Talk by Martin Wharton
We were taken back to the harsh winter of 1976 which had an adverse effect on everyone in the country who lived through it, especially the homeless. Of many sad tales appearing in the press at the time, an incident of a homeless man freezing to death on a park bench was reported in the Croydon Advertiser newspaper by a local journalist friend of Martin, David Randall. Concern for the homeless at the time spurred Martin and David to walk the local streets at night to observe the poor conditions experienced by rough sleepers, many spotted rooting through waste bins for food. Local authority support for the disadvantaged at that time was dependent upon the recipient having a permanent address and thus, no address, no help. The nightly walks to engage with the homeless engendered a further two articles in the same newspaper.
In his capacity at the time of Curate of Croydon Parish Church, Martin along with his partner in the venture to garner help, arranged a meeting in the church to discuss the problem, Attended by people of many different faiths and walks of life, the meeting led to the creation of Nightwatch, an independent organisation dedicated to supporting those in the area who for any reason were unable to help themselves. Twice-weekly night-time gatherings were arranged at which food and hot drinks were distributed, in the course of which a gentleman named Jock came to the fore as unofficial leader of the local vagrant community. Word spread and attendance grew quickly.
A particular case involving a lady in her late fifties named Kitty, whose overnight accommodation was a multi-story car park public lavatory cubicle, was recounted. A support visit was arranged and a bowl of chicken soup passed under the cubicle door, only to be pushed back out. After a few further attempts she was asked why she wouldn’t accept it and back came the reply “I’m a vegetarian” (!). Needless to say the menu was quickly amended and Nightwatch eventually managed to get her rehoused.
Another tale which highlighted one of the many different situations in which people find themselves on the street involved two teenagers aged 13 and 14, boy and girl. Temporary accommodation was offered but the girl was found to be a runaway and therefore returned to the address of her parents by Nightwatch volunteers. On arrival at an 11th floor flat and announcing ‘Mrs X, we have your daughter’, the response was ‘I don’t want her’…
Martin became aware of a group of men squatting in a large Edwardian Villa, among them a gentleman named Dennis who was a diabetic and regularly in and out of hospital for various reasons. Martin was subsequently to learn from a court inquest that sadly Dennis had died one morning aged only thirty.
Authority interest in providing support to the homeless gradually increased, and the Greater London Council eventually granted hostel status to the Nightwatch West Croydon base. On the 40th anniversary of Nightwatch’s creation the number of occupants had increased to around 100 and, in due course as the need for capacity increased, the responsibility for accommodation was passed in 1992 to the Croydon Churches Housing Association with Nightwatch continuing its street level activities.
Martin observed that in general the underlying causes of homelessness, including personal crisis, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness and depression, have not changed. Additionally, migrants now constitute one-fifth of the homeless population. Nightwatch is presently approaching it’s fiftieth birthday and is the largest volunteer organisation in Croydon.
Martin was sincerely thanked for his very moving and thought-proving talk by our newly incoming president Malcolm Eady. Malcolm himself will in due course be expanding on his own previous talk on our river Thames, to which we look forward.
Writers Postscript:
Homelessness is of course a nationwide issue and more prevalent in the larger built-up areas of towns and cities such as ours. Locally, reports of homeless people can be submitted either over the ‘phone or via email to the Spear organisation, which will undertake to send a representative to offer assistance. Spear was originally set up in Richmond in the late 1980’s and now operates an outreach service also covering the London Boroughs of Kingston, Wandsworth, Sutton and Merton.
Spear 0208 288 6506 – https://www.spearlondon.org/