The Guardian has a story this morning about the shocking rise in the number of people who are sleeping rough.
The government should be smashed for that rise alone. Slashing social security to the point where more and more people sleep outside in this climate is a crime against humanity in anyone’s book. Winter is freezing cold, especially here in the north west. Forcing people to sleep outside during it is murderous. Simple as that.
Point I wanted to make is that there are people who may not appear in these counts, because they have options some nights – if you can call them options – which means they have a bed or couch for that night. Their existences ain’t exactly great. They’re still street homeless. They still have appalling experiences. They are still out a lot in the freezing cold and can be out any minute in the freezing cold. Someone needs to take Theresa May to meet and count these people, and to rub her nose in a few realities.
I’m thinking of two guys in particular – James, 50 and Roy, 64 – who I’ve interviewed in Oldham. They’re both street homeless – but they’re not always on the street.
James, who I often meet with, regularly stays with his friend Vance, who was street homeless for years, but was finally found a council flat about two years ago. This arrangement works well sometimes and badly at others. Late last year, James had the shit kicked out of him – apparently by another guy who was staying at the flat. A roof often comes with considerable compromise.
It certainly did for Roy, 64, who I spoke with at length at Oldham foodbank recently. Roy was street homeless (at aged 64, if you don’t mind – a crime in itself), but sometimes stayed with a “friend” in Chadderton who charged Roy money out of his benefits to stay on the couch. He attended the foodbank that day in the hope that someone could help him find somewhere better to stay.
You see the point. When you spend a lot of time talking with people who are in and out of street homelessness, you talk with many people who are street homeless, but who are sometimes able make other arrangements that remove them from view. Doesn’t mean they’re having a brilliant time of it. I don’t know how many of these people do or don’t appear in rough sleeper counts – the Guardian article makes clear that criteria for counting rough sleepers is strict and only takes in people who are outside. Whatever. My point is that government needs to be strung up for creating this hidden rough sleeper nightmare as well. Like I say – people don’t know the half of it.
I don’t trust these “counts” of rough-sleepers. It’s not in the authorities’ interests to show the true number and I don’t see how they would know who’s sleeping in a tent in a wood anyway.
Yes that’s an interesting point. If we’re talking also about people who’ve been made intentionally homeless or who a council has decided it doesn’t have a duty to house etc – well, who at senior management/cllr level would want to draw attention to that. Especially in areas where hostels etc have been closed.
Hi Kate,
And i apologise for the very long post but, i have to get this off my chest!!
What is sad is that you cannot split the actual homeless into “homeless” & “Street homeless” homeless is homeless, there is no difference!!
This was only brought about by that pure EVIL BITCH of a PM around Xmas time trying her worst to defend the number of homeless children waking up without a roof over their heads Xmas morning without a single present to open as their parents could not afford any!!, that She actually said,, “at least they’re not sleeping in shop doorways on the streets”, what an incredible statement from an evil BITCH of a PM to make!!!
The 6th richest country in the world & the leader of that country makes a statement like that!!!! Doesn’t it say it all!??
Has anyone actually stopped to think that this Bitch running this country doesn’t have any kids?? so why should she bother what state she leaves the country in when she’s long gone!!???
I spent Xmas eve making up loads of sandwiches & food with my better half who spends many hours volunteering her time to help the homeless, for homeless shelters where we live & on the way home i couldn’t speak as i was in tears! I was in tears thinking about all those people I saw that night, that would wake up Xmas morning with no one there to say “Merry Christmas” if only the PM could experience that feeling, I’m pretty sure, (well I hope but very much doubt) the Bitch may then get a heart that actually gives a shit about the people of the country she actually represents!!!!????
So Tresamay, the very worst PM in the history of our once great country that is currently on its knees due to this totally Shite government making a complete shambles of running it!!
This country & how it’s being run makes me so very very sick to the stomach & to use the words of Mr Trump, and it’s putting it VERY Politely, this country really is a complete SHITHOLE!!
Every single MP that has a say in how this country is being run should face time in prison for their crimes against humanity. Everyone of them has the blood on their hands of every disabled person that has committed suicide due to all the cuts as they couldn’t see any other way out as there is no help for them when this government strip them of their livelihood!!
They’re all as bad as each other for failing to stand up for their constituents that actually voted them in!!
The unfortunate ones that went for an ESA assessment to be claimed they were “fit to work” even though their very own Dr said they weren’t, yet the DWP said they were due to a very unqualified so called “Healthcare Professional” who knows nothing at all about the daily struggles that person they’re assessing faces day after day & are not even qualified to make that decision!!!
