So much for community spirit □ /Yz8VF7Ryid The studs, conspicuously placed in a single area and not visible from the street, sent a clear message to the homeless people in the area.Īnti homeless floor studs. In 2014, owners of an apartment complex in London sparked an international outrage when they installed metal studs near the building’s entrance. In recent years, this type of “defensive architecture” has spread, prompting numerous discussions regarding the role of architecture in modern society. The goal is to force the homeless to leave an area by denying them a basic human comfort. Others have shallow, tilted seats, which allow a person to get comfortable-but not too comfortable. You might have seen benches in your own town with “armrests” that prevent tired citizens from laying down. In fact, many city planners choose designs that discourage loitering. It’s designed to be inconspicuous, but it has a devious purpose: Give tourists a place to catch their breath while sending the homeless on their way. Located in Japan, this particular installation is touted as an “anti-homeless” bench. The structure in question might look something like this. You start to get a bit angry: why would the city pay for such a shoddily designed bench?Īs it turns out, the city planners know exactly what they were doing. The sloped surface won’t hold you for long. You’re so comfortable that you almost drift off-and, in the process, you almost fall off of the bench. You sit down, catch your breath, and enjoy the fresh air. If passed, this crucial bill will help prevent people from becoming homeless, instead of being forced to live on the ever-more hostile streets.Picture this: You’re out for a walk in your local park, and you start to feel a bit tired.įortunately, you see that there’s a bench nearby. That’s why the Homelessness Reduction Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, is so urgently needed. “Helping people to stay off the streets and rebuild their lives is about basic social justice – it’s the right thing to do. People who are forced to sleep rough need access to the appropriate help, not to be regarded as a problem to be swept under the carpet. Councils, developers, businesses and other proponents of hostile architecture need to think again about the obvious harm these insidious measures are causing. Instead we need to acknowledge that it is rising and that we need to work together to end it. “We can all be guilty of adopting an out of sight, out of mind attitude when it comes to homelessness. Rough sleeping is devastating enough without homeless people having to endure such hostility from their surroundings. “The rise of anti-homeless spikes, noise pollution and other hostile measures is a sad indictment of how we treat the most vulnerable people in our society. Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: With temperatures plummeting and rough sleeping continuing to rise across the country, Crisis is calling on those designing homeless people out of public spaces to instead work with local services to help homeless people access the help they need. Some respondents reported being regularly moved on in the middle of the night, while 21% reported 'wetting down' - having makeshift sleeping areas washed down while they were still in them. When they did find a place to rest, a fifth (20%) of those surveyed reported suffering from deliberate noise pollution such as loud music or recorded bird song and traffic sounds, making it hard or impossible to sleep.Ī further 63% had witnessed an increase in wardens and security guards in public spaces. Over the same period, 35% reported they were unable to find anywhere to sleep or rest as a result. In new research conducted by Crisis over 450 people were surveyed in homelessness services across England and Wales, with six in ten reporting an increase over the last year in defensive architecture - such as anti-homeless spikes, curved or segregated benches and gated doorways - that makes sitting or lying down impossible. Homeless people are increasingly being forced out of public spaces by hostile measures such as spikes, curved or segregated benches and deliberate noise pollution. Crisis uncovers dehumanising effects of defensive architecture
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