7 ms·

A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)

107 points by vermilingua 3y ago

thinkingemote 3y ago
(2020) Its an amazing article but I seem to recall photographs being used.
thom 3y ago
He later escaped from prison and as far as Google seems to know is still free.
- vic-traill 3y ago
  Came to the comments to see if anything was known about him post-escape. My google-fu fails me in finding any info regarding capture. Maybe his is still at large? He apparently escaped on Oct 15 2020 [0], smack dab into the middle of the pandemic. A national lockdown came into effect in early November 2020 [1] - how the hell would that work for him? [0] https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/hampstead-heath-gunman-escapes-prison https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/hampstead-heath-g... [1] https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/timeline-lockdown-web.pdf https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/file...
usrbinbash 3y ago
> Van Allen had budgeted £100 for the job, and come in under. I have a question to people in charge of politics everywhere: Given how much money governments spend on nonsense, why can't we take some money, and build simple, but quality and stable shelter for people? If there are 100.000 homeless in a community, and 2 people manage to build that sort of shelter, with what they could get in tools and materials for <100 Pounds, why can't we say "Okay, let's budget 200 per shelter, but do it with professional builders, better tools and materials, and no requirement to hide it."? 1,000,000 // 200 = 5000 Shelters. Oh, and that shelter served 2 people. So to house 100,000 people, this would need 10 Million pounds. And that's before we factor in economics of scale. Let's acknowledge what a difference the existence of even a simple shelter makes in the life of a person: They have a stable base of operations to sleep, keep their posessions, a postal address, a place to wash up and prepare food. They know that place is there at the end of a day, eliminating some anxiety. They have a place they can heal when they get mildly sick. They won't be sick as often, be in better physical and mental shape. As a result they have an easier time finding jobs. So building these shelters doesn't even have to be a charity...it's literally an investment into a societies economic power that pays dividend over dividend. So WHY AREN'T WE DOING THAT ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE?!?
- strangesmells06 3y ago
  We have wars overseas to fund!
- leoedin 3y ago
  I agree governments often inefficiently spend money, but > Professional builders In a high cost of living area the cost of labour is the main cost of building. If you spend £200 on materials but it takes you a week to build, then you're at £1000 labour minimum.
- mattlondon 3y ago
  Because a) he "stole" the land he used (land is really expensive in the UK and especially London) to build the shelter, and b) if the shelters were built officially there are of course rules to follow that I guarantee you this guy did not follow - e.g. fire safety. If the government built shelters out of some off cuts of wood and tarpaulin and then loads of homeless people burnt to death one day in them, who do you think will get the blame?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - Paul-Craft 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - Lio 3y ago
      Bollocks it was! Hampstead Heath was in private ownership from before 986, before the Doomsday Book even. Then it was purchased for public use in 1870 odd. The name Van Allen implies Dutch ancestry and, according to the article, he has a Yorkshire accent, so it sounds very implausible that a public park in London was "stolen" from his ancestors. He has no more right to deprive other people of the use of this land, by building a private residence, than anybody else. The solution to homelessness in London is through government building public housing to replace all housing stock they sold into private ownership not from individuals nabbing their own bit of a public park. We could back that up with better provision of the mental health services that have been de-funded over time.
hurryer 3y ago
This location is ground zero of the London champaigne socialists.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
(2020) Lots of previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22493078 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22493078
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
bell-cot 3y ago
Something worth noticing, as you skim the story: - The "criminal" was a kinda-disabled, middle-aged homeless man - who dug himself a hidden little cave, to live in, in a public park. Zzz... - The law enforcement response (time, manpower, escalation up the counter-terrorism command chain) was massive, idiotic, and a huge waste of public resources.
morsch 3y ago
If you can get your hands on it and haven't seen it, watch the documentary Dark Days about people living in railway tunnels below NYC. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_(film)
- dithered_djinn 3y ago
  https://youtu.be/9zxPozP4yoM https://youtu.be/9zxPozP4yoM
lrvick 3y ago
