Will there be a police visit tonight?

Yesterday morning the Whitechapel Mission became the scene of five different fights – all of them in the space of a half an hour. The first was between two women; the second between two Poles. We didn’t see number three, four or five because Declan thought it more appropriate to drink our coffee outside the building. A homeless guy that left the establishment by the back door fed us the news.

The eventful breakfast finished with the arrival of the police – we did see that bit – after apparently somebody got head butted. This morning another fight was averted after one homeless guy manhandled a troublemaker out of the mission, the floor staff happy to remain in the kitchen. The troublemaker later turned up in the Dellow Centre to be promptly shown the front gate by the cook … the Sisters of Mercy don’t tolerate aggressive behaviour even if they themselves are infamous for it.

In relation to the fights that took place yesterday in the Whitechapel Mission, one of the workers who was unable to establish order was in his element when a half an hour earlier he gave me one of the smallest towels he had and a sachet of conditioner instead of the shampoo I asked for.

Anyway, we don’t know if there were more fights in the mission this morning because we left at 7.30am for the Dellow Centre so we could do a laundry. Although the Dellow Centre starts letting people in after 9.15am, if we don’t stand outside their gates well before 8.00am we run the risk there will be no washing machines left … that didn’t happen at the beginning though.

With this arrangement we only do one laundry a week. You would think that one laundry involving one dryer is a pretty straight forward business: you press one button and then another until the clothes are dry. Not in the Dellow Centre. Last Monday, the worker in charge of laundry wanted Declan to take our clothes out of the dryer despite the fact that they were not dry, and when Declan wouldn’t do that we returned to discover that the dryer had been turned off unknown to us … this morning Declan stood beside the dryer the whole time, although the same worker didn’t seem too happy about it.

In relation to me and the Dellow Centre, well it is more or less the usual, except that now I have to also deal with some women that are coming from the women’s hostel down the road from the centre. At 9.15am one of them almost ran over me, she was that desperate to enter the building before me, despite that I had been there for an hour and 15 minutes before her. Then in the women’s toilet, they took turns showering in the only shower available – why would they do that when they have showers available in their hostel? I was actually lucky to sneak a quick shower almost at the last moment. Like the men’s Booth House, this hostel is also run by the Salvation Army for those who are in receipt of benefits, which we are not. But even if it was free, after my experience with some of these women, they would have to bring me in a straightjacket for me to even put my foot in it.

In the past when the Dellow Centre and the Whitechapel Mission were going at us that extra mile it usually meant that the Metropolitan Police would pay us a visit at night – they have visited our patch in Whitechapel four times so far. I mean we are the ideal homeless: we don’t drink or smoke; we leave the porch we sleep in clean; and we leave at 5.30am. What reason have the police to harass us?

Has a Lord Justice ruled?

Declan eventually got the two Westminster vendor jackets from the Big Issue head office yesterday – after three visits to the office to sort it all out. It means that we can now sell The Big Issue in the City of Westminster after 6.00pm. We might as well, because after the difficulties we ran into last weekend with pitches in Covent Garden, not to mention our loss of earnings yesterday, we have been hit financially.

To receive letters from the Royal Court of Justice, Declan has the Whitechapel Mission as a care of address. However, since last Monday there has been no listing for post received by the mission for the homeless appearing on the monitor installed in the breakfast area. Monday and Tuesday Declan had to return to the mission mid-morning, to be told through the intercom that there was no post for him. Yesterday, because Declan was in and out of the Big Issue head office well into the afternoon, he had to phone instead. And all he repeatedly got was a voice mail.

This morning he established with a member of staff that all post is sorted for certain by 1.00pm and that he should phone after that time – he still could get a voice mail, nothing he can do about that – and if he has post he has until 3.30pm to collect it. So if he is selling The Big Issue at his pitch in Liverpool Street and there is post for him in the Whitechapel Mission, he will have to pack his bags and, in the heart of London’s traffic, take a bus to the mission to collect his post. The thing is he has no choice in the matter, especially now that he is waiting for a Lord Justice in the Court of Appeal to rule on whether or not we can appeal Judge Walker’s decision of 11 December to deny us permission to apply for a judicial review against the Department for Work and Pensions. Perhaps he has been called to a hearing to determine the matter, and we don’t know.

On Monday also, Declan found out that three of the four sink stoppers in the men’s toilet in the mission had been removed. All the homeless now use bits of toilet paper in an attempt to contain water – how do you shave otherwise? More than once, Declan has walked into sinks full of dirty water with clumps of toilet paper strewn everywhere. Declan wanted to buy a stopper for himself – he even had the one remaining stopper measured up – but he was told this morning by a member of staff that he couldn’t and that they would fit stoppers when they can. I have seen one homeless guy shave himself in the breakfast area in one of their foam cups for the coffee.

This morning also, while I was in the women’s toilet in the mission at 6.10am (we now wake up at 5.15am), a homeless woman came in. Without minding that I had my mouth full of toothpaste, she wanted me to give her something of mine – I assume some of my toiletry. She was so pushy and aggressive that I went into one of the toilets and locked the door – toothpaste and all.

This is not the first time I have ran into a homeless woman, or to better clarify, a homeless woman has ran into me. A few weeks back another homeless woman hassled me while we were both queuing outside the Dellow Centre after I wouldn’t get into conversation with her.