"Are we talking about homeless human beings or ducks at the park?" - Council slammed for grossly ignorant soup kitchen statement
Manchester Council has been branded "grossly ignorant" after they claimed soup kitchens organised by communities and outreach teams are a "bad idea."
In a staggering statement, Manchester Council's official Twitter account said that "unofficial soup kitchens are a bad idea" and the public should never give money to the homeless, later adding that even giving "a sandwich or a coffee" keeps them on the streets.
Furious residents slammed the council as "heartless", "shameful", "cold-hearted" and "disgusting". Some even told the council to "f*ck off".
Bethan Clarke snapped back: "Hang on are we talking about actual homeless human beings here or a flock of ducks at the local park?"
The plans include using council-owned premises to house every rough sleeper in Manchester before approving any further city centre developments.
It also pledged to provide an administration address to every single homeless person so that they can take the first step in getting their life back on track by applying for jobs.
Other plans included enforcing all developments to meet the 20% affordable quota, which is rarely met by the Labour council.
Responding to the outrage, Liberal Democrat Opposition Deputy Leader Richard Kilpatrick said:
"Here we have yet another grossly ignorant statement from Manchester Council as they continue to expose their dehumanising approach towards vulnerable people
"In just the last few years they have fined and tried to sue the homeless, spent £10,000 on one-way tickets to get rid of rough sleepers, refused to build affordable housing, described Christmas as "peaking begging season" and claimed the only way to tackle "offenders" is to fine them.
"Manchester Labour have done absolutely everything - except try to tackle the crisis humanely - and their record is absolutely unprecedented.
"Instead of releasing divisive statements, why doesn't this council stop handing out 60% pay rises to themselves and actually take real action for once?
"Local people want to help and we should be applauding outreach teams who dedicate their time and money to helping people where the system has failed catastrophically."
