Boston warm space users condemn Braverman homeless tents crackdown plan

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is pushing for restrictions on the use of tents by rough sleepers in England and Wales

The home secretary's push for a crackdown on homeless people living in tents was "disgusting", users at a warm space in Lincolnshire have said.

Suella Braverman said for many homeless people it was a lifestyle choice.

Staff at Centenary Methodist Church in Boston said they were regularly asked by people needing shelter if they had a spare tent.

Service user Joseph Middleweek, 36, said Ms Braverman "lacks any empathy or duty of care thoughts".

Mr Middleweek, who lived in a tent in woods in Boston through the spring and summer, said he was "constantly wet, cold, bothered and tired and not sleeping very often".

Speaking about Ms Braverman's comments he said: "If she is willing to take somebody's last line of defence from the elements away from them, then I say that she lacks any empathy or duty of care thoughts.

"I put my tent up as a defence from the elements and if she is going to take that away from people I think it is utterly disgusting."

Joseph Middleweek said he had only ever known one person who lived in a tent by choice

He added: "The majority of homeless people do not want to be in a tent, they want to be supported by their local council into proper accommodation."

Centenary Methodist Church offers a hot meal and a warm place to sit and chat for about 60 people twice a week. Many of its users have been homeless.

The centre has been running on donations and surplus food from supermarkets for several years, but has seen demand for its services rise in recent years, as people worry about their bills.

Sara Cieslar, 29, also uses the centre. She is unemployed and volunteers at Centrepoint Outreach, a charity which helps homeless people in the town.

Ms Cieslar has a friend who was recently made homeless and lived in a tent in the town.

She told the BBC: "I think it is disgusting. I think the home secretary has no idea that people who live in a tent are using it as an escape from really tough financial situations and for them using a tent is the only way out, it's not a lifestyle.

"I think the home secretary should try living in a tent for a week and see how she likes it."

Dr Val Ogden said homeless people faced "a whole range of difficult choices"

The Rev Dr Val Ogden, who runs the warm space initiative, said she was "very concerned" about the language being used by Ms Braverman.

Dr Ogden said: "Sometimes people ask us for a tent and we really, really sympathise with that, because who would want to be living in a tent on the street? That seems to us to be the worse of some awful options.

"If that was the best choice for somebody, it doesn't say much for the others that are on offer."

Community Connector Heidi Freeman said: "We welcome everybody in. We wish that we could do more"

Meanwhile, Heidi Freeman, a Community Connector based at the church, described the situation in Boston as a "real challenge".

"I don't think that I have met anybody yet who has told me that living in a tent was a personal choice and something that they want to do," she said.

On a visit to a school in Lincolnshire on Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said people should not be criminalised for having nowhere to live, but declined to rule out a restriction on tents for homeless people.

He also insisted the home secretary was focused on the public's priorities.

Mr Sunak told reporters: "I don't want anyone to have to sleep rough and I'm proud of the government's track record over the past few years in tackling that."