Islington carries out ‘deep clean’ where homeless community sleeps in Stroud Green Road

Islington Council gave homeless people forewarning before carrying out a “deep clean” of the street they sleep on near Finsbury Park station yesterday.

Council workers gave people sleeping under the bridge in Stroud Green Road a week’s notice before they cleaned up the area.

Islington’s outreach team led a street homeless count in November, where 43 rough sleepers were accounted for – a sizeable contingent live under the bridge.

The borough’s housing boss Cllr Diarmaid Ward said: “We want to help anyone sleeping rough into accommodation, and we want to keep the road safe and clean.

“We always give notice when we are doing a deep clean. We don’t use Public Space Protection Orders [used to prevent ‘anti-social behaviour’] – measures like this don’t solve anything.

“Our approach is about engagement [...] we would urge members of the public to get in contact if they want to volunteer with our outreach team.”

Islington has helped secure accommodation for 34 people rough sleeping in the area over the past two years.

Jon Glacken, founder of Streets Kitchen, a grassroots homelessness outreach service, told the Gazette: “They did it proper, gave a week’s notice and nobody’s stuff was stolen. It went really well.

“They had to do it. It was getting unhealthy down there and people were fly tipping.”