On 27 September 2022 Sheffield Hallam University published research into the impact of anti-social behaviour tools and powers on people experiencing street homelessness within a Public Spaces Protection Order area. People experiencing street homelessness said they felt constantly policed within a PSPO area, fuelled by the high volume of informal interactions with the policing bodies where they were repeatedly told to move on. Continual dispersal and displacement were central to the experience of being policed in a PSPO area.

However, people ultimately returned to the PSPO area, producing a cycle of policing and dispersal/displacement which neither stopped nor deterred the behaviours of people experiencing street homelessness. There was consensus amongst participants in the case study areas that the way the PSPO was policed did not solve the underlying ASB problems and drivers of street homelessness.

For a fuller summary of the findings and a link to the report itself, click here.