Westminster council is threatening the future of a weekly soup kitchen in Charing Cross, piling costs and enforcement action onto volunteers who provide hot meals, clothes and sleeping bags to homeless people.
Friends of Essex & London Homeless (FOELH) has operated for a decade. Founded by Steven Stuart and his wife, Cheryl, the entirely volunteer-run charity also runs a food bank. Now, after repeated complaints from Westminster council, Stuart says its Charing Cross outreach could be forced to close.
The council has sent enforcement agents, police and security officers to the soup kitchen. It claims the operation causes noise, litter and unsafe crowds. Volunteers say they clear the site after every session.
Phil Jones, a FOELH volunteer, said: “We’ve received notice from the council that they intend to ban us from operating our weekly soup kitchen in Charing Cross. They cite litter issues but we clear away all waste and leave the area spotless, so that’s just an excuse from them.”
FOELH has been threatened with a £500 parking charge for the vehicle it uses to transport and distribute food. The council also demanded that the charity obtain a costly waste disposal licence.
“We questioned whether this was proportionate or appropriate for a small, entirely volunteer-run charity carrying out a weekly homeless outreach but, nevertheless, we have now obtained the certificate to ensure we are fully compliant,” Stuart said.
This is how class rule often works in practice. The authorities don’t need to announce a ban on feeding homeless people. They can smother a small charity with charges, licences, inspections and constantly changing requirements until its work becomes impossible.
Compliance hasn’t ended the pressure. According to Stuart, council officials have appeared on several occasions accompanied by groups of police and security officers.
“From our perspective, the scale and manner of these visits have at times felt intimidating and disproportionate given the nature of the work we are carrying out.”
There’s a clear class contrast here. When property owners, landlords and businesses defend their profits, the machinery of the state stands ready to assist them. When volunteers feed workers and unemployed people who have been pushed onto the streets, that same machinery arrives with enforcement notices and police.
As Marxists understand, the capitalist state isn’t a neutral referee floating above society. Its institutions are shaped around the defence of private property and the existing class order. In an area dominated by expensive property, tourism, government offices and business interests, homeless people are treated less as human beings than as an obstruction to commerce.
The council’s language makes this plain. A Westminster city council spokesperson said: “Soup kitchens can provide a valuable service but need to be carefully managed. Operators must treat vulnerable people with dignity and take care of the surrounding area.”
The spokesperson added: “At the moment we have several kitchens operating at the same time and place, leading to large crowds of the most vulnerable people gathering in a confined area.”
According to the council, these gatherings could attract drug dealers “looking to exploit the situation”. It also says residents have complained about “antisocial behaviour, littering and crime in Charing Cross while the soup kitchen is operating”.
“Currently, the site is not safe for those using the service or the general public,” the spokesperson said.
The council presents homeless people themselves as a public danger. Hunger, cold and insecurity disappear from view, replaced by talk of crowds, litter and crime. Even the supposed concern for “dignity” becomes an argument for disrupting the only regular support some people receive.
Drug dealers and other predators certainly do exploit vulnerable people. But vulnerability isn’t created by a plate of hot food. It’s produced by homelessness, poverty and the destruction of secure social provision. Breaking up a food queue doesn’t remove that vulnerability. It merely scatters people so their poverty is less visible.
Stuart has asked the council to issue permits assigning charities particular days and locations. That would at least prevent volunteer groups from being “blind-sided” by new demands. Yet even this modest request shows the unequal position of the two sides: volunteers must continually prove their right to feed hungry people, while the authorities reserve the power to move them on.
Homelessness isn’t an accidental blemish on an otherwise successful system. Capitalism turns housing into an investment and a source of rent. Those who can’t pay are pushed aside. The constant threat of unemployment, eviction and destitution also disciplines the wider working class, reminding workers what can happen when wages disappear.
In the heart of an imperialist capital, the contradiction is especially stark. Enormous fortunes pass through London’s banks, property companies and luxury developments, much of that wealth drawn from the exploitation of workers at home and abroad. Yet providing a weekly meal to people sleeping rough is treated as a problem requiring licences, enforcement agents and police.
The Conservative council has already been taking part in a wider crackdown on homeless people. Its deputy leader, Caroline Sargent, said: “Local people and businesses are fed up with rough sleeping sites springing up, and so are we. This is totally unacceptable in the heart of a capital city.”
What she calls “totally unacceptable” isn’t the existence of homelessness amid immense wealth. It’s the appearance of homeless people in spaces claimed by business and property.
That’s the real offence in Westminster. Capital can live comfortably with poverty. What it can’t stand is poverty gathering in public, being fed in public and exposing the class system that produced it.
