Spend any time in Cambridge and you will notice the increasing number of beggars and homeless on the streets. Earlier this month, Cambridge News published a story outlining that fake beggars are to be targeted by council enforcement officers. The story claimed that beggars who said they were homeless were making up to £250 a day by “preying” on those that are willing to give. Lynda Kilkenny, Cambridge City Council’s Safer Communities Manager, is quoted as telling members of the Safer Communities Partnership: “In fact it’s their day job to come into the city and do some begging, and they appear like they are sleeping rough but they are not sleeping rough.”

“I’m not saying there isn’t an increase in sleeping rough, there is as well, so we do need to do some enforcement.” 

The article goes on to report that, according to data released by Cambridgeshire police, four out of nine people arrested for begging were not homeless. The Cambridge Constabulary website is also quoted: “Contrary to popular perception, most people who beg are not homeless, and are using the money they receive to fuel a drug or alcohol addiction.”

“We’ve been working closely with Cambridge City Council, Peterborough City Council and a number of homelessness organisations in order to encourage those who beg to get help, but also to encourage members of the public to support these organisations rather than hand over spare change to those on the streets.

“Homelessness charities are in no doubt that money contributed by caring members of the public to people begging is, invariably, spent on heroin and crack cocaine, causing ill health, misery and sometimes death.”

Is it true that homelessness charities are indeed “in no doubt” about such a sweeping and sensationalist statement? Barry Griffiths, Communities Engagement Officer at Jimmy’s Night Shelter, responds: “Donating your money to professional services according to their alternative giving recommendation is not going to get the individual to access these services – it keeps the problem on the streets.”

“In terms of removing professional beggars you have to look at the causes of why they are on the street and tackle them head on.” These can range from austerity, the availability of housing and employment, mental health, domestic abuse, addiction or the money-making opportunity, as the Cambridge News article emphasises.

Mr Griffiths finds issue with the stigmatisation of beggars and the homeless within the article and the Constabulary’s website, as well as the prescriptive attitude put forward. “Part of the issue with what was said is that it infringes upon individual liberty – it is up to people what they spend their money on.” Addiction is a big problem for the homeless but one that deserves our empathy, not our judgement. Dealers target the vulnerable, who are willing to do anything to blot out the reality of living on the streets – which is unhealthy, dangerous and frightening – as well as to help them forget the reasons they are there. If beggars are going to spend your money on drugs or alcohol, your business is only to know that it went straight to the hand that desperately needed it. Are we as critical with where our charity donations go?

The Cambridge Constabulary recommendations could even lead to an increase in more severe crimes, when people are forced to steal in order to eat or to feed their addictions. It seems the Council’s focus is on getting beggars off the streets, whether or not it benefits them, and rather than treating the problems that put them there. It is sad that the Council is taking ‘action’ by targeting beggars and following them on CCTV (as the Cambridge News article reports) as opposed to tackling the wider societal issues.

Efforts to stigmatise the vulnerable, sad, addicted and sick who make up the homeless and begging population are equally sad. No-one is homeless because it’s easier and more lucrative than working. There is no point in berating people who use what they are given on addictions that make their lives tolerable if you are unwilling to work on the institutional change that leads to their unfortunate position. This kind of rhetoric stems from the reductive and unreasonable presumption that if beggars and homeless people didn’t get money they’d be ‘motivated’ to do something to make their lives better. 

The wider implications are that the homeless in Cambridge, who need help in winter more than at any other time, are being equated to lazy, professional beggars who do not deserve our money. The reported figure is that four out of nine arrested beggars aren’t homeless – which leaves five who are. Telling the public to shun people living on the street because they may have drug dependency issues is a highly dangerous discourse.