Yesterday, the headlines and social media shouted about the official death of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, urging us all to applaud a supposed watershed moment for human rights. But out on the pavements, we aren’t popping champagne.
For decades, the demand from frontline groups, activists, and communities has been simple: stop treating homelessness as a crime and start treating it as a housing and healthcare emergency. Yet, instead of a shift toward compassion, what we are actually witnessing is a massive structural sleight of hand. The state is abandoning a blunt, 200-year-old Victorian relic only because it has built a far more sophisticated, modern, and insidious machinery to replace it.
Even the obvious timing of the repeal of the Vagrancy Act smacks of an increasingly desperate Starmer trying to claim some lacklustre legacy of success whilst ignoring the growing enforcement and criminalisation carried out in his own back yard of Camden.
The passing of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 isn’t a step forward—it is the modernisation of hostility. They have literally written into law that a person can be targeted for an “unacceptable smell” or “nuisance presence.” Think about how sick that is. You strip away public toilets, you shut down day centres, you deny people access to basic hygiene, and then you penalise them for the physical toll of surviving on the pavements.
Scrapping an old piece of paper means absolutely nothing when it’s immediately replaced by fast-tracked dispersal orders, civil Respect Orders, and the ongoing, daily theft of tents and sleeping bags by council enforcement teams. This is a system obsessed with erasing the visibility of poverty rather than solving the root causes of destitution.
The reality on the ground is that they haven’t decriminalised poverty; they’ve just updated the legal toolkit to sweep our neighbours out of sight. Anyone who doubts how far the state has gone only needs to look at the statutory framework. Under the “Nuisance Rough Sleeping” provisions originally codified in Part 4 of the Criminal Justice Bill (specifically Clauses 51 to 61)—which have now been weaponised on the ground through the 2026 enforcement powers—the legal definitions of a “nuisance” are laid bare in black and white:
- The ‘Nuisance and Smell’ Trap: Codifying cruelty by allowing enforcement teams to target people based on their appearance or how they smell. Under the definition clauses of Part 4, an officer can take action if they deem an individual “has an excessive smell, or is otherwise causing a nuisance by reason of their appearance or condition.” Punishing someone for smelling like the streets when they have been denied access to basic hygiene facilities isn’t just degrading—it’s a direct attack on human dignity.
- Civil-to-Criminal Trapdoors (Respect Orders): The 2026 Act introduces “Respect Orders.” They claim these are just civil matters, but if a rough sleeper breaches one by trying to sleep in a specific zone or begging, it instantly becomes a criminal offence. It’s a direct pipeline to a criminal record, unpayable fines, or prison.
- Weaponising Local PSPOs: Local councils are still using Public Spaces Protection Orders to bypass standard legal protections. They treat basic survival gear—like a tent or a sleeping bag—as “obstruction” or “litter.” If you don’t hand over your shelter, you get hit with a £100 fine you can’t pay, which then spirals into a £1,000 court fine.
- Dispersal Tactics: Expanded powers allow police to banish someone from an area for up to 48 hours under the guise of tackling “spatial trespass” near businesses. This doesn’t solve anything; it just forces people into darker, isolated, and far more dangerous spaces where outreach teams can’t find them or keep them safe.
Call to Action: We Need Solidarity, Not Silence
We refuse to let an institutional rebrand mask an ongoing war on the poor. If you are angry that survival is still being treated as a crime, we need you to stand with us and take action right now:
- Challenge Local Enforcement: Keep your eyes open on the streets. If you see council wardens, private security, or police harassing rough sleepers, moving people on, or confiscating tents and bedding, don’t just walk past. Document it, film it safely, challenge it, and let them know the community is watching.
- Pressure Your Local Councillors: Demand to know exactly how your local borough intends to use the Crime and Policing Act 2026 and existing PSPOs. Write to them today and demand a public commitment that they will completely reject the use of “Respect Orders” and punitive dispersal tactics against people with nowhere else to go.
- Get Involved: Grassroots outreach teams are often the last line of defence against this state-sanctioned displacement. Join us or other grassroot groups on our daily shifts, donate real survival gear, and help us maintain the vital lifelines and trust that these new laws are trying to tear down.
Homelessness is a systemic political failure, not a police matter or a public nuisance. We don’t need slicker, modern ways to clear the pavements to satisfy the demands of commercial landlords and urban developers.
Poverty demands compassion, permanent council housing, and genuine support—not a modernised police state. We will not celebrate a hollow victory while our community is still under attack. We will stay on the streets, we will keep organising, and we will continue to meet their hostility with absolute, unshakeable solidarity.
Homelessness should never be a crime, the fact it exists should be.
We need your urgent support to keep our services running!
