No Second Night Out (NSNO), 1 Hilldrop Road, Islington, London.

NSNO's premises in Islington, London (Google Street View).

I can only describe some of the staff (perhaps some were volunteers) I dealt with in No Second Night Out (NSNO), 1 Hilldrop Road as being utterly disgusting.

On Monday 29 September 2014, having been referred here by an outreach team, I was approached by a lady I’d never met before (I find it extremely hard to use this term for her) and basically abused with an unrelentedness that might shock a Nazi concentration camp commandant.

To give indication of her vileness: At one stage she asked me for my mother’s maiden name which I supplied in writing. She looked at the name I had clearly and legibly written down and with a contemptuous and aggressive tone asked me: ‘how do you pronounce that’. I italicise ‘that’ because her emphasis was brutally and derogatorily focused on this word: the way a person might say ‘how did that get in here’ after seeing a rat in their kitchen.

I believe that this woman got a certain amount of pleasure from treating me abusively and from what I’ve seen of other staff in NSNO’s 1 Hilldrop Road premises – and my subsequent experience with its management – this mode of treatment is par for the course.

Disregarding her abusive and belittling behaviour towards me it was completely unnecessary of her to enquire the pronunciation of my mother’s maiden name. If NSNO needed to check if the name I supplied was factual then they’d have to do so in writing and not via voice over the phone or in person. It seems she didn’t get enough satisfaction with abusing me, she also needed to be abusive towards my parents.

Clip from Becky Green's Twitter account.
She’s not shy in letting people know her attitude.

Her disgusting conduct would have been clearly observable to other staff but I believe that some of them would have actually approved. A male employee approached me at one stage and arrogantly asked me if I had been in a facility in Kentish Town that morning. I hadn’t heard anything about my needing to visit the premises he questioned me about, and subsequently learned it had no special relationship with NSNO or St Mungo’s Broadway.

I informed him that I hadn’t been there which led to him checking the time and instructing me along the lines off ‘it closes in 45 minutes so you haven’t much time to get yourself out there’. It turned out that I had no need whatsoever to visit the facility in Kentish Town but yet the arrogant, and not very intelligent, chap was willing to lumber me with the trip (I think he was similar to the way a psychopathic youth tortures animals). Taking into account this fellow and the lady mentioned above and another male (who always wore a woolly cap which he kept pulled down near his lower mandible) it seemed to me that they were vying with each other about who could be the most belittling and arrogant. By this time I had basically realised that I was seeking help and advice from a clique of pricks.

On Tuesday 30 September I emailed a complaint to enquiries@nosecondnightout.org.uk and also to manager, Becky Green, outlining the obnoxious conduct of the woman who abused me and berated my mother’s name. I had no response or acknowledgement to this communication until  Becky Green responded on the 10 October; I suspect I wouldn’t have got any response from her at all if I hadn’t contacted her superior, Dan Olney, on the 7 October.

On the left is Petra Salva, NSNO's Director, as appears on Twitter, and on right is Becky Green and friend as publicly published on social media.

The gist of Green’s response was that everyone who ever went near NSNO in Hilldrop Road was infatuated with the loveliness and saintly temperament of the female who abused me and practically spat on my mother’s name. Ms Green also informed me that I was ‘booked out’ of NSNO’S facility in Hilldrop Road and that I had the option of appealing this decision.

The reason Ms Green gave for me being forbidden from following through on my referral to NSNO was that I had left on the 29 September and not made any further contact. I emailed both Ms Green and Dan Olney (NSNO’s Deputy Director) on the 14 October pointing out that it was incorrect to claim I had left on the 29 September and not made contact; I informed them about the email I had sent on September 30. Neither Becky Green or Dan Olney made any reply whatsoever to this.

It’s absolutely disgusting the way the female I initially complained about behaved towards me to say nothing of the idiotic arrogance of the others. But disgusting doesn’t describe the way Deputy Director of NSNO, Dan Olney, and manager, Becky Green, ignored me on the 14 October when I pointed out Green’s deception in saying I’d left without making contact.

Another telling point about the people who staff and manage NSNO is how a female (probably the same one I complained about on the 30 September) who works in the Hilldrop Road premises spoke to me on the 7 October. I had visited here on this day because I was using (with permission) the Hilldrop Road premises as a care-of address and was expecting correspondence, which was vital to my well being, to be sent there.

Dan Olney, NSNO's Deputy Director.   

I pressed the intercom, gave my name, and enquired if any correspondence had been received on my behalf. It was immediately barked, by a pugnacious sounding female, that there was no mail there for me and that I had been ‘booked out’ of NSNO. I then requested that they email me if the expected snail-mail should arrive. The never emailed and the government department I expected the mail from is quite efficient so I suspect that if the correspondence did arrive it was probably destroyed or returned to sender. It’s dreadful that I couldn’t even get this one item of mail through them; they wouldn’t even let me know whether it arrived or not.

Before leaving I asked if I had been removed as a client because I’d made a complaint. She responded to this by sarcastically and sneeringly saying ‘that’s right’. It might be this kind of attitude that prompted Jennie Mann to write this other critical piece about NSNO.

I find the Evening Standard’s reporting of the Mayor’s warning about a lack of care for homeless people who suffer mental health issues to be especially poignant considering the kind of people I’ve met in organisations that assist or aid the homeless. I glad that I don’t have mental health issues and to keep it that way I’d be wise to avoid those who offer aid only in connection with an equal amount of abuse and belittlement like they do in NSNO, 1 Hilldrop Road, Islington.

St Mungo’s Recovery College, 33 Rushworth St, London.

St Mungo's Recovery College, 33
Rushworth St (Google StreetView).

On 14 January I went to this facility of St Mungo’s in Rushworth St to enquire about educational courses which are being run in, what they have termed, the Recovery College. 

In particular I was interested in their screenwriting course; and would have hoped, if I’d partook in it, to have gained some knowledge and insight into the process. And perhaps would have enjoyed spending time with like-minded individuals.

But, as I’ve become accustomed to, after about half-an-hour in this Rushworth St premises I realised that any creative writing abilities I might have would be severely denigrated by St Mungo’s staff and/or volunteers.

When initially entering these premise I was about to press the intercom when a lady suddenly opened the door to allow someone else to exit. Not knowing if this woman was a staff member or another customer I hesitated momentarily in expectation of an introduction or to be queried as to what I wanted, and perhaps invited to enter.

A clip from St Mungo's website. 

After a short silence and just as I was about to ask if she was an employee and give my reason for being there she made known to me that she was displeased, as if she was impatient because of the slight delay. She hadn’t said anything to me whatsoever but instead had seemingly expected me to read her mind: without being told I should have been aware she was a staff member and that I should have simply just walked on in. On its own I don’t consider this a big deal but still not the kind of patronising attitude I’d expect from people engaged in the education and training of others.

Then I went to reception and straight away I could see that I was wasting my time. The male receptionist was hostile and arrogant, an attitude the size of Everest. This ill mannered man eyed and spoke to me like a person would a wet and muddy dog that had just trodden on their newly polished floor. 

I am currently doing creative writing and I can assure you that being in the company of aggressive and condescending people really downgrades any creativity I might have. I believe that any gain I might have made doing a screenwriting course in this facility would be diminished by the arrogant, offensive and patronising conduct of the staff.

What flabbergasts and irks the hell out of me is how these people at St Mungo’s can spend money printing and circulating flyers that advertise these courses and then immediately insult and abuse someone who shows up intending to enrol.