West Ham star Tomáš Souček: 'We cannot judge homeless people – we can only help'

When Tomáš Souček moved to London in 2020, the pressure was on.

Signed by West Ham United on loan from Slavia Prague, the Czech midfielder joined a club teetering on the precipice of relegation.

But amidst an intensive new training regime and the looming threat of demotion, Souček noticed something shocking about his new city: the staggering number of people he saw experiencing homelessness.

“Obviously, I know this from my childhood… when I asked my parents about the people who especially sleep on the street and what is it about. But by the age I was more focused on it and more even curious about it,” Souček told Big Issue.

“I came from, from Prague, we have a few cases. But I think in London is even more.”

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Five years on from the move, and the 30-year-old midfielder is a regular fixture at London Stadium (the Hammers narrowly avoided relegation in the 2019-20 season, and have stayed up since then). But the rate of rough sleeping in the capital continued to upset Souček.

He spoke to Big Issue from The Foundry, the West Ham Foundation’s new flagship community hub in East London, where staff and local organisations spent a day providing haircuts, clothing, employability assistance and free dental services to East Londoners experiencing homelessness.

Souček enjoyed “nice words” with the event’s 50-odd attendees, he said, while they attempted to construct a Lego version of West Ham’s stadium together.

“I would back, like, nearly every homeless [person], because some of them can get [into] this situation, for so so many different reasons, so we can’t judge them. we can only, I think, help them when it’s possible,” he said.

“If lots of people judge them straight away, it’s not fair.”

Teammate Konstantinos Mavropanos was also present at the event, chatting with service users as they sipped cups of tea. Originally from Greece, Mavropanos echoed Souček’s shock at homelessness in London.

“I think especially when you go to the city, you can see many people that they are homeless, they ask for just, just a bit of things that many people have and they don’t. But yeah, it’s really sad to see this,” he said.

“Everyone can give something to people that they are homeless, because really, I think they deserve more than anyone. Of course, these kind of people, they’ve been through many things that we don’t know. And it’s always kind. I think if we try and give something to them, to help them to have some things that they are missing and feel a little bit more special.”

The most recent annual count showed 13,231 rough sleepers spotted on London’s streets between April 2024 and March 2025. That’s record high and a 10% increase on the previous year’s total as well as 63% higher than a decade ago.

In 2024, the last year for which full data exists, 69,000 households were in temporary accommodation, 50% higher than a decade earlier.

Newham – the East London borough that West Ham calls home – has the highest proportion of residents in temporary accommodation; for every 1,000 households in the borough, 55 are homeless and living in TA.

Rough sleeping is also disproportionately high in the area, with the borough recording the ninth highest tallies in London. In 2023/24, outreach workers spotted 545 people sleeping rough.

John, a service user visiting The Foundry, worries he’ll have to go back to sleeping rough when his friend’s lease ends.

“I’m actually sofa surfing at a friend’s house until he gets booted out,” he said.

“I don’t know where I’ll go. I’ll deal with that when the time comes. I’m more concerned about him. I’m pretty robust, I try and live day to day. If you get too attached to plans, they get shattered.”

He got “quite a good haircut” at The Foundry event, he said: “It’s not bad, isn’t it? I’ll come back.”

The Hammers for Hope community support days only run intermittently – at a rate of “at least” one per year, Big Issue is told – but The Foundry is open for anyone to visit and access support throughout the week.

From October to March, West Ham United Foundation will also provide a night shelter every Saturday. This sees 15 rough sleepers referred by local charity, NEWdawn, access The Foundry and receive showers, food, a warm bed and support through the coldest months of the year.

Anton Ferdinand – a former player and current West Ham United club ambassador, who also played for England – said that the club has “always looked after its own”.

“As a kid, growing up in Peckham, you’d see a lot [of homelessness] around the high street. But my first real engagement, probably that I can remember, was when I was playing for West Ham,” he told Big Issue.

“I lived in Wapping, and there was this one guy that I used to see all the time on the highway at the McDonald’s with the with the petrol station on the highway… it got into a bit of a habit where every month I would bring clothes and trainers and give them to him, you know. And that was really my first encounter with somebody who was homeless.”

Homelessness can happen to anyone, he continued.

“When you speak to somebody who’s actually living it, you know. And one thing that’s a common thing that I’m hearing and speaking with people today is they actually lived a normal life, they had a house, they had a good life, had a job, and through something that’s happened in their life – within six months, they’ve lost everything you know, and living on the street.”

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