line of helping homeless i'm fighting against poverty which blights london's plenty . of research turn a soup kitchen to realize that a lot of our service users savall mental health so even just seeing the condos on the walls different services that we provide some of. what we do growing for where they grow their own produces you know we've got massage massage monday's you know and this is still some of this is about that is about kind of help in the situations that you already in you know i've never really understood when they said give a homeless person a heart you mill give up are they give a homeless person a heart you know is going to come tomorrow still waiting for another heart you know solve the whole populace of the soup kitchen is to yeah we use we don't have a cemetery for them to come in but we've got many services was in the masses way possible for them to not return now in a properly ordered society it would be homelessness no it breaks it which would be dominating the parliament to bond with however and peace have turned that attention

to the issue this is what the babies prices had to say and asked me it was 120 homeless people in the northeast has died since 20 say in a staggering increase as 71 percent of these 120 lives might not need to save some recognition the government has said that little studies need to fully investigate investigate the circumstances of these deaths yet they have failed to provide any fun to know any support told to and shoot out these investigations actually happen is that because people died on our streets isn't really a priority for this government that new jersey wants to see the progress sleeping on our streets my rice going to friends join with me and congratulated the huge team one that's going on in cool across the public sector the private sector which has seen a reduction in rossley for us by the food she sends you. every day if someone who is homeless is why. and we have

a moral duty to act we committed 20 roughly people good with the aim of carving it by 2022 and that's just he commits 200000000 pounds to tucker a sleeping and it's fun to go over 1750 but space isn't 500 new still through the rough sleeping in the shift it's no coincidence that as universal credits healing in the last year food bank used to stop eating churches winter night shelter and dealing see a kitchen rhetoric report unprecedented demand 6 years the depths of the soup kitchen in the last year are they not ashamed that christian charity is having to mop up the gaps of its policy and when will they. put into place the n.a.s. recommendation to look at hardship as well as spotty statistics others. speak of what i would say of course are a range of reasons why people make use of food banks but what's important what is important is that the d.w.p. make sure that we get funds to claimants in a timely manner the subsidies already talked about the one percent advances the 2

week housing benefit run on and of course additional romance coming on in turn 20 despite despite the words this is just make sure the interior the nature of the issue and the difficulty that governments of all persuasions have had in coming to terms with it led to me aside it can says the rise in our sleeping across the country and london is a national disgrace at city hall we have doubled our rusty ping budget and the size of our team help in record numbers of rust sleepers but the figures show more and more people continue to be forced onto the streets by the government's policies from welfare cuts to a lack of investment in social housing but is a london mayor powerless in the face of these trends and in the absence of public initiative what practically can be done the biggest in soup kitchen has had support in the past from the elite tessa jowell. for all that achieved on the national or international stage she never forgot the local and it was as a local campaigner

a politician i 1st knew tester when i was the age of the opposition and a leader of the council in lamberth where she was one of our fantastic local m.p.'s and whether it was the young people solomon of his friends who set up the brixton soup kitchen tessa's lot of was with people in the community is that they were part of there's a little bit of tessa influence of us around south london or around the country and we've been inspired by her vision and her passion and her love and her empathy and we will take that legacy forward today alex this is a front line to talk to those taking practical action we join with the people behind the brixton soup kitchen. they joined in the hot bed of brixton soup kitchen mike other the manager here jennifer one of the they help us welcome to the alex salmond's you thank you thank you for coming down now this is where all the action is i mean obviously the news of finish for the day yeah. i want to know what

happens if you know you're running the stuff or as you can see the building see how it is put together see this is where the magic happens where it's not adventure and this is the kitchen so this is a far as the money the main thing is food is the main facilitator that we use to bring people together on and having this industrial kitchen is a great help because it helps us china so much mills and then when we get large donations we can store them we can start them so it's really good that we have this kitchen and that we can have people come in come and help our community to use the kitchen is well when they want to do certain number of events and things i would be the number one perk of the new wm clients number one popular mall probably be. alright yeah it's really good as our sales are up a specific day on a value that are not random i randomly might do it once or once or twice a month depending because if we only see if we go again with time we crazy and we

stay there jennifer have you help before this but you also help with some of the other services from using your own background and employment. basically i'll play and that feith at the top center. and also i work for the church while i was at the job center out of the 3 people who had left and then unfortunately things didn't work out for their day to end up coming to the sick a chain and i think this. jennifer has worked at church as well but this is not a religious basis of all people so i am a forces kind of tree in everyone equally and not having any lack religious views or any. so for us the only thing we look for people to come in the building is the sign men treat everyone equally and no drugs and alcohol paraphernalia and this is a mighty easygoing environment where people can just be relaxed you know they don't