I love seeing this creativity, but I hate the system that causes people to have to live this way. I was homeless off and on for years, blending in. Crashing in college campus common areas, or living in my car. Bumming showers from friends once in a while or paper towel baths in gas station bathrooms. Would sometimes sleep in the trunk when it got cold enough. I was normally employed, had friends, and most knew nothing of my living situation. I knew how to hide. Part of that invisible homeless population. Thankfully I had my youth, my health, and the will to find many types of work, save, find my way out. Most are not so lucky. Later, on my feet, I would often try to help visible homeless I had developed some empathy for. One day handing out 50 sandwiches at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, like I did every month, I was given a warning by a police officer to stop. I tore it up in front of him and dared him to arrest me. I was already out of food for the day so he walked away. Dozens of others who doing a larger scale regular feedings with Food Not Bombs were actually arrested over a few months. Feeding 25 people was the limit, and cops went in undercover plain clothes to catch who would commit the crime of feeding the 26th hungry person at Lake Eola park. They would often arrest the homeless too, for loitering and other such nonsense. Friend of mine had been arrested for this, and then repeatedly arrested over a dozen times for failing to pay the fines, jail costs, and court costs related to the previous arrests and so on burning endless taxpayer time and money. At least he got a hot meal and a bed in jail some nights. Once in a local court myself for a traffic citation, I saw a man in front of me issued a $200 fine by a judge for holding up a sign asking for money in a public place. The homeless are not helped in most of America. They are not seen as human, but as vermin to be removed, along with anyone that gives them too much unsanctioned help. You can hardly blame them for breaking a few laws to survive, when it is against the law for them to even exist.
- phero_cnstrcts 3y ago
  But sending billions of dollars to fund wars overseas is done because it’s humanitarian and the “right thing to do”. How the homeless are treated tells me all I need to know about the people in power.
  - shreyshnaccount 3y ago
    Aid sent abroad isn't humanitarian, it's to buy political and strategic favours from autocrats.
m-i-l 3y ago
The article suggests he got sand from the "sandy carpark". While it is true that there are parts of Hampstead Heath with a lot of natural "bagshot sand"[0], it is a bit further away from the bunker, and is fairly compacted and difficult to access. On the other hand, about 2 minutes from the bunker, there is a children's playground with a sandpit, and that year I did notice the sand disappearing from the sandpit more rapidly than other years (I used to joke that it was all coming home in my children's shoes). It's a minor point, but makes you wonder if there are any other minor points that might not be quite right. [0] https://walksonhampsteadheath.co.uk/sandy-heath/ https://walksonhampsteadheath.co.uk/sandy-heath/
- blamazon 3y ago
  The article does poke a little at that aspect: > The bunker would need a lot of wood. He later insisted this came from fallen tree branches.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
e12e 3y ago
(2020) - but not much discussion here at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30626598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30626598
pierat 3y ago
In capitalist societies, homeless is a required thing. Even if it didn't exist, it would have to created. What, what? Why? Homelessness is the ultimate threat in capitalist societies. "If you are not independently wealthy, or make money for someone who is wealthy, this is your threat". That threat goes alongside destitution, hunger, low/no healthcare, and other threats. Even being is illegal. Just yesterday, my SO forgot their wallet. They had $3 in their car. Went to a gas station, and the attendant said "The homeless shelter is that way. We dont want your kind here. LEAVE." This is also the societal part of the capitalist threat made good on by even members of society. Lest to say, they're a masters graduate of a highly prestigious university, and work a high paying job. Homelessness is a government-created phenomenon. We could solve it, but we choose to use it as the ultimate threat if you do not behave and aren't wealthy. (The wealthy have their own legal system, and are roughly immune to most problems. But that's a different post.) ------------ When capitalists review socialism and communism, they talk of "how many millions of dead people they caused". However when capitalists review their own policies leading to homelessness, destitution, starvation, etc; it's ALWAYS the individual's fault. And those millions affected/dead are just 'individual failures of bad choices from (insert vice of choice here)'.
testemailfordg2 3y ago
Sadly this is the state of capitalism, we are currently in. Not everything should be done for profitability in the name of capitalism. There should be some legal guarantees to a citizen by the state and not leaving them homeless, hungry, uneducated, ill are quite basic.