Yet it doesnt matter as the government pay the company that work for them every single year very many £millions to hit targets!!!
They have the blood on their hands of the people who didnt know any other way out!!
They have blood on their hands of the ones who actually died in the back of an ambulance as there were no beds for them to be treated in time.
They have the blood on their hands of the ones who died actually waiting for that ambulance to arrive yet, due to the cuts made by this barbaric inhumane government, didnt get there in time!!!
I could go on & on but i won’t as I’ll just end up one of those numbers through a bloody heart attack from getting so wound up!!
Theresa May would’ve been hung drawn & quartered years ago for what she’s doing now. And I just prey that the people of this once great country actually WAKE UP & vote this evil Witch out before she does anymore damage to this country that many millions died for in WW1 & WW2 that would be turning in their graves right now if they could see just what this evil cow was doing to the country that they fought so very hard for!!!
May God help us!!
And what do you get from Theresa May ?
The same old slogan ‘Work Is The Best Route Out Of Poverty’, as if that says it all.
I’m not very impressed by Theresa May and her colleagues either. Did you see Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday? I couldn’t believe how Theresa May and Philip Hammond LAUGHED at the most horrendous stories, e.g. someone froze to death after waiting 16 hours for an ambulance. The Tories treat it like a game and show no compassion whatsoever. They think people will be impressed if they bully Jeremy Corbyn, but I think the public will just see how nasty the Tories really are.
I agree the system for sick benefit assessments is truly dreadful. I think a sick note from the NHS should be enough. I think they should take the money they pay Atos, Maximus and Capita and give it to the NHS. That would help the NHS a great deal.
I also think NHS funding should not be a fixed monetary figure but should go up according to the rise in the population. The tax base has risen significantly because of an increase in the population. I think the government should be obliged to spend that extra revenue on the services the extra people use.
I’m really impressed to hear of all the hard work you’ve been doing to help the homeless. My church has a weekly night shelter and all the volunteering slots get filled up months in advance, both for the evening meal and for the 6am breakfast. The local foodbanks don’t need any volunteers either – and they’ve got so much pasta and beans that they don’t want any more! It’s wonderful that so many people are so generous.
It’s a shame such generosity doesn’t extend to the Tories. I don’t think it’s about having children, though. I don’t have children, but I care. Iain Duncan Smith has 4 children and Jacob Rees Mogg has 6! They are just bullies with hearts of steel.
A commentator on TV put it very well when describing Theresa May’s interview on the Andrew Marr Show: “She doesn’t really have human emotions, does she? You say, ‘I nearly died, Prime Minister!’ and she just looks at you.”
It’s chilling to see how landlords have started charging for beds in shared rooms and now people even charge for a sofa!
i had an homeless mate sleeping on my sofa for 6 months about 4 or 5 yrs ago, fed him a big cooked dinner every night, did his washing, he had hot baths & showers each day, & he gave me the odd tenner now & then when he’d done abit of cash in hand work, but i never asked him for anything. He didnt exist on paper – didnt claim any benefits, didnt pay any tax, not registered with any doctor or dentist, had lived rough & travelled about around the country just doing cash in hand work for the last 25 yrs, unbeknown to the Authorities. I wonder how many more are like him, living an itinerant lifestyle, not on any census or elecroral role, not registered as homeless?
The government still see homelessness as largely the fault of the individuals concerned. And the whole subject is viewed as the result of chaotic lifestyles, lack of responsibility, alcohol abuse, drug use etc. Instead of looking at what are the real structural causes of these problems. The so-called ‘welfare reforms’, the lack of affordable housing, the collapse of social and outreach services. The sheer number of homeless people are the true sign of these cruel and deliberate policies.
That is absolutely correct. And it has to change. This shit is unspeakable. It is actually doing my head in.
If they cut your Housing Benefit, you can’t pay the rent. If you get evicted for not paying the rent, you’re declared “intentionally homeless”. It’s a deliberate catch-22.
They don’t house single people anyway, unless they have a plethora of medical diagnoses.
If you go to the council’s Housing Dept, you have to wait 3 hours to be seen. Council staff are beastly and bully you out of coming back to them.
Not much of a welfare state left.
In America they give the homeless one-way tickets out of state, so they can be someone else’s problem.
That’ll be the next thing here. Ordered out of Birmingham, and sent to East Anglia or Wales.
Or the Isle of Wight or somewhere else offshore.
Universal Credit has caused who knows how many evictions, and homelessness.