have to pray before they get there for you and so there's an underlying ethos to respect people yes but not necessarily a religious one you're not necessarily religious saw all the things you've experienced here post was the possible surprising thing that the people coming in to break the soup kitchen say with a force they will walk what may surprise them about what they're able to do here. vita things that you couldn't tell him. we were. doing thumb drawing and sketches life story and and oath. they've been playing games which is like card games and playing tom and this is a very different thing so for instance we have a cordon and project as well where people can get their green fingers on the learn about god and because obviously a lot of people that grow up in the same environment they don't have

a god and so for us having the massive one that we do you have it helps to really can really intimate neutral doing families know about gordon and we use a lot of those fresh produce that we grow in the kitchen here so i'm through your loads yeah i need to know if i was june to come sneak in for a meal one day what would be the best day of the week to to pay a visit or who will be the best and maybe for a hobby or for as these women pop down a really good heart you know on the 1st things are hardest in the 1st year that you know we have an edge you know we've cooked them before we haven't had haggis yet but we could have a score it's a scottish thing of a scale of one have a bottoms made up of us alarmed is the one shot of a rally really good really good i'll send you the recipes thank you thank you jennifer thank you bike is the worst thank you thank you. solomon muhammad cosigned of the stone soup kitchen welcome to the alex salmond chill and it's a solemn hard to say it's like a very religious and if you don't tell me 1st saw that i did what was the idea behind the soup kitchen when did you get involved whole goal was how he built.

home a show in that for a call to my mom and club and while i was there i was like you know i could do this you know this needs to be in brixton so literally when i finished my degree you know just put pen to paper and i was a slug in a war we need to have a soup kitchen in literally went around order from the senate is you know there was telling me no it's not going to work and you know are just kind of i was kind of just put the pressure on and i was stuck in i need to run it so it's a couple centers and then i just said you know i want to run it for one day we can see how it turns out you know and it's kind of turned out quite amazing and how did you get hold of the property the jew who reigned for various places or just got a benefactor i did you get a hold of this problem there was a the chief exec at the time was there and the son i mean him was quite close i was working for a few service for over 15 years and he was what gave me my 1st job i literally when

he knew that i was running the soup kitchen i just said to him you know we need to send our you know we don't have to look it is nice to have a kitchen and a dining area where they can kind of calm and sit down and that's when he said you know off think i'll do some talk and try to see if our guys into the domino crop mohammad you know it's not just a cool thing to the soup kitchen you know a local kind of help in getting a bit of official help to the luck of the soup kitchen help us in bridging the understanding between the community and the politicians and for me what we found is a lot of the politicians especially the local ones i've been looking to get involved in local community going to is asians but never really knew how to and we have people that solomon and people that michael have been in this community for so . but don't understand how the council don't understand the processes and procedures etc i've just been great lucky enough to be able to fill that gap and fill it out void in terms of that communication so solemn and thinking back to the very 1st day you open the mail how many people close the door crossed the threshold

of the. literally i think yeah the 1st day we didn't do soup or we didn't burn but literally we had about 40 people in the stay with me and that's when i was like you know what the service is actually really needed you know i've never really what you know doing homelessness i've never really worked on a charge before. you know me just put enough in the impact the 1st day was crazy and you know that's when you know i was like this has to be done so how many people would you get. between 45 and 50 if i'm honest because we don't have a set lunch period we don't have a set dinner it's really rolling in rolling out so during that time we get so many people coming in and out so it's. about 50 people it's not just meals sure you're offering here you open a range of services to tell us about the other services you offer so we have

a closed bank the way we set up is that it's almost like a shop so people don't feel like we're giving them rubbish or we're giving them for always when everyone is about confidence for us so close bank is about making people feel that they have their way if something of a food bank for the weekends were not open we have employed billy area because we had a lot of problems with people i was on on benefits having to run around doing their jobs and then leaving for appointments etc so we tried to really build a holistic support a community support center for everyone in the community in problems or struggling so they can come together a shared resources and feel part of something bigger. coming up after the big out of this continue says it to the brixton soup kitchen join us then.

around contraflow island comes out of. the set up one among them. a file after the main t.v. they tell you not the high. months for them until the sun shone. so totally unknown to me but the lock of the. business. and then that it is someone who did the board. didn't do. them. and i think that impedes the elections will be the most. recent american history because the stakes are

incredibly party for both sides. trump the stake is small just implementation of his domestic politics but actually avoiding prison for the democrats of the stake is if we doing even deeper crisis of the party and even basic supply voltage petitional it's the problem will suffice for both sides. paradise with some around turned into a round of experimentation feel for agricultural chemicals we know that these chemicals have consequences they are major irritant there's no question otherwise why would the chemical company workers themselves be geared up that suited up locals attempt to combat the un regulated experiments but often invade your. many