107 points by vermilingua 3y ago

thinkingemote 3y ago

(2020) Its an amazing article but I seem to recall photographs being used.

thom 3y ago

He later escaped from prison and as far as Google seems to know is still free.

vic-traill 3y ago
Came to the comments to see if anything was known about him post-escape. My google-fu fails me in finding any info regarding capture. Maybe his is still at large? He apparently escaped on Oct 15 2020 [0], smack dab into the middle of the pandemic. A national lockdown came into effect in early November 2020 [1] - how the hell would that work for him? [0] https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/hampstead-heath-gunman-escapes-prison https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/hampstead-heath-g... [1] https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/timeline-lockdown-web.pdf https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/file...

usrbinbash 3y ago

> Van Allen had budgeted £100 for the job, and come in under. I have a question to people in charge of politics everywhere: Given how much money governments spend on nonsense, why can't we take some money, and build simple, but quality and stable shelter for people? If there are 100.000 homeless in a community, and 2 people manage to build that sort of shelter, with what they could get in tools and materials for <100 Pounds, why can't we say "Okay, let's budget 200 per shelter, but do it with professional builders, better tools and materials, and no requirement to hide it."? 1,000,000 // 200 = 5000 Shelters. Oh, and that shelter served 2 people. So to house 100,000 people, this would need 10 Million pounds. And that's before we factor in economics of scale. Let's acknowledge what a difference the existence of even a simple shelter makes in the life of a person: They have a stable base of operations to sleep, keep their posessions, a postal address, a place to wash up and prepare food. They know that place is there at the end of a day, eliminating some anxiety. They have a place they can heal when they get mildly sick. They won't be sick as often, be in better physical and mental shape. As a result they have an easier time finding jobs. So building these shelters doesn't even have to be a charity...it's literally an investment into a societies economic power that pays dividend over dividend. So WHY AREN'T WE DOING THAT ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE?!?

strangesmells06 3y ago
We have wars overseas to fund!
leoedin 3y ago
I agree governments often inefficiently spend money, but > Professional builders In a high cost of living area the cost of labour is the main cost of building. If you spend £200 on materials but it takes you a week to build, then you're at £1000 labour minimum.
mattlondon 3y ago
Because a) he "stole" the land he used (land is really expensive in the UK and especially London) to build the shelter, and b) if the shelters were built officially there are of course rules to follow that I guarantee you this guy did not follow - e.g. fire safety. If the government built shelters out of some off cuts of wood and tarpaulin and then loads of homeless people burnt to death one day in them, who do you think will get the blame?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- Paul-Craft 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - Lio 3y ago
    Bollocks it was! Hampstead Heath was in private ownership from before 986, before the Doomsday Book even. Then it was purchased for public use in 1870 odd. The name Van Allen implies Dutch ancestry and, according to the article, he has a Yorkshire accent, so it sounds very implausible that a public park in London was "stolen" from his ancestors. He has no more right to deprive other people of the use of this land, by building a private residence, than anybody else. The solution to homelessness in London is through government building public housing to replace all housing stock they sold into private ownership not from individuals nabbing their own bit of a public park. We could back that up with better provision of the mental health services that have been de-funded over time.

hurryer 3y ago

This location is ground zero of the London champaigne socialists.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

(2020) Lots of previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22493078 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22493078

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

bell-cot 3y ago

Something worth noticing, as you skim the story: - The "criminal" was a kinda-disabled, middle-aged homeless man - who dug himself a hidden little cave, to live in, in a public park. Zzz... - The law enforcement response (time, manpower, escalation up the counter-terrorism command chain) was massive, idiotic, and a huge waste of public resources.

