A group of students from Sussex Law School have launched a fundraising campaign to bring a legal case to challenge the use of Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) in Brighton and Hove. 

The students, operating as StreetLaw Brighton and in collaboration with Friends and Family of Travellers (FFT) and the No Fixed Abode (NFA) Residents Association, plan to use funds raised to fight the negative treatment of homeless communities within the city. 

StreetLaw Brighton are now urging people to make a financial donation to help them meet their target of £10,000 and bring a landmark legal challenge against Brighton and Hove City Council on the use of PSPOs that unlawfully target homeless people and Travellers in the city. 

The PSPOs give the authorities the power to move and displace the homeless from certain areas around the city, making it a criminal offence if they refuse to move.

However, new government guidelines published in December 2017 state that PSPOs should not be used to target the homeless – and StreetLaw believe that the Council are now in breach of these guidelines. 

Under the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, a PSPO must be published in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State. 

In a statement on their CrowdJustice campaign page, StreetLaw said: “We ask that the orders lawfully be stopped so as not to target vulnerable communities by criminalising behaviour that is not anti-social in nature.” 

Figures provided by Homeless Link show that Brighton and Hove is second in the country to Westminster for being an authority with the highest number of rough sleepers, seeing an increase from 2016 to 2017 by almost a third. 

StreetLaw’s statement continued: “We feel it is deplorable, that during a time of cuts to legal aid, housing benefit, homelessness services, the ending of social housing, rising rents, insecure tenancies, lack of Traveller sites and the criminalisation of occupying empty residential property for shelter, but those who have succumbed to the group, are now being cleansed even further.” 

By challenging the orders, StreetLaw can ensure that no homeless or Travellers are unfairly moved on, displaced, treated inhumanely or suffer further distress as a result of the unlawful use of PSPOs. 

This would be a test case and, if successful, could set a precedent for the unlawful use of PSPOs against homeless communities beyond Brighton. 

• To donate now, visit the No to PSPOs Crowd Justice page

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