A North London borough has said it needs £6m to keep running a “crucial” homeless hostel that triggered a “complete relationship breakdown” between the shelter’s neighbours and the Town Hall.
Islington Council says it is seeking the seven-figure sum from either Mayor Sadiq Khan or central government so it can pay a supplier to maintain services at the shelter, intended for people sleeping rough and with “often very chaotic lifestyles”. The 30-bed hostel at Finsbury Park’s Stacey Street was refurbished from a former care home and has been in use since 2022.
Executive Member for Homes and Communities, Cllr John Woolf, praised the project as an example of how the local authority was supporting those experiencing homelessness. He was also “incredibly proud” that Islington had bucked a London-wide trend and seen rough sleeping fall in the borough by 20 per cent since November 2024.
But he admitted the shelter had faced “teething problems”. This included a conflict with neighbours opposed to the building’s use as a hostel for people with complex needs. He said: “These were worked through, and we remain absolutely committed to supporting a broader, safer environment for everyone.”
Council Leader Una O’Halloran, who was housing chief at the project’s outset, added that the Town Hall had dealt with “a lot of fear” and that blame for issues had “sometimes” been wrongly pinned on the hostel. “But there has been so much work done to bring people together,” she said.
An independent review from 2023 described a “total breakdown in relationships between the council and some neighbours, which led to a hostile environment developing”. The charity Homeless Link reported that locals were “distressed” by noise disruption and saw an increase in drug-related activity.
Yet although the volume of complaints and strength of feeling about the hostel had been “unusual”, the report judged this had not suggested anything fundamentally wrong with the service. According to the report, many complaints were related to guests’ behaviour that neighbours found “strange or undesirable” but were not illegal. Meanwhile, roughly half the complaints made about anti-social behaviour (ASB) from the hostel did not in fact involve Stacey Street residents.
However, the report suggested the Town Hall could have done more to bring along the “close-knit” group of neighbours.
“We’ve just got to keep working with the community, because it’s such a good offer,” O’Halloran said. “It’s the most vulnerable people that deserve a step-up with a chance.”
The council is confident either City Hall or the government will provide the millions in grant funding needed to run the centre for up to three more years.
In May, Mayor Sadiq Khan declared his action plan to end rough sleeping in London “for good” by 2030. City Hall said its roughly £45m budget dedicated to help break the “vicious cycle of street homelessness” was now five times larger than when Mr Khan took office in 2016.
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