morsch 3y ago

If you can get your hands on it and haven't seen it, watch the documentary Dark Days about people living in railway tunnels below NYC. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_(film)

dithered_djinn 3y ago
https://youtu.be/9zxPozP4yoM https://youtu.be/9zxPozP4yoM

lrvick 3y ago

I love seeing this creativity, but I hate the system that causes people to have to live this way. I was homeless off and on for years, blending in. Crashing in college campus common areas, or living in my car. Bumming showers from friends once in a while or paper towel baths in gas station bathrooms. Would sometimes sleep in the trunk when it got cold enough. I was normally employed, had friends, and most knew nothing of my living situation. I knew how to hide. Part of that invisible homeless population. Thankfully I had my youth, my health, and the will to find many types of work, save, find my way out. Most are not so lucky. Later, on my feet, I would often try to help visible homeless I had developed some empathy for. One day handing out 50 sandwiches at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, like I did every month, I was given a warning by a police officer to stop. I tore it up in front of him and dared him to arrest me. I was already out of food for the day so he walked away. Dozens of others who doing a larger scale regular feedings with Food Not Bombs were actually arrested over a few months. Feeding 25 people was the limit, and cops went in undercover plain clothes to catch who would commit the crime of feeding the 26th hungry person at Lake Eola park. They would often arrest the homeless too, for loitering and other such nonsense. Friend of mine had been arrested for this, and then repeatedly arrested over a dozen times for failing to pay the fines, jail costs, and court costs related to the previous arrests and so on burning endless taxpayer time and money. At least he got a hot meal and a bed in jail some nights. Once in a local court myself for a traffic citation, I saw a man in front of me issued a $200 fine by a judge for holding up a sign asking for money in a public place. The homeless are not helped in most of America. They are not seen as human, but as vermin to be removed, along with anyone that gives them too much unsanctioned help. You can hardly blame them for breaking a few laws to survive, when it is against the law for them to even exist.

phero_cnstrcts 3y ago
But sending billions of dollars to fund wars overseas is done because it’s humanitarian and the “right thing to do”. How the homeless are treated tells me all I need to know about the people in power.
- shreyshnaccount 3y ago
  Aid sent abroad isn't humanitarian, it's to buy political and strategic favours from autocrats.

m-i-l 3y ago

The article suggests he got sand from the "sandy carpark". While it is true that there are parts of Hampstead Heath with a lot of natural "bagshot sand"[0], it is a bit further away from the bunker, and is fairly compacted and difficult to access. On the other hand, about 2 minutes from the bunker, there is a children's playground with a sandpit, and that year I did notice the sand disappearing from the sandpit more rapidly than other years (I used to joke that it was all coming home in my children's shoes). It's a minor point, but makes you wonder if there are any other minor points that might not be quite right. [0] https://walksonhampsteadheath.co.uk/sandy-heath/ https://walksonhampsteadheath.co.uk/sandy-heath/

blamazon 3y ago
The article does poke a little at that aspect: > The bunker would need a lot of wood. He later insisted this came from fallen tree branches.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

e12e 3y ago

(2020) - but not much discussion here at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30626598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30626598

pierat 3y ago

In capitalist societies, homeless is a required thing. Even if it didn't exist, it would have to created. What, what? Why? Homelessness is the ultimate threat in capitalist societies. "If you are not independently wealthy, or make money for someone who is wealthy, this is your threat". That threat goes alongside destitution, hunger, low/no healthcare, and other threats. Even being is illegal. Just yesterday, my SO forgot their wallet. They had $3 in their car. Went to a gas station, and the attendant said "The homeless shelter is that way. We dont want your kind here. LEAVE." This is also the societal part of the capitalist threat made good on by even members of society. Lest to say, they're a masters graduate of a highly prestigious university, and work a high paying job. Homelessness is a government-created phenomenon. We could solve it, but we choose to use it as the ultimate threat if you do not behave and aren't wealthy. (The wealthy have their own legal system, and are roughly immune to most problems. But that's a different post.) ------------ When capitalists review socialism and communism, they talk of "how many millions of dead people they caused". However when capitalists review their own policies leading to homelessness, destitution, starvation, etc; it's ALWAYS the individual's fault. And those millions affected/dead are just 'individual failures of bad choices from (insert vice of choice here)'.

testemailfordg2 3y ago

Sadly this is the state of capitalism, we are currently in. Not everything should be done for profitability in the name of capitalism. There should be some legal guarantees to a citizen by the state and not leaving them homeless, hungry, uneducated, ill are quite basic.