The hostel is a fait accompli (one-party borough), no chance of a school extension, and a very large opportunity missed. The change from nursing home to hostel involves an expensive planning application, yet none is required if changing to a school.

The council will throw all sorts of economic arguments about the expense of creating a school, permanent housing, or elderly care, but they are all outdated. Even the ‘school meals and pupils having to tread between the sites’ argument will be raised as a safety concern. A small amount of appropriate railing would solve that (most of it’s already in place).

Obviously homelessness is horrible and we should do what we can to alleviate it. Silly house prices, no affordable housing (losing your privately-rented home now accounts for 30% of cases), and benefits cuts are driving this.

Let’s hope once open there is little anti-social behaviour, but why do the homelessness units in Catford sport security guards in stab-proof vests? The Council did some poor research around anti-social behaviour and their hostels, which they will wheel out to support their case. We should have access to all the empirical evidence and methodologies used, not just the (almost fixed) results and conclusions.

The application will be fast-tracked (unlike us poor s*ds, who often have to wait soooo much longer than the 13 weeks this will take if we wanted to, say, add a shed to our roof!!).

Let’s hope this thing’s got laundry facilities, as they’ve all closed down round here (one’s an estate agent).

Watch “No Place to Call Home’ on BBC iPlayer: it’s shocking how much the kids’ behaviour deteriorated in hostels. They’re locked in and isolated, and no friends or family can visit them. A quarter of London’s homeless spend 2 or more years in temporary accommodation. Lewisham says 23 weeks will be the average at Hamilton Lodge. Welcome to Piccadilly Circus everyone…