Bristol University student committee condemned for making ‘a mockery’ of homelessness with ‘hipsters and homeless’ club night

Students at the University of Bristol who were encouraged to attend a club night dressed as homeless people were so enraged that organisers were forced to change it.

The Junior Common Room (JCR) committee of students from the City Centre Living (CCL) residences had organised the night themed ‘hipsters and homeless’ to celebrate the end of the exam period at the local SWX club as part of its refreshers festivities.

However, CCL residents opposed the idea - deeming it inappropriate - and the JCR, instead, changed the theme of the event to ‘mathletes and athletes’.

Speaking with online student publication The Tab, one CCL resident, a first-year medic, described why she took it upon herself to protest the event and email the organisers to complain.

Blasting the night for making “a mockery” of people who have “already experienced such hard times in their lives,” she said: “I just think this is a really sad reflection on attitudes towards the homeless community, especially at this time of year when there is usually a far more positive change.”

It seems the event is still ruffling feathers as one student wrote under the original Tab article: “Such poor taste. I can’t believe this was condoned, especially in a city with such a severe housing problem.”

Speaking with the Bristol Post, chairman of homeless charity the Bristol Soup Run Trust, Steve Jones, highlighted how events, like the JCR one, “can trivialise homelessness,” adding: “I find it offensive. It’s making light of a problem which is growing by the day, especially with the current economic climate.”

According to its website, up to 80 people can benefit from the charity’s services each night, and Mr Jones told the Bristol Post people can’t generalise a homeless person in this way because “it’s becoming increasingly hard to know.” He added: “The days of a man with a dog on a lead are long gone.”

A spokesman for the University of Bristol told the Independent: “The JCR for CCL apologises unreservedly for causing offence. They were told by external promoters for the event the theme had been used last year. As soon as its insensitive nature was flagged up, they changed the theme.”

Earlier this year, model Ricki Hall came under fire after telling The Sunday Times in a magazine interview homeless people “can put anything together and it just works.”

He was quoted, in full, as saying: “I take style tips from everything, even kids to homeless people. They can pull anything together and it just works.”

Hall retweeted the magazine’s promotional tweet about the interview, but later added he had been “misquoted a few times.”