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Rough sleeper gives birth to twins outside wealthiest Cambridge college. Woman delivered premature babies in front of Trinity College on Monday
A homeless woman gave birth to premature twins while sleeping rough outside Cambridge University’s wealthiest college.
The woman, believed to be about 30, gave birth outside Trinity College. She was helped by members of the public, who called an ambulance, according to reports.
A witness told Cambridge News she had seen the new mother and her two children wrapped up in blankets inside ambulances when she cycled past at about 7.15am on Monday.
“They were all in the ambulances by the time I cycled past,” she said. “My workmate was first on the scene, and luckily Sainsbury’s was open early that morning and she ran in there for help.
“I’m hoping she gets given somewhere to live and the babies are ok. With what people are doing right now with Corbyn’s Christmas Challenge [a social media fundraising effort in response to Labour’s election defeat] what happened is very relevant to many people.”
Is rough sleeping getting worse?
The government claims rough sleeping in England fell for the first time in eight years in 2018, from 4,751 in 2017 to 4,677. But the body that oversees the quality of official statistics in the UK has said the number should not be trusted after 10% of councils changed their counting methods. Rough sleeping in London has hit a record high, with an 18% rise in 2018-19.
The numbers of people sleeping rough across Scotland have also risen, with 2,682 people reported as having slept rough on at least one occasion.
Shelter, whose figures include rough sleepers and people in temporary accommodation, estimate that overall around 320,000 people are homeless in Britain.
What’s being done about rough sleeping?
The government’s Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which places new duties on state institutions to intervene earlier to prevent homelessness has been in force for more than a year, but two thirds of councils have warned they cannot afford to comply with it. In 2018, James Brokenshire, the housing secretary, announced a one-off £30m funding pot for immediate support for councils to tackle rough sleeping.
How does the law treat rough sleepers?
Rough sleeping and begging are illegal in England and Wales under the Vagrancy Act 1824, which makes ‘wandering abroad and lodging in any barn or outhouse, or in any deserted or unoccupied building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or wagon, and not giving a good account of himself or herself’ liable to a £1,000 fine. Leading homelessness charities, police and politicians have called on the government to scrap the law.
Since 2014, councils have increasingly used public space protection orders to issue £100 fines. The number of homeless camps forcibly removed by councils across the UK has more than trebled in five years, figures show, prompting campaigners to warn that the rough sleeping crisis is out of control and has become an entrenched part of life in the country.
Is austerity a factor in homelessness?
A Labour party analysis has claimed that local government funding cuts are disproportionately hitting areas that have the highest numbers of deaths among homeless people. Nine of the 10 councils with the highest numbers of homeless deaths in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017 have had cuts of more than three times the national average of £254 for every household.
What are the health impacts of rough sleeping?
A study of more than 900 homeless patients at a specialist healthcare centre in the West Midlands found that they were 60 times more likely to visit A&E in a year than the general population in England.
Homeless people were more likely to have a range of medical conditions than the general population. While only 0.9% of the general population are on the register for severe mental health problems, the proportion was more than seven times higher for homeless people, at 6.5%.
Just over 13% of homeless men have a substance dependence, compared with 4.3% of men in the general population. For women the figures were 16.5% and 1.9% respectively. In addition, more than a fifth of homeless people have an alcohol dependence, compared with 1.4% of the general population. Hepatitis C was also more prevalent among homeless people.
Sarah Marsh, Rajeev Syal and Patrick Greenfield
East of England ambulance service told Cambridge News that paramedics went to the scene just before 7am on Monday. The woman and her children were taken to Rosie hospital, a specialist maternity hospital on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Research by the Guardian last year identified Trinity as the wealthiest of all the colleges in both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, with published assets at the time of £1.3bn.
A crowdfunding campaign set up to raise money for the woman decried Cambridge as a place of “extraordinary inequality”. Jess Agar, who started the fundraiser, wrote: “Imagine giving birth alone on the pavement, in the shadow of the richest college in Cambridge.
“Whether we are religious or not, many of us will be familiar with the Christmas story of a mother who gave birth to her child in poverty, seeking refuge in a stable. This is the reality for many people living on the streets.”
Contributors have so far donated more than £9,000.
uk.yahoo.com/news/rough-sleeper-gives-birth-twins-144402965.html
I agree with you Joelsnan, we do not know enough detail about this woman or her circumstances to place blame anywhere should we be inclined to need blame to be placed.
However, we do know there is, for many varied and convoluted reasons, a housing crisis and I think the thread has moved on to discussing that in general rather than this specific incident.
Thank you growstuff for the links.
I don't really see it as my place to comment on this particular case anyway. As I mentioned before, I do have some experience of the homelessness organisations in the city of Cambridge and I would have been absolutely amazed, if a pregnant woman had been sleeping on the streets beneath the radar for months. This is the responsibility of social services now and they don't need an audience of judgmental onlookers.
Homelessness as a general issue is something else and it's quite obvious even from this thread that people don't understand it.
I agree with you NotSpaghetti. It's a horrible, derogatory, dehumanising term.
growstuff yes, we only had the one, uncorroborated (sp?) story so it's difficult to comment without having the full picture.
This has bothered me a lot this week...
Please can we not refer to a person as (potentially) an illegal. It is depersonalising and just generally not very nice.
Thanks.
Callistemon That's why I was uncomfortable from the start about using this woman as a kind of "poster girl" for homelessness. What happened isn't typical and gives people an excuse to dismiss the real issues.
