Mental Health Hostels Opening In Croydon, But Council Won’t Say Where

Two mental health hostels are to open in Croydon – but the councillor in charge of them is refusing to say where they will be. Margaret Mead insists the homes will not pose a threat to neighbours.

Yet despite this belief the cabinet member for adult social services will only say they will both be in the south of the borough.

Her refusal to reveal the hostels’ locations has been labelled “potentially counterproductive” by a mental health charity.

She will also not say how many people will be in each home, but the Advertiser understands there will be seven residents in one and nine in the other.

Cllr Mead does not know what type of illnesses the prospective residents are likely to suffer from and denied that the public have a right to know where the hostels are.

“I can’t really tell you because it’s their dignity and privacy as the users (at stake),” she told the Advertiser.

“These people all have a right to an ordinary life.”

The first is set to open at the beginning of April while the other is expected to open in May.

The council says one of the new hostels is already some kind of residential home, but its clientele is changing.

Budget papers show the creation of one of the hostels will save the council £200,000 next financial year by allowing patients to move out of residential care homes.

Patients will have more independence in the hostels, but Cllr Mead offered reassurance the new homes will be supervised 24 hours a day.

Look Ahead, the housing association managing the hostels, also declined to reveal the locations.

A spokeswoman said its facilities will cater for residents with “acute mental health problems”.

Cllr Mead’s refusal to confirm locations came despite an admission one of the hostels was the subject of a planning application, which is a matter of public record.

“I’m not going to be the one to tell you,” she said.

She said hostels like them already existed and that the government had been pushing for more.

“They (the hostels’ residents) want to have the opportunity where possible to live independently,” Cllr Mead said.

“They won’t just be put into accommodation and left. That’s not the case.”

When asked if the tenants would be a threat to the public she said: “How do you know if anybody is a threat to anybody?

“I don’t think that if someone has been assessed as suitable to live independently that they would be a threat.”

Mind in Croydon chief Richard Pacitti admitted the council’s stance could backfire.

He said: “(Keeping the locations secret) is not normally the position they take.

“If you do try and sneak it in and if people do get wind of it then you are more likely to be very suspicious about it. That may be counterproductive.”

Tim Oldham, a coordinator at Hear Us, the Croydon mental health service users’ body, said he personally believed it was right to keep the properties secret before they opened.

He said, though, that they would inevitably become public knowledge once open.

“They’re not being secretive,” he added. “They just don’t want to get anybody worked up about it and make it a big issue.

“They’re not talking about people that would be a danger to the public. These people are very vulnerable.”