When the DWP owns your rent and your life, this is what you can expect.
This is still the sixth richest country in the world. Yet somehow we have moved to a situation where mass homelessness and foodbanks are the new normal.
A whole level of misery existing in and around the everyday lives of our towns and cities.
Yeah, we’ve come down to all of this just being an everyday thing for most folk. You see the homeless sleeping on cardboard on the pavement. Just get used to it really.
Once it gets started in an area then its so difficult to stop.
With the benefit cuts and everything. You see more and more on the streets, in doorways and arches. They are just being ignored and its wrong.
I find that a service or a hostel is cut. Then there is a sudden surge in rough-sleeping in that area as a result. Then people get worried and the local council do something about it.
It’s true. It’s just when you talk with people, you see how close it is. There was an interesting report in the Graun yesterday which outlined how close many people were to poverty (which would likely involve foodbanks and homelessness) – numbers of people with less than £500, £1000 savings, etc. That’s the sort of information that people need to keep in mind. It means that there are heaps and heaps of people with very little in the way of a buffer.
It’s getting that way for me.
I’m not sure how work ‘always pays’ if all these people don’t even have £100 in savings !
Surely all this has revealed is that cheap zero-hours work hardly pays any more than being on benefits in reality.
Despite all the government claims to the contrary.
For so many people work really doesn’t pay.
Course it doesn’t ! And everyone knows it.
A crap minimum-wage job means no real money whatever you do. No extra to save. Nothing you can put away. Just spend your time slaving away and others get rich off it. What’s good about it ?
What I’d like to know.
Cuts to in-work benefits such as Housing Benefit and Tax Credits have made it much harder to get by on a low income.
Problem is, in the quest to make work pay more than benefits, the Tories have removed people’s benefits. They don’t understand that that just makes people homeless, suicidal and farther from the labour market than before. It has also caused many people to die.
Aye they put the effort into the wrong side of the equation instead of improving pay regulations and making ZHCs illegal, both of which would be a start towards making work actually pay, they start stripping benefits in a bid to get them so low that work does pay. They entirely fail to realise that this only works if there is enough jobs to go round and that homeless people are not likely to be hired by anyone anytime soon.
TLDNR they should sort out homelessness and undo the benefit cuts, people will find it much easier to focus on finding decent paid work without the sword of Damocles hanging perpetually above them
£500 in savings? Dream on. I count myself lucky if ive got a fiver left in the bank.
A change of public attitude to homeless is needed. More shock and outrage, and less acceptance. It’s all too easy to look the other way and walk past, but this doesn’t change anything.
It’s that everyone is so used to all this now. Used to be much less homeless around. Foodbanks the same, who even thought about those a few years ago ? Because people are so used to it all there is just not the outcry about it.
And people don’t want to talk about, just how poor they are and how close to the edge. So many with nothing or next to nothing in savings, or financial reserve of any kind. Using credit cards to pay the rent or mortgage every month. All you need is one serious problem, losing your job, or an accident or illness and you are stuffed. That small margin is the only thing thats keeping these people off the streets.
Yes, I find that many well-paid people don’t feel they have enough money to pay bills, especially rent and mortgages. It fuels resentment of people on welfare, although there are other factors that fuel resentment as well, such as an unhappy marriage and the person’s political outlook. Some people have nothing but resent only the rich.
True, its not always down to the people. It’s down to circumstances beyond their control.
Yeah, it’s like anything. Always easy to criticise if you haven’t been there yourself.
And impossible to get work if you are homeless. So you’re stuck there with no clear way back.
There’s no sense of any great importance about the homeless from the government. They knew of course what would happen if they slashed housing benefit, and cut back on social services in the way they have done. These people who have fallen through the gaps in society have just been written off.
And it’s so hard to get back up from the street. A lot of the help has just been cut.
No more deposit bond scheme, and the councils not wanting to know if you are from out of area.
John McDonnell in the Davos conference. I wonder how many of them have ever been homeless ? Still points for trying all the same.
Another thing was stopping people claiming Pension Credit at 60.
This would have removed many of the 60+ from having to sign-on at the Jobcentre at all. No more ‘work search’ or Jobcentre workfare.
Corbyn on Brexit – the world is going one way, and he is going the other.
Labour need a system like the Conservatives, 48 letters go in and he’s history.
Fuck the Conservatives
Trev, with all due respect that’s not the kind of language that will made middle England vote Labour. Particularly here in Tunbridge Wells.
