By making street life "bearable", are soup runs worsening the problem?

A few weeks ago, I was travelling on the Underground, when a man in his early twenties climbed on board. Having announced that he was homeless, he asked if anyone could help. As he made his way down the carriage, most people studiously ignored him. One man, however, did speak. "Why don't you get a job, instead of scrounging off people like us?" he asked. Clearly unprepared for this response, the young man hesitated. At this point, a woman sitting further down the carriage addressed the man who had just spoken. "People like you make me ashamed," she said. "Why don't you show some compassion?"

These two comments reveal the two most basic responses to homelessness. Either it is seen as a moral failing for which rough sleepers are themselves responsible, or homeless people are seen as deserving our sympathy and respect. The second response is more humane, but in policy terms it is the first that holds sway. Last month, as part of its new "tough love" approach towards homelessness, Westminster City Council called for an end to soup runs into central London. "As hard as it sounds, we need to make street life as uncomfortable as possible," the council said. By making life on the streets "more bearable", it argued, soup runs exacerbate the problem.

Last Sunday, in an effort to test the wisdom of this approach, I joined a soup run managed by a charity called the Simon Community. Founded in 1968, the community takes a strictly non-judgemental approach to homelessness: while homeless people should be given all the support they need to come off the streets, no one should be forced into hostel accommodation. A person's basic right to sleep rough should be respected. The charity delivers four soup runs each week into central London, two in the evening and two in the morning. The one I accompanied set off from one of the community's residential homes at 5.30 in the morning.

We drove in a circle around central London, stopping off at various points along the way. It was an odd experience. At this time of day the streets of London are practically deserted. But at each stop-off point, a small cluster of people would be gathered, clutching their sleeping bags and eagerly awaiting our arrival. Having stopped the van, we would pull back the sliding door, and dole out tea, coffee and sandwiches. There wasn't any soup: that is provided only on the evening runs.

Many of those who work for the Simon Community have themselves been homeless. The run I accompanied was overseen by three former rough sleepers. All were in agreement that soup runs do nothing to exacerbate the problem. As one volunteer put it: "It's mad to say that people sleep rough simply because they can get free sandwiches." So, I asked him, what are the main causes of homelessness? "You can't generalise. In some cases it's alcoholism, in some cases it's mental illness." But, he said, most of those who sleep rough have started doing so as a result of some kind of personal breakdown, often following a divorce or bereavement.

A few days earlier, I had spoken to the director of the Simon Community, Mike Tristam. The point of soup runs, he said, is not simply to provide food, but to offer the homeless emotional support: "As much as anything, the runs are a gesture, a means of making contact with people who are extremely isolated and vulnerable." Over the past decade, Westminster Council has succeeded in reducing the number of people sleeping rough in the borough from more than 600 to roughly 120. The ones who are left are the most hardened rough sleepers of all. As Tristam put it, "They are the ones most in need of sympathy and support."

At 8.30am, having doled out our hot drinks and sandwiches, we returned to the residential home, where a cooked breakfast awaited us. Workers and residents sat down together. The atmosphere was jovial and relaxed. Having been on one soup run, I wouldn't claim to know what the best policy response to homelessness is. But Westminster's approach does seem depressingly brutal.

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