St Mungo's

[loopyloo7]

I'm sorry to pinpoint it but I live on HGL near the Gallery and the shops and am becoming very tired at having to give wide berth to the 'residents' of St Ms who are staggering along the pavement, falling over, being abusive, swearing etc all the while laden with cans of lager just bought. St Mungo's may have been updated for its clients but I am not happy that the quality of life in this nice area has been sacrificed for it. Is there any way of making ourselves heard?

[hudsonus]

Totally agree.

fed up with having to steer my child around drunks drinking in the side streets or simply having fights/begging outside the CO-OP.

St Mungo's seems to accept no responsibility for their clients once off-site.

Something needs to be done but nothing will until a incident happens.

[Helena]

Perhaps if you all emailed them from their website?
www.mungos.org

If enough people do so, they will have have to address the situation. I imagine.

[racheps]

The homeless people don't have anywhere else to go during the day, and so loiter around Hither Green so that they are close to St Mungo's for their beds. I assume they don't have much money, and what little they do have goes on beer....so unless St Mungo's have funds to give them something interesting to keep them occupied during the day, I don't see this problem going away. I didn't know about HIther Green's St Mungo's before moving to the area, but there is one very close to my office in central London, and the nearby park has become a playground for junkies by the looks of things. They haven't caused any trouble, as far as I have seen (other than begging outside Euston Station), and generally keep themselves to themselves, however the Hither Green "clients" tend to roam the streets with their beer cans, and loiter outside properties, which does lead me to worry slightly what they might be getting up to.
It might be worth visiting St Mungo's and speaking to the staff directly about concerns. Perhaps a group of us could go together? It's easy to put complaints in an email, but I think we'd get further with a face-to-face conversation.

Rachel

[DiFish]

Rachel's reply seems to suggest a more constructive approach than bombarding the hostel with emails. I seem to recall the hostel had an open day a while back, so I would assume they are receptive to engagement with their neighbours. However, are you sure that these people causing problems are actually from St Mungo's? I appreciate the coincidence of the hostel being round the corner and so on, but we are in Lewisham after all, which is one of the poorest boroughs in London, so it is possible that the problems referred to in earlier posts may not emanate from the hostel at all. I have noticed a fair bit of St Mungo's bashing on this forum and while I understand concerns about crime and anti social behaviour it is not fair to blame all of HG's problems on the hostel without real proof. Personally, I have no issues with the hostel being in my neighbourhood - better that people are supported when they find themselves in difficult circumstances than cast out.

[Helena]

The homeless people don't have anywhere else to go during the day

According to this press release, the Spring Gardens centre..
"has a main dining room, a laundry and a purpose-built medical room for health visits by GPs, nurses or other health professionals. There are IT areas and a library, with meeting rooms for activities from education and training programmes to well-being or work-related skills courses. St Mungo's is hoping to work with Lewisham College, and make use of the large garden for programmes based around gardening skills."

Rachel's reply seems to suggest a more constructive approach than bombarding the hostel with emails..

The St Mungo's site is not this particular hostel; it's the website for all the 'branches' in London ie central hub. Any change in what's happening in the one in Hither Green will have to come from central hub, I should think.

[biccy]

The latest Lewisham Central Safer Neighbourhood Team newsletter has an item that may be of interest.

On Wed 30 June (12:00 - 13:00) the SNT are holding a Drop-In surgery at Bellway Tower, Devignes Drive, London, SE13.

Contacts for Lewisham Central SNT
020 8721 2481
LewishamCentral.SNT@met.police.uk

Drug using/dealing - Hither Green

Lewisham Central SNT have joined forces with the St Mungos’ Project at Arlington Close, Hither Green. The local community have complained about the drink and drug habits of project residents.

A neighbourhood watch scheme and an open day was organised at the project where people could see what the project was aiming to achieve, have a look at the facilities, and speak
with members from Lewisham Central SNT.

A group, with members from the community, including the project and Police has been set up. They meet regularly to discuss and solve local problems. Sergeant David Laurie said: “The links between the St Mungos’ project, the Hither Green residents and our SNT are
crucial to improving relationships and understanding between different people in the community.”

[jo-jo]

Sergeant Dave Laurie has asked me to post this response on his behalf :-
"Lewisham Central Safer Neighbourhoods Team is commited to policing our ward area. We have recently created the Hither Green Business panel that convenes bi-monthly to discuss local issues and work towards actions to tackle them. The St Mungo's projcet at Arlington Close plays an active and positive role within the panel.
The St Mungo's Project is at the forefront of discussions, where the behaviour of some of the residents from the projcet has been deemed unacceptable. Positive action has been taken to remedy identified issues, including drunkenness and aggressive behaviour along Hither Green Lane.
A Hither Green Lane Traders Responsible Retailers Agreement is being written up between Lewisham Council, local Police and businesses. We will be asking retailers not to sell alcohol to identified people, in an attempt to reduce the level of people congregating in and around businesses on Hither Green Lane. Lewisham central SNT are targeting identified aggressive behaviour on Hither Green Lane, taking positive action when applicable and necessary."

