Proposed Order will ‘create a hostile environment for homeless people’ in Manchester city centre says open letter to the council

Manchester City Council will meet tomorrow to discuss the introduction of a controversial Public Space Protection Order. Fifty eight signatories to an open letter are calling on the council to oppose the proposal, which they claim will be severely detrimental to homeless people within the city centre. An open letter addressed to Manchester City Council […]

Review: Videodrome at HOME Manchester

David Cronenberg’s 1983 sci-fi thriller Videodrome was screened last Tuesday 6 August at Manchester’s HOME cinema. Starring Debbie Harry in one of her first acting roles, the film was presented as part of their Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film programme. HOME’s screening of Videodrome began with Ellen Smith, one of the cinema’s Ushers and […]

Rough sleeping increases 34% across Manchester in a year

Despite the well publicised efforts of the Greater Manchester mayor and Manchester City Council to reduce rough sleeping, the Manchester street count in 2018 has seen a 34% rise compared to 2017. The street count is a single night snapshot, carried out between 1 October and 30 November, of people sleeping rough in a local […]

At least 449 people died while homeless in the UK, over the last twelve months

As homelessness and the misery it entails increases across the United Kingdom, a collaboration by local journalists, charities and outreach groups has for the first time recorded the numbers of homeless deaths over a year. A figure which national and local authorities scandalously fail to calculate, collate and publish, despite the growing homelessness crisis. The […]

Burnham’s battle to end rough sleeping by 2020 – can he do it?

Andy Burnham’s pledge to end rough sleeping by 2020 played a large part in the campaign which saw him become the Mayor of Greater Manchester ten months ago. Burnham inherited a growing homelessness and housing crisis which has seen the level of rough sleeping rise 13-fold in Manchester since 2010, with the problem escalating quicker […]