BEGGING could be rendered acceptable – as could tents on the streets – under the Homeless Bill of Rights, according to Labour and Conservative councillors.

Peter Atkinson and Mary Mears both spoke out as a Brighton and Hove City Council committee debated formally adopting the Homeless Bill of Rights.

A final decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the full council on Thursday May 25.

Councillor Atkinson told the council’s housing committee that, even though it was an aspirational document, some aspects worried him.

At a virtual meeting of the committee, he said: “It is aspirational. My concern is we need to be careful about legitimising begging or tents.

“It is such a universal document that it can’t mention the local requirements we have for offering people long-term accommodation.”

Conservative councillor Mary Mears said that her party had been happy with a housing committee report on the subject until a Green and Labour amendment looked to strengthen the status of the Homeless Bill of Rights.

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Councillor Mears said: “It’s really sad that this joint amendment has come forward from the coalition … when there is no need for it.

“There is a very clear recommendation in this housing paper to take it to council, where it needs to go constitutionally. I think you’re overstepping it now.

“You should have left it as it was and we could have had our conversation at council.”

She said that it was “bizarre” that the Housing Committee was hijacking the process which should be left to the full council.

Labour councillor Gill Williams said that the Homeless Bill of Rights had been “knocking around for a long time”.

It had been brought before the council by the Brighton and Hove Housing Coalition in 2018, with a petition supported by all three political parties – the Green, Labour and Conservatives.

Councillor Williams said: “It finally gets us to commit to it meaningfully and significantly. This is the important part of it.

“It finally gets us to show the world our commitment to the aspirations of the spirits enshrined within the Homeless Bill of Rights.

“It is very clear that it is an aspirational document that we should all be proud to sign up to and adopt.”

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Assistant housing director Martin Reid said that it was the standard that his department followed in its policies and practices.

Green councillor David Gibson said: “All the amendment does is make the recommendation clearer.

“The recommendations are about using the Homeless Bill of Rights as an aspirational standard by which we will measure our practice.

“The values to which we aspire are enshrined within the homeless strategy we have all voted for.”

Councillor Gibson said that the amendment was intended to make clear that the council was going beyond using the Homeless Bill of Rights as a standard and, instead, adopting it.

If adopted by the council, the Homeless Bill of Rights would commit the council to ensuring the right to:

  • housing
  • shelter
  • use of public space (to move freely and rest)
  • equal treatment
  • a postal address
  • sanitary facilities (running water, toilets, showers)
  • use of emergency services
  • a vote
  • data protection
  • privacy
  • survival practices (to seek support through begging or foraging)
  • respect for personal property (to have tents and sleeping bags left and not removed or thrown away)
  • life