weather warning for heavy snow is in place<\/a>, a homelessness charity founder fears rough sleepers may potentially die in Birmingham, despite the icy conditions triggering the city’s emergency protocol (SWEP).<\/p>\nBen Rafiqi said that since the closure of city centre hostel Washington Court in 2024, directing people to get support is difficult.<\/p>\n
“There isn’t actually a physical place in the city centre where people can go, or you can take them so they can refer themselves,” he explained.<\/p>\n
A city council spokesperson said it had always been “seen to ensure there was additional emergency capacity” for rough sleepers. <\/p>\n
Before its closure the Court, close to The Cube, offered a place to stay for more than 100 homeless people, who were also offered help with finance, addictions, health and housing options.<\/p>\n
It was open to all, without the need for a referral from a third party organisation, Rafiqi explained. <\/p>\n
The Bromsgrove resident runs Let’s Feed Brum and Tabor House, a night shelter in the Digbeth area of the city.<\/p>\n
“In the past… when you saw anyone on the street, you could say, ‘Walk over to Washington Court’, or put them in a taxi and send them there,” he said. <\/p>\n
“That does not exist now.”<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766890833_711_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8c046ed0-ec8d-11f0-abc2-c92f19f0499a.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ben Rafiqi<\/p>\n
Ben Rafiqi said he was scared about what might happen to rough sleepers in the city during the wintry weather<\/p>\n
Councils offer free emergency accommodation under the SWEP arrangement, which is activated when temperatures are set to fall below zero for at least three nights in a row.<\/p>\n
In Birmingham however, they must be registered to take advantage of the emergency arrangements. <\/p>\n
‘I’m scared about deaths’<\/p>\n
“If they can’t make it in time [to register], they might get left out,” he said. <\/p>\n
“Now there is no immediate place they can go at 9 o’clock at night, so you’re stuck if you find yourself freezing in that situation,” Rafiqi explained.<\/p>\n
“In the past anybody could be referred and then they would go in and they’d be safe,” he added. <\/p>\n
“I think it’s really bad and I’m scared that we’re going to have some deaths over the winter, because there are people being excluded.”<\/p>\n
The city council said anyone worried about those at risk of sleeping rough should report their concerns to its homelessness support service, Streetlink<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PA Media Emergency accommodation is offered to rough sleepers when temperatures drop below zero As an amber weather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-684066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115864173697411900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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PA Media<\/p>\n