On a personal note as Chair of the SNT Panel I would also like to confirm the Teams' commitment to the action detailed above. Please also note the dates of the drop in surgeries that I posted previously, these surgeries are where you can meet with your Team and raise exactly these sort of concerns.

[StMungos]

Hi,

I’m concerned that you have experienced anti social behaviour in the vicinity of our Spring Gardens Hostel and that our clients could be involved in this. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that a huge percentage of our clients have drug or alcohol needs and we know that behaviour associated with this, such as street drinking, can cause nuisance in the local area. That said we work closely with the police and local neighbour groups such as the Hither Green Assoc to ensure our people are not causing nuisance in the neighbourhood, we also provide a comfortable environment and a range of activities on site so our residents don’t have to drink on the streets. I understand from the Neighbourhood Watch Meeting that there have been instances of antisocial behaviour on Hither Green Lane, specifically people shouting insults at each other, drinking in the street and an increase in drug dealing around the Coop.

The police are clear that much of this activity is caused by a huge increase in people with drug and alcohol issues living in large, unstaffed shared houses around Hither Green lane. However we know that a few of our people contribute to the nuisance on their way to or from the shops particularly if they’ve been drinking. We are working hard to limit this by increasing our patrols of the locality and inviting the police and local residents to identify people causing a nuisance.

While we don’t have any powers to stop people drinking on the street, this is purely a policing issue; we can deal with perpetrators who live in St Mungo’s through raising their awareness of neighbourhood issues, reminding them of the responsibilities in their licence agreement and transferring repeat offenders to another hostel. We welcome any feedback, complaints or information from local residents. To this end we host a monthly neighbourhood meeting at Spring Gardens, attended by the police and Lewisham Council, the next meeting is 20th July at 7pm, all local residents are welcome. In the meantime if you have any issues please feel free to call or e-mail the management team (El, Iain or Vicky) on 020 8297 5930

Best wishes,

Alan D’Arcy,
Area Manager

[JFMZS]

I'm so glad this thread has been put up - the issues raised have been bothering me too but I didn't know if I was just being a bit mean spirited.

I've noticed the issues on Hither Green Lane and I also had an issue a couple of months ago at the top end of Ennersdale Road where I go hassled quite aggresively by a couple who asked me for money. It wasn't a big thing (they were quite drunk and a bit unsteady on their feet so I was able to just keep walking) but it has made me reluctant to walk that way in the future which is really not great.

I recognise that this could be nothing to do with the hostel but it felt like too much of a coincidence and there also seems to be a bit of culture of accepting this kind of low level stuff in the immediate vicinty.

I really welcome the fact that the SNT and the hostel have come on here and the steps that they are both taking so I hope it' gets better. The hostels policy of reminding peope of their obligations sounds about right but I guess it all comes down to what happens if they don't meet them.

I will definately try and get involved in the open days and local police meetings (shame the next one is in the middle of the working week) as I guess that is probably the best way of trying to do something positive.

[loopyloo7]

I would like to go to the 20th July mtg at St Mungos - anyone else? Let me know - lucy

[rodders]

I live in St Swithuns road and recently had a leaflet through my letter box from St Mungos about hostel residents cutting through St Swithuns Road properties to get back into the hostel. I remember the advice being to either contact the police or speak to a hostel manager. Luckily we have not experienced this but would certainly not appreciate it if hostel residents cut through our property and climbed over the back fence.

[Bruce]

8.30 am.....I've just been to the dry cleaners and was approached and asked to go and buy a can of Skol from the off licence next door. This kind of experience has become the norm on Hither Green Lane and we should not have to put up with it. With positive developments like the Art Gallery and Mizen cafe and bakery opening it is essential a plan is devised to clean the street up. I'm going to the meeting on the 20th and I recommend others do too.

[biccy]

As has been pointed out unfortunately St. Mungo's is not the only project in the area.

I'm aware of residents from a property on Hither Green Lane who seem to spend their time yelling across the street and buying drink from one of the shops.

At a meeting some years ago it was pointed out there were at least 10 hostels of various types on Hither Green Lane.

There are also a number of hostels off of Hither Green Lane, many of the hostels are unsupervised.

As I understand it these hostels have been set up by a variety of charities, local councils, housing associations and private companies.

I think the numbers are too great to be absorbed by the community and the legal authorities to deal with.

The problem stretches from Hither Green Lane through to Lewisham High Street where many drinkers daily congregate outside the addiction centre.

Maybe our councillors could also organise a meeting with all the stakeholders concerned?

[Bruce]

Someone at local government level needs to take charge of the situation that's for sure. Is there someone at the council who is responsible for this type of ad hoc hostel accommodation?