It was about zero degrees celsius in Birmingham as families piled into Gas Street St Luke’s church cafe, one of the city council’s designated “warm spaces”, to escape the December cold.
Staff said the cafe, just outside the city centre, had been busier than ever over the past few weeks as the cold weather set in and people try to keep the heating off at home because of rising costs.
“Being at home with the children, you’re burning through gas and electric, so coming here, it’s not just letting the kids have a play; we’re saving so much money too,” said 34-year-old Stacey, a mother of five, who visited the cafe after doing the afternoon school run on Thursday.
“If not for this, we’d be at home with the heating on and the kids would be charging their tablets. It all adds up.”
Sat next to her was Charlene White, 42, who said she was especially feeling the strain as she tried to save for Christmas. “My daughter has diabetes and respiratory problems, so I have to have the heating on for her; I can’t cut down. The staff are really understanding. They know why we’ve come in here,” she said.
The cafe is run by Love Your Neighbour, a national network of churches and charities working in communities, and is open to everyone regardless of whether they are buying food, and staff can waive costs for people who are desperate.
“These days we’re so busy, and kicking people out when we close is really horrible to do, especially when you hear a child say: ‘Oh, it’s cold at home,’” said Esther Rai, the head of Love My Neighbour in Birmingham. “It has such an impact on little ones. If they’re huddled under a blanket, they’re not playing. We hear children say their bedrooms are cold because parents can only afford to heat the communal areas.”
“It doesn’t just help financially, it’s emotionally too, it’s a feeling,” said Linda Jay Jordan, 33, as her five-year-old daughter Trinity ran around playing. “While you’re here you’re not thinking about the bills. It’s warm and welcoming. The atmosphere is lovely.”
Her energy bills have gone from £80 to £132 a month and she has been struggling to make ends meet. “Before discovering this place, I was living pay cheque to pay cheque and my mental health was atrocious. I feel like I’ve met my family here; I’ve come home,” she said.
To respond to rising demand, there are now dozens of warm spaces dotted around Birmingham in community centres, churches, leisure centres and libraries. All are open to the public and many provide free hot drinks and access to wider support, such as debt and benefit advice.
“The fact that we’re doing this sort of crisis response is a really damning indictment of where we are as an economy and as a society,” said Birmingham councillor John Cotton, the cabinet member for social justice, community safety and equalities, who has led the creation of the service.
“I do fear that as the winter starts to intensify, we will see more people starting to struggle, more people in real fear about how they get through the winter. We’ve already seen evidence of that in the increase of people coming to advice surgeries and seeking help from the council,” he said.
Over in Castle Vale, a large housing estate on the north-eastern outskirts of the city, Claudette Griffiths peeled off her gloves and asked staff to feel her cold hands as she arrived at the area’s warm hub.
The 48-year-old is disabled and uses a wheelchair, and had been sat at home in the cold before she came over to the Spitfire Advice and Support Centre to warm up and have a free hot drink.
“I’m too scared to have the heating on much as I don’t want my direct debit to go up, but I’m at home all the time,” she said. “I sleep in the boxroom now because it’s easier to keep warm in there.”
She relies on the personal independence payment (Pip) to get by and is struggling to find work despite applying for jobs. “I’m basically living off my savings at the minute,” she said. “What with the pandemic and cost of living, it’s all come at once and we can’t cope.”
While the council has utilised a varied range of sites for warm spaces, everything from swimming pools to children’s centres, the project has highlighted the lack of public spaces that can be turned over for this purpose.
“This is an absolute indictment in the shortsightedness of austerity,” Cotton said. “If you start to just cut away at services in the public realm, you remove a whole network of support that communities rely on.”
