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Reposted by Dean Allison

Davenant 📸

@marcdavenant.bsky.social

I discovered yesterday that in advance of our meeting with Westminster Council to discuss the Adelphi tent encampment, they secretly brought forward the eviction to present us with a fait accompli. The community is now fractured. Here is my open email from today to Adam Hug, Council Leader.

An empty building terrace with security fencing along the area where a homeless tent encampment used to be

$Dear Adam I hope you are well and thanks again for facilitating the meeting which took place yesterday. David was very nice and gave some assurances over the planned interventions for some displaced members of the Adelphi encampment community over the next eight weeks. However, the actions of the council the previous week do raise some doubts as to whether any of our communications/discussions so far have been in good faith. I was bitterly disappointed to discover yesterday that the council had moved to pre-emptively clear the encampment last week in advance of that meeting and without informing me or MoH. When I spoke with members of the community in November, they all told me that they had been informed by council officials that the date for the clearance had been set for 1 January. I had planned to attend from 6am that day, with my press card, to document the evictions for the media and for the public record. I had planned to do follow-ups with members of the community documenting the longer-term consequences of the decision to evict them. This will not now be possible as the community has been fractured, with some at the Connection and others dispersed along the Embankment or elsewhere. I had wondered why David kept putting back the date of the meeting, after we had said we would be flexible, offering several dates and times early in December but it all now becomes clear. The council was playing it long on the meeting while in the background bringing forward the date for the eviction. It does create a perception that this was an underhand strategy by the council designed to present us with a fait accompli at the meeting and to avoid any embarrassing photographic record of these evictions ending up in the media or on social media. I understand from community members who I spoke with yesterday that officials from the council turned up at midnight one day last week, completely out of the blue, and informed people that the camp would be cleared at 7am the following morning. They then turned up mob-handed and cleared the encampment. One community member told me yesterday that people they knew in the camp lost all of their possessions through this action. After yesterday's meeting | tried to track down people from the encampment and found some at the Connection and one sleeping rough on the Embankment. Two of the most vulnerable members were nowhere to be seen and appear to have fallen through the gaps. I really appreciate that there are no easy answers to a situation like this but must question whether pre-emptive clearance was justifiable on public interest grounds. I asked David who the decision-maker was for the early clearance and when the decision was made but he couldn't or wouldn't tell me. I can't help feeling that the decision was made by the council as a response to the article in The Big Issue, and to avoid media momentum building around the story if emotive images of vulnerable people being evicted were to be published. I have always believed that any democracy thrives where there is transparency, especially when it comes to making life and death decisions like these. Five participants in the Outsiders project have subsequently died while sleeping rough. In 2024 at least 1,611 homeless people died. These are difficult decisions and people's lives can literally depend on what public bodies like yours do in situations like the Adelphi. I would hope that officers at the council can reflect on their actions and understand that public scrutiny of the evictions of the most vulnerable members of society is a good thing. It provides checks and balances on the overwhelming strength of public bodies and the imbalance of power between them and those who must live with the consequences of their decisions, especially when those decisions have been made in secret and the subsequent actions are done surreptitiously to avoid any visual record of what happened. It sends all the wrong messages when it comes to trust and public confidence. Critical friends on issues like homelessness are something that the council should be nurturing - that only works where there is mutual trust, respect, and transparency. I hope you have a good Christmas, if you celebrate it, and hope perhaps that you will spare a thought tomorrow for those who have been displaced and cast aside by society just before such an important day for reunion and reconnection. Best Marc Davenant$

December 24, 2025 at 10:12 AM

Reposted by Dean Allison

Davenant 📸

@marcdavenant.bsky.social

Great Christmas video from CEO Sleepout with the wonderful Kerri Douglas who did the opening speech for our Outsiders exhibition in Parliament. A lesson here for all street photographers when interacting with those experiencing homelessness.
https://youtu.be/aH8SG8vlOt8?si=u9pSpuCvRFqV7cc-