of these people where one foot into the biotech pharma and the other foot in the government regulatory bodies this kind of collusion is reprehensible while the battle goes on the chemicals continue to poison hawaii and its people so one has to ask the question whether there is a form of environmental racism going on in hawaii whether these companies feel they can get away with this because the people have less political power. welcome back with politics consumed by bricks it alex exist some of the issues which should be dominating the political agenda we join him in bricks and in the front line of the battle against poverty and homelessness. solomon what do you think was surprising thing about the range of services and they had aphasia it off to just start something like the less size monday and thought of that look at the top of the great success tell us about so yes so we've done

a lot of research there in the soup kitchen to realize that a lot of our service uses of them into health so even just seeing the colors on the walls different services that we provide so we've got about god and i what we do growing for where they grow their own prejudices you know we've got massage massage monday's you know and this is this is some of this is not that it's just about kind of help in the situations that you already in you know i've never really understood when they said give a homeless person a hearty meal you give up are they give a homeless person a hearty mood going to come in tomorrow still wait for another heart you know saw the whole purpose of the soup kitchen is to yes we use food as the vicinity for them to come in but we've got many services was in the masses way possible for them to not return so u.t.m. is for your clients for your customers you know one below tell customers you want them to graduate stable their lifestyle for the most earth you know even just doing

small things like you know maybe making them you know throughout the food bank then you know graduate into then given now the food you know we do a lot of training so we get so we do face a train in then we do food safety training what kind of gets them working into the kitchen and then once we get them those type of system for kids then allows them to you know get a job you know we've come to date with. people back into full time education you know we've got some people back into full time work and those are our most success stories where we're actually getting people from homelessness to actually working actually and in accommodation and the summary of claim to. have been transformed by the help the phone systems to really come by and give you a helping hand 100 percent we've got clients who have been with us from the beginning i'm not there volunteering with us because they want to give back they want to give support they got when they needed it to someone else that needs it so

for us is an amazing circle for us a cycle that shows positivity you never want people just to leave and forget and and not give back it's about making sure when you needed help and you go if you're able to reciprocate that help again and help someone else i know your clients homeless you have a variety of people again we've got homeless we've got clients are suffering from mental health. we even go oh do you people to come into our lonely that haven't got any family in immediate vicinity so for us this whole community supports and any problems that you have we'll look at the problems and find a way to solve it together and i notice a lot of the messaging and lee soup kitchen is very paused a very uplifting. positivity i feel a psychological thing as a religious sort of the told what you're trying to say to your clients with these messages try and support messages in their minds about me even though in. every

time when people come in there they're like a feeling of just being in his just amazing. you know the bright colors you know the soft music you know you know that you know for us we didn't a lot of soup kitchens might be from churches are might be religious but for us we didn't one of our main feeds we didn't want someone to come in and they had to pray through you know there has to be have to do so type of religious code you know. where anyone could come in and anyone could fool confortable it was not religious you know everyone's not spiritual however everybody knows about bad energies and good intentions for us with just trying to dispel a lot of good innocence so what would you say then it was the ethos behind the place is it good energy was the underlying impetus for me is everyone regardless of your background what you've gone through is about being able to come somewhere where you know you feel valued you feel part of something and for us it's about

that confidence everyone goes through things that knock their confidence a little bit and makes them with joy into themselves for us this is a place where you come and be yourself again you find yourself and you find some friends and hopefully as friends for life because when you know rather and you feel hopelessness and you're able to survive with the support of a few people that you didn't know just a few moments before self is priceless. you know london's a great international capital city is full of mega that. multi-billion. financial same politicians whole felt like that you would wish you could bring them in for that to want to time you know i'm saying there's a lot of powerful people you know i hadn't. we shouldn't have to be doing a soup kitchen you know we shouldn't have to be you know they shouldn't be people who are in dire need especially in the u.k.

in 2000 and empty almost to fathom a 20 you know. i just think you know pace is a lot. you know a lot of politicians might not kind of wonder. where they are you know i you know i just sometimes wish you know they could kind of calm down see was sky in on them support groups to you know we've never had no government ever we were on donations we rely on you know the public support you know and there's so much we can do you know especially you know we're not we're not saying it's going to concord homelessness but we're actually had just to put the spark in people's minds to show you how easy it is to support someone and help someone you know and if you had that same mindset what we're trying to change you know we wouldn't be here in the next 5 years let's say politician by policy such as universal credit

