Residents' Association Forum

....whilst you were all tucked up in your warm beds last night spare a thought for the rough sleeper that I stumbled upon this morning at 6am that had bedded down for the night in the train tunnel along ash path - a shocking sight I never hoped I would see in TD!!

I'm really surprised, just in so much as, that isnt especially close to anything. Hope he or she is ok, how very sad.

They have been there months, maybe over a year. They normally sleep in the undergrowth. It was probably warmer under the bridge last night. Maybe the community support officers could offer some support/get a homelessness agency to offer support. Although I think its good that people are aware of situations like this, I do hope the individuals space is now not going to be invaded so that they have to move on.

Is Radnor House in East Molesey open for the homeless yet?  Maybe they would be able to help?  Just a thought.

Happy to report that, in pursuit of this thread,  Elmbridge Borough Council’s Housing Service writes in as follows:

“The Radnor House Winter Shelter is opening from Thursday 16 January and has planning consent to run until 31 March.  Excluding staff, it will normally accommodate up to five people, although in periods of severe weather, capacity will rise to eight.  Transform Housing & Support will manage the project and access will be via referral only, either through Elmbridge Borough Council’s Housing Service (e-mail housingoptions@elmbridge.gov.uk or tel: 01372 474590) or through Elmbridge Rentstart (e-mail: enquiries@elmbridgerentstart.org.uk or tel: 01372 477167).  Efforts will be made to locate the rough sleeper mentioned in the thread so that help can be offered, but should forum users come across him or her in the meantime and are willing or able to pass this information on, then that would be appreciated.

For future reference, the Government has funded an initiative called Streetlink which enables member of the public who are concerned about somebody who appears to be sleeping rough, to report it either online or by telephone and the details are then passed onto local services so that they can offer help.  More information can be found at: www.streetlink.org.uk.”

Excellent stuff re: Randor House winter shelter.

Threads like these put into perspective our 'problems' of traffic, parking, speed bumps, late trains etc