Hundreds of former rough sleepers will return to the streets after hotel evictions

By Owen Sheppard, local democracy reporter

A former rough sleeper who was put in a hotel during the first lockdown said he will resort to sleeping on night buses, as he and hundreds more face eviction.

The precise number of people whose accommodation will end by April 1 is unclear, although the Greater London Authority has funded 800 hotel rooms during this lockdown and many councils have been running similar schemes.

Paul Atherton, 53, has been in a hotel in Marylebone paid for by Westminster Council since April 2020, when the Government launched its Everyone In initiative, which saw rough sleepers given shelter with no strings attached.

Mr Atherton, who suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), managed to avoid being evicted late in 2020 with the help of lawyers paid for using legal aid.

A year on, and unable to work due to his condition, he now faces returning to life on the streets.

“I have no idea what I’ll be doing in a month’s time,” said Mr Atherton, originally from south Wales, and who writes plays and previously made films.

“Night buses are still running although I don’t know how difficult drivers will be in this situation. It’s an hour and a half journey on an N9 bus to Heathrow and then you get it back again. “The possessions I have are my wheelchair and some clothes.

Some possessions from my old flat are in storage, but I’ve been told the rent will double in April so I’ll have to move all of that out and I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Westminster Council said Mr Atherton had been unwilling to work with housing officers.

“Communication has been made to inform of the council’s decision, and to highlight that the temporary accommodation service will need to come to an end,” a spokesperson said.

Mr Atherton says he has been told he has to be out of the accommodation by March 31 but the council has said it has extended this until April 31 – though Mr Atherton says he hasn’t been made aware of this so far.

Mr Atherton said he became homeless in 2009, from an apartment beside Waterloo Bridge, when an administrative error made on his credit file prevented him from renewing his tenancy. Before the pandemic he regularly took shelter in Heathrow’s Terminal Five.

Until October last year he was receiving Employment Support Allowance and now receives Personal Independence Payments only.

Describing the first three months after he and other rough sleepers were placed in the hotel, he said: “It changed my whole world overnight. I could eat three times a day and exercise regularly which meant my crashes [caused by CFS ] stopped.

“I had a bed to sleep in after I hadn’t really slept lying down for so long. My whole body and mental state improved tenfold. I knew it wouldn’t last but I wanted to take advantage of everything I could.

“Now that I’m going back out into the unknown. I don’t know if I’ll be sleeping on buses and when you have the threat of eviction over your head you lose it all again.”

Neil Parkinson of the London homeless charity Glass Door said high numbers of homeless people facing eviction won’t be able to claim benefits due to their immigration status.

“Many of them are legally able to work here and are desperate to do so, but with the employment situation dire, people who only have work as a route out of homelessness are facing a huge uphill challenge right now,” he said.

“It has become clear that we will need to confront the issue of how we support people – many of whom are here in this country legally – but are not able to access support when they need it most. Ignoring these people when they become homeless will not make the problem go away.”

Mr Atherton said he believes the great thing about the Government’s Everyone In scheme during the first lockdown was that it helped people regardless of their circumstances.

“It got everyone in by getting rid of all the bureaucracy involved with deciding who should be given help and who shouldn’t. In fact it demonstrated how it should happen. There’s plenty of accommodation in London. There’s no reason not to keep doing Everyone In,” he said.