which they would argue was introduced with the best of intentions would be helpful to see some of the reality behind what happens to people if they get section. and the life is as follows of the total disarray from for me specially with examples of universal credit we've seen people come here who have been totally destroyed by that policy and it's sad because it's politicians i've never been on benefits that decide these policies decide a fantastic ideas without ever talking to people it's affected by example university we deal with so many people are coming on the sanctions who don't understand how to budget their money because of the stresses they get in free 74 percent of our services suffer from mental health but what the government has done is is just increase the pressure in them almost in the hope that they're going to fail and yet if you think about the genesis of universal credit duncan smith long time ago when tooling some of the deprived areas of glasgow and elsewhere and thought that this might be

a way to get people off benefits could something which presumably started off with . noble motives and often not fulfilling the subject for me is the disconnect from the people that you're supposed to represent and for me a challenge to in duncan smith would have been who did he speak to that was on benefits who told you it was a good idea how many people did you go and see afterwards to see how it's affected their lives but the stigma of homelessness how can we remove the the shame many people feel the drive in the position i think is less about removing the shame from the people that's going through the situations and it's more about connecting with people when we know we can see that after a tough time a lot of time people are going through a tough time with draw because they feel ashamed and they feel there's a perception and for me what we found is the biggest biggest biggest thing lacking from the homeless people that we were going to people going through something is the fact they don't feel like they're worthy of having

a conversation we don't feel like they are allowed to or should and for me that's something we have to take on and we have to start bridging that gap and make an effort to make them feel ok the situation you go for it doesn't define you it doesn't define who you are it doesn't it's not the be all and end all and for me that's something that we have to start encouraging in people we see them so we see someone sitting outside a cheap station or even food on the side of the sheet want to say hello to them when i asked them if they like something from the show just a simple hello would literally change their whole day and for me that's a response really we have to take one. soul in. the whole of the period english school hold it's not long finished close but problems for families most you know because. i'm a star that there's a lot of children that depends on the free school meals you know because we because we know it is one of the main reasons why we decided to do a frame called. marbury. literally it was

just like. you know we said once they said you know about holiday hunger we said sort of what we have to do the last week or hold the hunger of all of the efforts to combat it so sort of a mohammad what should i bishan for braxton soup kitchen where would you want to go with this place you know my main thing is to be closed down in the next 5 years hopefully just to you know that we've had what homelessness you know my main things about working to give our there's millions and millions of homeless chary but the problem is we're not working together i went home and in the meantime but before there's no need for a place like this what would be so my ambition 2024 is to be the mayor of london so i can start implementing the policies that we need to get go forward together now by the miracle of television. a lot of excitement quakers appeared nice guys let me tell you about the drill this is scott's galletly for the loving cup what you do is put whiskey other fluids of nestle is nearly what welfare there are that i'll call

only in the quaker then you know your clients customers and friends and all the focal going to support you to be made a lot. to do for you with a guy's. face with thank you thank you very much ali thank you why is homelessness such an intractable problem experts will tell you it's because it encompasses so many other issues mental health family breakup social security breakdown now that any and all of these things are important however few would seriously argue that homelessness that is those without permanent accommodation and still less trust sleeping is a positive life choice so why is it therefore that none of the world's wealthiest most powerful cities thereof sleeping is remorselessly rising not falling as be a scene politicians are passing the parcel and of course the responsibility however no one can see to sleep claim that the level of power to accord to this you amass

allocated to breaks it aren't any sort of proportion and therefore the. as the front line of initiatives to face down the crisis you tell encouragement and support. no one in the bricks and soup kitchen believes that their actions alone can tackle the issue but equally no one believes that their individual successes are anything other than important and above all every single one of the helpers believes that their ultimate task is to ensure that their own services are no longer required next week return to some of the celebrity campaigners who are putting their shoulders to this important to their efforts make a real difference join us next week to fight but meanwhile from alex and i and all of the show it's good bye for now ok thanks thanks

thanks to. you. danny and by north it's so many people because they copy him he's so bored that even such a bad puppy is sending. i'm not killed to plug anybody into god i'm here to find the next guy. looked up live again in the human being done the envelops of the the blood she went on party at. the click some for the c.e.o.

saying to the deflection board is happy to say. that is a god given that i got up to many observers. that he and others are going to going to hear a lot about that on the born a lot about that that you can bank on that nothing like a. long long while the name you know is along the bottom there's a bonus which alone can shrink a lot older. than the one new person and lead to any 100 gandhi a new normal i'm going to run the place 1st david begnaud to you then we'll mark you then they will join you. we will have a situation little grandchildren were little children ask their great grandparents . is it true that all these cars used to people drive the.

break room. to close. in the u.k. fails to get his sacking overturned than employment tribunals after he was fired for refusing to use different pronouns for transgender people we spoke to the doctor in question. christianity is no society you. a knife and kills 4 people the police headquarters in paris number of others were left injured before the attack. as you have democrats probably to protect the whistleblower whose claims have triggered an impeachment inquiry we look at how they previously sought to prosecute those revealed uncomfortable truths.