Is it all the Tories fault that there's so many homeless people?

[Rosepetalgeranium]

There's so many more homeless thesedays. Is it down to austerity?

Not entirely no but it's a huge part of it all there cuts have had a knock on effect which has seen an upsurge in homelessness and universal credit made it 10x worse

Yes. Even the Tories themselves admit it.

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/24/housing-secretary-james-brokenshire-admits-tory-policies-blame-homelessness-rise

I'll caveat this by saying that I'm a regular volunteer at two local soup kitchens, as well as making up kit bags for the homeless on my travels. I've been working in one of those kitchens now for around 15 years and in that time I can tell you that there are the perpetual homeless. For a variety of reasons they will always end up back on the streets. Each case is unique and also quite sad. It isn't usually down to any one thing but a combination whereby they simply can't cope with life. It is usually a mixture of mental health problems (long term and short term), some form of non-neurotypical mental disability (or whatever the current PC thing is to describe it, things like autism seem to factor high in the perpetual homeless I know), substance abuse, family issues, ex-forces etc. They existed prior to the current government and I've no reason to believe they wouldn't continue to exist even if they were made millionaires tomorrow. They are vulnerable people for a variety of reasons.

Now that said, there are many that pass through the groups I work with that have fallen on hard times and certainly austerity hasn't helped. Is that entirely the fault of the Conservatives? I'm not sure. Lehman Brothers crashing (the trigger for the recession) certainly wasn't anything to do with them. Could they have handled things better? I don't know that either. Could the previous government have made life a little bit harder for those claiming benefits in the 90's so that the current government didn't crack down too far with their current measures? Again I don't know. However I don't think you can give this entirely to the current government to shoulder.

Remember too there are a much wider and more long lived issues such as the lack of social housing, the numbers of private landlords who wouldn't rent to people in vulnerable situations etc. Locally we've had grassroots movements creating tent cities in nearby towns and cities as safe places with heating, water, food etc for the homeless which are broken down and everyone evicted from because "they're unsightly" or they "attract crime" etc. All they really do is allow people to live in a little closer to normality and peace. That's not especially down to the national government, although I would love for them to create a law preventing councils for doing such actions.

This last month we've been bombarded with adverts on TV for things like Crisis at Christmas. It's a wonderful charity and an excellent goal. How many people have given, and then given themselves a pat on the back and felt they'd done enough? Perhaps some of the problems of homelessness are a problem with society as a wider concept. Look at the times the homeless have been attacked, even killed, when they've done nothing other than sleep. There was a homeless man a year or so ago who couldn't get out of his sleeping bag in time to prevent being kicked almost to death. If he'd have got out of his bag, I promise you he'd have flattened the entire group that attacked him (he was ex military, I forget which branch now but seriously a fit and very strong person). Yes (I hope) those folks who view the homeless as vermin, lower than the low etc are few and far between but sadly they exist in this society, and I'm not sure there is anything the government can really do to stop that. But as a society perhaps we can. Perhaps we can take a stand against people in our circle who express hate towards those on the streets instead of doing the British thing of not getting involved.

I'll stand down off my soap box now. =)

So many causes for homelessness, too many to blame any one single thing.

But I think the rise is definitely to do with Universal Credit and the disability assessments brought in by Tory government.

When you're living close to homeless and the government then mess up the small amount of money you get, through sanctions or built in waiting periods etc, to end up homeless and screwed.

Yes it bloody well is despite Brokenshire's witless mutterings. The last Labour government made strenuous efforts towards getting the homeless off the streets and Osborne's austerity has ensured they are returned there in increasing numbers and added the necessity for food banks into the mix.

Why didn't the last Labour government build millions of homes for the poor, you know, "social housing"? Why didn't they ban "right to buy"? They hardly built any new social homes in 13 years of power.

Instead house prices rocketed, buy-to-let boomed, the benefits bill went crazy paying huge amounts of housing benefit to private landlords and Tony "Socialist" Blair now owns multiple homes and is a multi-millionaire.

Sure, the Tories are shit, but please, don't forget that a lot of these problems were started or perpetuated by Labour.

I don't remember Corbyn promising to spend £billions on high rise flats. Corbyn was obsessed with giving rich students a free university education.

I've seen a lot more spice addicts around too wonderful zombies everywhere it's appalling how fast my children got used to them on the streets it used to be don't talk to strangers now it's see a person on the streets are they breathing? Yup do they have a kit with them? yup move on then report them to the local charity to check up on them (if they have no kit the charity can supply one it's easier if they know before they approach them 🤷‍♀️) literally nothing more you can do if you give cash they remember you and approach you again if you give food same deal leave it to the experts who are unpaid volunteers

Why didn't the last Labour government build millions of homes for the poor, you know, "social housing"?

You realise it's not as simple as that? You also realise that they didn't necessarily need to build millions back then as the homeless population was much lower?
You also realise, of course, that back in the time of the last labour government, council housing took up around about 1% of all new homes being built. These days it runs at a staggering 1.6% ish of all new homes being built.. a real time increase if 0.6%
True same time as this .6% rise in new council properties, the Tories have cut infrastructure and services to the core. To the point where the support networks fighting homelessness that Blair started to get in place has all been torn down and destroyed.

