough sleepers to be exempt from fixed penalty notices after one couple were charged £100 each earlier this year.

As reported in The News, Roy Ransom and his partner Tamsin Jones, who sleep in the doorway of Ann Summers in Commercial Road, were issued fines under the anti-social behaviour, crime and policing act.

Speaking at the meeting Cllr Corkery said: ‘We are punishing people we are supposed to be helping. Realistically these fines are never going to be paid. I am calling for this policy to end here today.’

Progressive Portsmouth People group leader, Cllr Claire Udy, agreed. She said: ‘What is the point in fining people when they can’t pay?’

She added: ‘Fining people for doing drugs is a form of criminalising addiction and doesn’t help out.’

But Cllr Darren Sanders, the council’s housing and preventing homelessness boss, explained the notices are issued only as a way to deter anti-social behaviour. He said: ‘We do not have a policy of fining people for being homeless.

‘We have helped about 900 rough sleepers in the last two years and just six of them have received fixed penalty notices. We do that to try to change their behaviours. None of them have been paid.

‘Of them two have changed their behaviour, one has gone to rehab, the fourth was different because they went to prison. Two remain outstanding.

‘We could have two people taking drugs in public and one is a rough sleeper and one is not. What this then says is you should fine one who doesn’t sleep rough but not the other.’

It comes after the council was awarded a government grant of £4.6m to secure ‘move on’ accommodation for the homeless as well as provide support with housing and finding work as part of a three-year strategy.

Deputy council leader Cllr Steve Pitt added: ‘Does the Labour Party really think the government would have awarded us the sixth highest amount in the country if we had draconian policies?

‘Sometimes in the most extreme situations we do need to do something to get a wake up call to someone. It’s not about recovering £100 – we are not chasing them for the money.’

Councillors voted in favour of a Lib Dem amendment to Cllr Corkery’s motion which included working more closely with the police to try to minimise prosecutions of homeless people.