Fuck Tunbridge Wells
Nor here in Leamington Spa. It’s this kind of unthinking ignorance that is so off-putting quite frankly. Why should I or any of my friends vote Labour when this is the level of debate ?
Welcome to the Class War
Bunch of fox-butchering Tory toffs. What do you think, Trev? Sociopaths? Psychopaths? Just filthy rich?
It’s just some Troll having a laugh. The pro-hunting Country Alliance types would never vote Labour in any case, let alone for a Leftie vegetarian like Jeremy Corbyn.
Too many Tory trolls on this forum.
It was just the same on Boxing Day when some of these awful people turned up at the hunt. They stood on the opposite side of the road shouting and behaving like hooligans.
My niece Millie was riding, and her mare Bunty can be skittish if she’s frightened by loud noises. In the end the Master just told everyone to ignore them and we did. And now they want us to vote Labour ?
Are you hunting foxes? Shame on you.
Alexander, I don’t think Trev is working for the Labour Party. He’s not canvassing you. He’s simply expressing an opinion, as are the rest of us.
Alison,
What Trev fails to appreciate is that there are people of many different backgrounds in this country. It is not constructive to simply take root in class prejudice and sneer at those who may be a little more financially secure in life.
Many of these same people mean well, but will not be tempted to vote Labour while people like Trev spit at them from under their flat caps.
This is a post about homelessness. We are not having a debate about Labour/Conservative.
Take root in Class prejudioce? Are you taking the fucking piss? Who started the Calss War? Who is it who has been waging Class War against us for the last 7 bloody years? or in fact for centuries? Cloth cap my arse you patronising bastard. Either vote Labour or fuck off and don’t.
Why are these people so angry all the time ?
Furthermore why must they always have recourse to this dreadful foul language at every opportunity ? This man Trevor has been asked a perfectly civil question, and his only response is a mixture of swearing and poor grammar.
To be precise, Trev was subjected to a condescending slight about flat caps, clearly intended to insult people from his social background. I read the comment and thought it was unkind. Now he has been insulted about his grammar. I thought that was unkind and unnecessary, too. Some people aren’t that good at grammar. Some people aren’t that good at typing.
I have been insulted on this forum as well.
I think the Tories on this forum really ought to show some respect, particularly if they don’t want people to get angry.
As I have said previously, it is this sort of behaviour that shows what a Nasty Party the Tories really are.
I agree. Robust discussion re the performance or otherwise of politicians and political viewpoints is acceptable here, but I am beginning to wonder about the rest. I welcome the regular and occasional commentators who make intelligent contributions. I don’t want to have to start spending time weeding out those who come here only to be dicks. People are adults. If people want to comment, they are welcome but they don’t need to make it personal.
Tories never uttered the f-word in their lives… Highly credible.
It’s all just a load of Bull from Tory trolls who never had any intentions of ever voting Labour in the first place, as though any of my views or comments have had any bearing on their decision. Just ridiculous & pathetic. But it shows that Kate’s reporting has rattled a few cages if It’s attracting the attention of Tory trolls!
🙂
Now he’s having a meeting to decide to change the party position on Brexit. This is exactly the problem.
Is this to do with homelessness?
I think Kate’s blog must be being read in high places. No sooner does she do a piece on homelessness, Jeremy Corbyn suddenly announces a new policy on housing.
Just wait till a lot of mysterious Russians start posting. Then you know you’ve hit the bigtime.
I’m a fox and I have too say I’m getting fed up with this hunting business.
You can hardly stick your nose out of the den without hearing that trumpet thing they play, and then thirty great hounds come charging along with people on horses behind.
Then it’s every fox for himself I can tell you. I like a run myself, but not when I’m being chased by a pack of slavering hounds. It’s just not right, I don’t come onto their land and chase them about. But it’s typical human behaviour, they think they own the whole world.
Mr Fox, come over to London.. We love foxes round here. Some people even feed them!
I’m a country fox myself Alison, but I thank you kindly for the invite. I couldn’t leave my den in the woods. Fine views over the heathland nearby, squirrels in the trees, birdsong above, and always interesting shady pathways to explore. There’s a bank of heather just made for having a quiet snooze.
But I have heard that there are many amazing things to see in the City. And that humans put out large black containers full of food. Which are then collected by other humans in a large machine ? And you can get chicken, my absolute favourite, in red and white boxes ? With no feathers on ? Fascinating. I really must visit one day.
Where’s Theresa Tortoise?
I was homeless for 2.5 months last year. I wasn’t included in the numbers because I was sofa-surfing.