Woman Dragged From Tent As Bailiffs Evict People From Homeless Shelter

The Ark was a self built homeless shelter in Manchester created for rough sleepers just a few weeks ago in August.

It was created by the homeless with public support and provided a safe and caring refuge to protect the city’s most vulnerable and unprotected from violence, danger and abuse.

However, Manchester Metropolitan University own the site and their staff began evicting the homeless at around 7am on Friday.

The university were enforcing a possession order reportedly granted by a judge in court last week.

Members of the camp, situated under The Mancunian Way flyover, complained they had been given no warning that they were to be turfed off the land.

The handling of The Ark shelter eviction by Manchester City Council has ‘disturbed’ a leading homeless charity, after reports that rough sleepers were dragged out of their tents and possessions were thrown away.

The footage below shows rough sleepers clashing with bailiffs and GMP officers as they were being removed on Friday morning.

One woman is dragged screaming woman from her tent as bailiffs evict rough sleepers from homeless shelter.

Camp member Jen Wu was forcibly evicted from her tent and later fainted and was rushed to hospital.

The Manchester Evening news reports:

Some said that bailiffs had used ‘brute force’ to move them on, while others claimed that their possessions had been thrown into bins.

One man who had helped to create The Ark, Ryan Mcphee, was also arrested for breaching the peace but later released without charge.

After being thrown off the land, homeless Luke John-Carter said: “Where are we supposed to go? What’s happened is a travesty, disgusting.

“We have nowhere to live and nowhere safe to bed down now.

“How could we move the shelter in 30 minutes? The university don’t care about us, just its image.”

But a spokesperson for the University said that that they had no obligation to tell the camp when the possession order would be enforced.

They said: “The University sought and secured a court order confirming an unauthorised trespass, which enabled us to regain possession of this land.

“We have been working with the council and support agencies to understand the complex nature of this situation and the group, and have satisfied ourselves that our actions would not be detrimental to genuine causes and individual needs.

“Throughout this period, several members of the group have been aggressive and verbally abusive to university employees.

“The majority of the protesters who were removed this morning are not recognised as homeless individuals, either by the council or by GMP.”

“All members of the protest group were allowed adequate time to remove their personal possessions and larger items have been safely secured for retrieval within seven days.”