City Of London: Operation Poncho

For almost a year now there has been a much under reported campaign of harassment and intimidation of homeless people by Police, Council Workers and the full compliance of Thameswater 'Homeless' Charity in the City Of London.

Basically Operation Poncho is a practice where homeless people are woken up and moved on as they attempt to sleep rough in London City. Areas where homeless People are believed to find a concrete bed are also purposely 'wetted' so as to deter people from sleeping there...

The recent tragic death of Ian Tomlinson in suspicious circumstances has highlighted the blatant Police disregard of peoples civil liberties. This attitude is not unique to 'protests', rather it is an everyday occurrence that is only highlighted when ordinary citizens demand answers to tragic events...

By attempting to smear Ian T as a 'homeless' person the true callous nature of the Guardians of 'Law and Order' and their media lackeys are revealed. For too long now 'Homeless' people have been marginalized, stigmatised and made powerless by the deaf ears that are employed to ignore their plight.

International Homeless Forum discusses the tactics employed by the homeless Charity Broadway, the Corporation of London and London Police in 'Operation Poncho,' an exercise that involves waking homeless people from their sleep (often at 2am), wetting down the area where they were sleeping (preventing them from going back to sleep), and intervention by the charity Broadway.

City of London Police: Operation Poncho

This is a multi-agency approach to reduce begging and vagrancy within the City of London by ensuring that those involved received support from drug and welfare agencies.

Wards involved:
Aldgate - Billingsgate - Bishopsgate - Bridge - Candlewick - Cornhill - Dowgate - Langbourn - Lime Street - Tower - Walbrook

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Guardian Report Sept 08
BBC report they 'found out' about it in March 09!

The Pavement magazine have been covering this for a while now
http://www.thepavement.org.uk/
a good little publication

I thought this sort of thing had been going on for years.

It has and Ken had some doing with it as well Red Ken tried or had ban charity groups from giving out food to people..

Granted 'this sort of thing' has been occurring for years now..
The co-ordinated 'operation Poncho' though has been in practice almost a year now.

It has and Ken had some doing with it as well Red Ken tried or had ban charity groups from giving out food to people..

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What a nasty cunt. Reminds of the Levellers song Cardboard Box City.

Merry Xmas...

The practice of 'hot-washing' by the City of London Corporation under Operation Poncho appears to have picked up steam once more - despite the recent fall in temperature.

Ignoring criticism from homeless charities and advocacy group, members of the Corporation's outreach team (run by the charity Broadway) and the police are still moving on rough sleepers in the evening and washing down the areas where they have been sleeping.

According to the City of London's website, Operation Poncho is designed "to reduce begging and vagrancy within the City of London by ensuring that those involved received support from drug and welfare agencies."

There is concern the teams may simply be forcing people elsewhere by washing down the areas they have been sleeping. Depending on police availability, they go out in the evenings between 9pm and 1am roughly once a week.

Alison Gelder, the director of Housing Justice, paid tribute to the work done by the City of London with housing homeless people, but said she worried about the potential to disrupt vulnerable rough sleepers' sleep.

"They've done some amazing work helping people who've been out for a long time. Helping people to find somewhere indoors to sleep is really good, but disrupting them when there's no service available doesn't seem to be an ethical practice."

She said she would be "dismayed" if the police and outreach teams were actively disrupting people's sleep.

Asked whether the washing down was simply to clean the area or to discourage people from sleeping there, Ms Gelder said: "I think it's got a dual purpose".

Another council which had been involved with hot-washing is Westminster; however, they said this was no longer the case. Ms Gelder confirmed that she had been out with a council team, and hot-washing was no longer taking place in the borough.

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