Anthony, 69, was among those ‘relocated’

HOSPITAL security staff have thrown away the tents and belongings of rough sleepers camping outside – including those of a pensioner, it has been reported.

Anthony, 69, returned from showering at a nearby gym to find his sleeping pod, sleeping bag, and belongings including asthma medication, passport and clothes gone.

Since the end of winter, around four people experiencing homeless­ness had slept on top of grates behind bushes at 250 Euston Road – a building owned by University College London Hospital (UCLH) – and outside UCLH’s cancer treatment centre a few roads away.

But in April, outreach volunteers from Streets Kitchen went to the usual spot to find the tents had vanished.

Volunteer Elodie Berland spoke to one of the men who had relocated to Warren Street.

Ms Berland said he told them enforcement and hospital staff “just took everything and told them to move along” and “no paperwork was given”.

Anthony, a former bus driver who slept outside UCLH’s cancer treatment building for six weeks after he became homeless, told the New Journal how police asked him to move on from his spot.

He said: “I asked ‘why?’ They said ‘it’s private property’. I said ‘no, it’s a public place. I’m entitled to stay here.’ The police said when I’m not there they’ll take my things.”

He left his spot for two hours and his stuff went missing, but the two tents next to his were still there. Someone sleeping nearby said the UCLH security guards, who had been watching them in the mornings, took it.

Anthony added: “It’s got all my medication in there. I’ve got asthma because I was sleeping on the floor. I was getting a bit of an asthma attack so I had to go get an asthma pump.

“The police phoned me up twice, and said there could be a bomb in there and ‘oh it’s not really stealing’, I said of course it’s stealing. My stuff went missing. I was on public property, they had no right to take my stuff. Why are they defending these people?

“This problem didn’t arise when I came there, it’s always been there. The same thing is happening everywhere. I mean, it’s just bully tactics and it’s sad, the government is creating it.”

He said this week that another person who slept outside UCLH had his tent seized.

Anthony recently became homeless after his £800 monthly rent in Islington was “sucking [him] dry”. He avoided council-run hostels as he heard they were a “trap” for drugs and crime.

More people are resorting to rough sleeping amid the cost. of living crisis.

Last Saturday morning, Streets Kitchen gave breakfast to 97 homeless people in Camden. But the recently announced increase in police and local authority powers threaten to treat street homelessness like a crime without tackling the problem, campaigners have warned.

In March, prime minister Rishi Sunak announced an “anti-social” behaviour crackdown on “nuisance beggars” and people sleeping on pavements. Local authorities and the police will be able to clear away “the debris, tents and paraphernalia that can blight an area”, adding to the many punitive powers homeless people are subject to.

A spokesperson from Streets Kitchen said: “The treatment of people experiencing homelessness on the streets in Camden is totally unacceptable.

“Too often we find people and their few lifesaving possessions being removed from what should be a safer space, not only from outside UCLH but even the Town Hall where they even display posters wishing people good luck but you cant stay here.

“To this end we are currently working with researchers from Birmingham City University to highlight this ongoing criminalisation of people from what should be public spaces.”

A UCLH spokesperson said: “Following public health concerns at UCLH sites, we worked with partner organisations to relocate some people sleeping rough and help them find alternative accommodation. UCLH is deeply committed to improving the health and wellbeing of homeless people, and we provide a number of services for this vulnerable group.

“This includes our homeless healthcare team and our mobile Find and Treat clinic that tests and treats thousands of homeless patients a year for serious illness, helps prevent onward infection, improves public health and provides routes to referral for accommodation.”

The Met Police declined to comment.