With the uncaring and callous approach to Croydon’s homeless by our council being highlighted by the BBC for a second time in the space of a couple of months, this time on Panorama, it is unsurprising that churches and faith groups are seeking to take more charitable action.
Jesus’s birth in a manger, a 2,000-year-old story of inadequate temporary housing coinciding with ill-considered public policy, is a tale for our times as Thursday night’s Panorama well demonstrated. The programme is available on iPlayer until Wednesday. If you missed the BBC1 transmission, we recommend that you take time out to view it now.
The previous expose of Croydon Council breaking the law over the way it deals with homeless families has had sickening consequences. Croydon appears to have its very own Herod figure in senior councillor Dudley Mead, who expressed satisfaction publicly in the turfing on to the streets two young mothers and their small children after they dared to express their dissatisfaction with the accommodation that they had been given to Newsnight.
Responding at short notice, Croydon Churches Forum, who seasonally provide some food and shelter to rough sleepers, are also going to try to stage a Christmas celebration for those housed in Gilroy Court, the temporary housing criticised in the Newsnight programme.
Croydon Churches are looking to serve a pre-Christmas dinner to 200 residents on Friday December 21 and are looking for food donations like turkeys, sprouts, potatoes and mince pies as well as Christmas crackers and decorations.
- Croydon Churches Forum can be reached at Praise House, 141-151 London Road, info@croydonchurch.org.uk and 020 8649 5673.
- Inside Croydon: For comment and analysis about Croydon, from inside Croydon
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