Croydon charity chief Jad Adams is to be the voice of London on homelessness for the period of the Mayoral election campaign.
Jad Adams: wil be quizzing Mayoral candidates on homelessness
Adams, who is the chair of the Croydon-based charity Nightwatch, is part of a panel that the radio station LBC is launching to challenge the policies of the various candidates on major issues.
The panel will be asked to comment on policies the mayoral hopefuls put forward in their specialist areas in the run-up to the May 5 election.
Boris Johnson, when seeking election as London Mayor in 2008, made a pledge to eradicate rough sleeping in the capital by 2012, but recent reports suggest that the levels of homelessness has increased over the past eight years.
Certainly, figures compiled by Nightwatch suggest that in Croydon, there are more people sleeping rough than at any time in the charity’s 40-year history.
“I have volunteered with Nightwatch for more than 30 years so I have seen great changes,” Adams said. “Poverty is a curse but things have been better and can be better again. I am glad of this chance to hold the politicians to account on this issue which is one of the most important facing the capital.”
Adams is also known as a writer of history, specialising in radicals and nationalists. His latest book, Women and the Vote: A World History, which looks at the way women got the vote in different countries, is published next month.
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