Anniebach They pay tax if they ever buy anything. Only 25% of the Treasury's income comes from income tax. It's almost impossible in the UK ever to spend money without paying tax. They possibly don't reach the income threshold to pay income tax. In any case, many homeless people do actually work.
If they don't pay NICs, they'll have problems claiming pensions, but many of them won't live that long.
If someone has been offered accommodation and support then chooses not to take up that offer and live on the streets, what else can the authorities do?
If she does persist in that lifestyle despite offers of help, then the babies will be taken off her.
If she has other issues, eg drugs and is a persistent user despite help, then crowdfunding receiving thousands of pounds, will not help her or the children.
Gaga what Chestnut says is true, and you do show the racism card when all else fails, even when the point somebody is making is clearly not racist.
GagaJo: NICE. Racism/anti immigration slipped in. Well done!
Here we go, GagaJo playing the racism card. I did not mention race or immigration, I simply quoted a factual figure, there are 5 million more people who need homes. That is going to create extra demand for housing whatever race they are.
As for immigration, I cannot see the wisdom of allowing people to enter the country when they don't have a home to go to.
Does MaizieD have any constructive suggestions to make?
Until such time as investigations into the true and full picture
Of homelessness is presented, we are all ‘at sea’ about the reasons for it.
It certainly is a complex issue with many factors at play.
My thoughts are that mental health issues are at the heart of it, as vulnerable people are left to sink or swim.
Giving money directly to them is not the answer, what they need is a guiding hand and prepaid accommodation.We can’t go back to institutions but neither can we continue to think they can be given money and use it wisely, left to themselves.
do they pay tax ?
JenniferE So the taxi driver is an expert in these matters, knowing who is homeless and who is not. Whats wrong with them coming into Windsor from Slough, other people make money from the tourist.
JenniferEccles Sat 28-Dec-19 08:47:14
Whilst I accept that there are some genuinely homeless people it’s important to remember that’s not the whole story.
In many towns, particularly tourist ones like Windsor the ‘homeless’ are anything but.
These people live in Slough, travel into Windsor, set up with all the usual homeless paraphernalia, then come the evening they get a taxi back home.
Apparently it’s a very lucrative business with some raking in over £200 per day from well meaning but gullible tourists.
Oh well, if a taxi driver told you, it MUST be true.
Walk around Newcastle, Cambridge, Edinburgh at night. I guess the people sleeping in doorways are not homeless either? Just doing it for the sympathy vote, free soup and to keep their lucrative patch?
Using the old 'they're not really homeless' is a shameful shirking of reality. The sort of thing The Daily Heil would print.
Homelessness is a complex issue and there is no single source of blame.
Joelsnan No, the issue of homelessness started decades before then. Successive governments of all parties haven't addressed it.
Joelsnan That is precisely why I felt uncomfortable about this single case being used as a political football.
It would appear that she and her partner were offered accommodation by the council and she most certainly wouldn't have been turned away from a maternity unit, but that's not the point.
I have no idea what the back story is - and it's not my business to know. I have no doubt that social services and Cambridge's housing department will be speaking to her as soon as she is medically ready. She obviously has some issues which need sorting - and I hope they are.
Nevertheless, there is a real issue with homelessness in the UK and I am, quite frankly, disgusted that people dismiss it because of anecdotes of beggars from Slough travelling to Windsor and stories about immigrants. Maybe these people should open their eyes and find out about life outside their bubble (or whatever their source of information is).
Iam64
The issue with homelessness started following the 2008 Labour Government policy which changed the payment method of rent for those receiving benefits. Previously the rent was paid directly to landlords, this ensured a roof was maintained over claimants heads.
Following 2008, the payments were made to claimants to pay their own rent. Many do make these payments however there are other poor money managers or those who take drugs who spend the rent and eventually are evicted. I think at the same time rent payments were stopped for the under 25s.
What is the point of these little anecdotes about what the taxi driver said? Is it so that we can all have a nice little judgy pants session about how disgusting it is?
How will that do anything to help the thousands who aren't gaming the system?
Do lemon and JE have any constructive suggestions to make?
Barmy
Can you give one instance of anyone being turned away from medical care in this country. I don’t think you will find any.
It is more probable that this lady either had a quicker than anticipated labour (as some fortunate do), or she herself chose not to attend hospital for the birth.
This is not a ‘blame society or government’ issue.
What about the wealthier people who "game the system"?
I wonder how many of those with their little anecdotes about people who aren't really homeless pay cash in hand to their cleaner/window cleaner, p/t gardener or to any other of those trades who ask for cash and you won't be charged VAT?
I'm not saying that everyone who works for cash in hand is dishonest and some may genuinely forget to record the occasional £10 or £20 that they've been paid.
I know these people are not homeless in Slough because I discussed the issue with a taxi driver back in the Summer.
We had eaten out in Windsor with the family and my husband and I had booked a taxi home.
I had noticed that the homeless we had seen early evening had disappeared when we had finished our meal and got in the taxi.
Our driver said it happens every day and that the ‘homeless’ often boast about how much they had made in a day.
The driver said he was obviously in the wrong job !
The vast majority of homeless people don't live on the streets and don't beg.
Iam64 I didn't claim that homelessness isn't a political issue. It most certainly is and I know that. What made me uncomfortable was using the lady who gave birth in Cambridge as a sort of political football.
Too many people really don't understand the issues and, it would appear, don't want to. It's all down to immigrants and druggies innit? 
Now we're back to the 'deserving/undeserving poor' narrative.
What are we supposed to do? Abandon all homeless people because a few might be gaming the system and God forbid that they might inadvertently, because of our stupid big soft hearts, get something that they don't deserve to get?
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