Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre deny us access to services

On Friday, the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre prevented Declan and I from accessing its services (no breakfast nor shower) and then, even more outrageously, refused Declan entry when he returned to ask for the name of the chief executive of the Providence Row Charity, of which the Dellow Centre is a part; a worker came out and dealt with Declan through the gates.

The reason we were denied access to the services, despite having queued for them, was simply because Declan refused to let staff fill in registration forms without us first familiarising ourselves with the questions that were being asked, particularly after Declan discovered that a member of staff had ticked, without my knowledge, that I didn’t require food or clothes from the establishment. And why were the staff so adamant to re-register us again anyway? Declan told them that our circumstances hadn’t changed one iota since we first registered with them at the beginning of November.

This banishment from the centre is of course at total variance with the information they provide on the internet. For example, in a report they did in 2003 (I could not find a more recent one), titled Between the street and a home, they state: “It [Dellow Centre] was opened in 1994 and since then it has helped anyone regardless of their housing circumstances.”

Outraged, not only did Declan write a registered letter to the Chief Executive of the Providence Row Charity, Steven Lee-Foster, but he will also be sending a copy of the letter by registered post to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Simon Bartley tomorrow. This is the letter:

Dear Mr Foster

Re:  Re-registration (and denial of access to services)

Further to the difficulties my wife and I experienced in relation to our re-registration (at your staffs’ request) at Providence Row on 13 April, I wish to confirm a) the imminent lodgement by introductory letter of my case against the UK with the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the termination of my joint claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance on 27 September 2006 (because I did not “sign on” two days before I was due to do so on 29 September 2006), and b) both my wife and I require food, clothing, laundry and showers from the Dellow Centre of the Providence Row Charity (as we have done since we became rough sleepers on 3 November 2006).

In reference to our banishment from the Dellow Centre on 13 April (after a member of staff ticked on my wife’s registration form, and without her knowledge, that she required neither food nor clothes from the Dellow Centre; and my subsequent insistence on our familiarisation with the form), I note the “History” page from the Providence Row Charity website states the following:

Everyone who seeks our help today can still use all our services free of charge, and we help anyone regardless of their religion, ethnicity or age.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

cc  Mr Simon Bartley, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Providence Row Charity (by registered post)

Simon Bartley is also the chairman of the Skills Commission – a steering body for the National Skills Forum and Associate Parliamentary Skills Group, consisting of a select group of key individuals with a stake in skills policy. The next time we are denied access to services at this centre, Declan is going straight with his complaint to its Patron, the Duke of Norfolk and the Charity Commission.

It just never finishes: last Wednesday Declan had to send a registered letter to the chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Big Issue Foundation (see previous blog), and two days later we are shown the door by the Dellow Centre. We even have to watch our back in the library Idea Store Whitechapel: yesterday I had to ask for my membership card back on two different occasions; on the first, the card had been conveniently placed under a metal box. Would I be safe in assuming that if we lost either of our two cards the library wouldn’t accept our care-of address, even though the Whitechapel Mission is just across the road?

As for the Big Issue, matters are far from resolved. Although Declan’s letter to the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Big Issue Foundation had the desired effect and we got our Covent Garden pitch back (for Tuesdays pm, Thursdays pm, and weekends), we were subsequently told that our two Liverpool Street pitches were “training pitches”. This too has now been resolved in our favour: after Declan wrote to the founder of the Big Issue for the fourth time, we were informed our Liverpool Street pitches are not in fact training pitches (and therefore we are not going to be taken off them in favour of trainee vendors). However, for the first time since we got our Liverpool Street pitches on 5 December, the outreach manager has now said that both pitches are free for other vendors after 6.00pm.

It just so happens 5.30pm to 7.30pm is the most profitable for us on these two pitches, especially as many passers-by have already seen us early in the morning and at lunch time. So, because we are extremely concerned Big Issue staff may turn both of these pitches into sharing pitches, we want to give up our Covent Garden pitch on weekdays – at the additional cost to Declan of the only two half-decent hot meals he has been getting a week (at St Martins for £2.10).

We are particularly wary of a sharing pitch because of our experiences with the Covent Garden pitch – shared not only by Declan and I, but another vendor who Declan has had some unsavory dealings, many reported in this blog. Did I say that we were never informed of the source of the unfounded allegation which resulted in us losing the pitch three weeks ago, despite that we had precedence on it?

Our sales strategy is to stay with our two Liverpool Street pitches Monday to Friday (no sharing, thank you) and just keep the Covent Garden pitch for Saturdays and Sundays (on weekends our Liverpool Street pitches die). How can the Big Issue complain?

Anyway, mindful of the Big Issue Code of Conduct wherein it states: “We will help you to maximise your sales by providing a quality magazine and an effective sales strategy”, Declan sent another email this afternoon to the outreach manager Paul Joseph, which he will also send by registered post to the founder of The Big Issue, Dr John Bird tomorrow. It reads:

Subject: Liverpool Street pitches

Dear Paul

Further to the telephone message I left on your voice-mail yesterday morning, I reconfirm receipt of your email of 13 April and again request a meeting to help my wife and I to maximise our sales.

In light of your letter of 11 April 2007 with pitch slips that restrict our Liverpool Street pitches to daytimes (for the first time since 5 December 2006), it is difficult to adequately answer your question as to how regularly we would like to work Covent Garden without a meeting to discuss an effective sales strategy.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

cc  Dr John Bird, Editor-In-Chief, The Big Issue (by registered post)

And finally the Whitechapel Mission. This morning while in the washroom a homeless woman comes in and, like other homeless women I am forced to meet in the washroom many mornings, she is adamant that I talk to her. But this time this particular woman is taking none of my usual ignoring tactics: she goes around me and in front of me, and kneels down with me when I kneel down for some toiletry from my bag. And when she realises that she is getting nowhere, she mounts an accelerating litany of abuse: I shouldn’t come to the mission to get free services and not talk to people; I must think I am better than everyone else; she is going to pray to Allah to send me to hell; she is going to tell Allah I am a bitch; and of course the usual f*** off a few times.

And then, after she challenges me to call management, who comes in but the manager. As I am putting on my coat and grabbing my bags – to get out as fast as possible – she is complaining to the manager about how horrible I have been to her!

Back in the canteen area, this same homeless woman threw a bowl of cornflakes and milk over some homeless guy’s head, and you should have heard a volunteer complaining to the manager that he had already cleaned this guy’s hair three times (with a table cloth) and that she had to go. But was she thrown out? Nope, ten minutes later she twice slapped a Pole across the face and almost caused a riot between four tables of Poles and two tables of Muslims. Eventually a volunteer grabbed her by the waist and carried her out the side door kicking and screaming. Not exactly “real time enforcement”.