Now it's late, I could supply links to most of the facts, but Google is a thing.

There is no simple path of give a homeless person a house and all is lovely. People end up homeless for all sorts of reasons but the intervention services that might prevent that happening have been cut to save headline costs under austerity and the cuts to local authority funding.

@DoctorTwo

When a homeless person IS allocated somewhere they already owe rent and council tax as soon as they move in Rental deposit and unless they find all of the council tax straight away they have to deal with a bureaucratic tantrum demand for all the years council tax at once. a. that is frightening and hard to cope with. b they simply havent got the money.

Yes, and the specific increase in young homeless in particular. Multi factoral and as their different cuts hit the most vulnerable

You can no longer get housing benefit under 25 I was kicked out at 18 relied on housing benefit for a few months while I got a job sorted these days I would be on the streets and my chances of finding work would diminish

AnnieOH1

Very intetesting post. So whats the best way to give some help to those who are likely to be perpetually homeless. As an individual?

Yes op. Yes it is 100%
They are the current government and so have the power to get it sorted.

They choose not to and that is a utter disgrace

And also responsible are the people who voted them in!

There is no one reason why, unless you want to score political points then it can be reduced to "the evil tories".

Successive governments have had an input, the recession, not following EU regulations and deporting those EU migrants who end up on the streets.

It's multi faceted, but on MN the answer can just be blamed onto the Tories

The cuts in mental health services must have a big impact too as I'd imagine a huge percentage of homeless people have had MH problems which contributed to their situation.

I do not think there is any doubt that austerity (a totally unnecessary policy inflicting much pain on those already disadvantaged) has increased homelessness. The reasons that people finish up on the streets are many and varied, but many relate to untreated mental health problems and addiction, as well as absence of suitable social housing. The weaker the health and social services become, the more likely it is that people will fall by the wayside and finish up on the streets.

Does the government give a toss? Hmmm.

And selling off council houses has been advantageous to the few, but totally misses the point as to what it is basically for.

@FusionChefGeoff I agree. I think long term cuts in health service have left vulnerable people without anywhere to go.

Although long stay hospitals were awful places. And they system needed to change. There are a group of people who just struggled to cope in the community. And what little support was in place is no more.

imo it started with care in the community and that was when?
but the present government is to blame as they are in power now and have been for a very long time. yet the problem is getting worse.
its not just the visible homeless. its people in b and bs , people living in poor housing conditions.
we need more social housing. we need less private rental.

I do not think there is any doubt that austerity (a totally unnecessary policy inflicting much pain on those already disadvantaged) has increased homelessness.

No austerity is not unnecessary hence why its an EU policy, its basic economics that when the tax receipts are lower than government spending then government spending needs to be reigned in, the investing into infrastructure that gets parroted still requires some austerity.

They cut all the budgets in order to have money to sustain the housing bubble. Because people demand house prices go up (of all political stripes) and if the politicians fail this they get voted out. I see this more as a tragedy of the commons. This problem started before the Tories took over and unfortunately I don't see anyone willing to fix it, not even Corbyn. When the Tories came to power they threw the UK economy under the bus in order to save house prices (the bank bailouts are loose change compared to the money they are pumping into housing via IR, TFS, HTB, and more). The nature of bubbles is they don't have a point of equilibrium, so they either keep inflating and swallow up even more of the economy or they pop (and that's what ended the last Labour term).

I don't think we can expect for the previous social nets to be restored for a while, the UK economy has major structural problems and many voters don't want the government to turn shelter into a commodity. But meanwhile we can ignore economic complexity and replace it with emotional outrage, it feels better and makes it easier to point the finger at someone and pretend those pointing the fingers are the "good guys"

The fact they become homeless?

No, not all the Tories fault.

The fact they stay homeless, unable to access MH/drug and alcohol support/housing/benefits? Absolutely. And deliberately too.

There are a significant number of perpetually homeless people who will never be in long term accommodation.

These are people who have an extremly complex and chaotic lifestyle with substance abuse, mental health issues and any number of other needs. Maintaining a home, paying bills, buying food and even keeping clean might be basic skills to you, but for some people, those things are too difficult. Also, a lot of people assume that homeless individuals are all basically good people who are juat down on their luck. This is extremly naive. Alot of "homeless" are professional beggars or people who have accommodation but are so familiar with the lifestyle that they still turn up at the soup kitchens for a free meal. A lot are also dangerous individuals who will do serious harm to you if they have the opportunity. Most people will give to charity or by a homeless person a coffee but as bothered as they pretend to be, I don't see anybody offering them a room in their own house.

Yes. I moved to London in 1998 and there were people on the streets, a couple of years later it became rare to see any at all. Until 2010, when you started to see people sleeping rough again. And now there are loads, more than 20 years ago.

My DB is officially homeless. He is not on the streets as my DPs agreed to let him move on there. He has a history of mental health problems and substance abuse. He has lived in various private lets and claimed Housing benefit.

He has then; robbed from the meter, consistently caused anti social behaviour problems, accidentally set it on fire etc. He has been evicted from at least 5 places.

How do we deal with this? he lived in a neighbouring local authority (not on Universal credit yet) and received a decent amount of money a mental health worker and a drug support worker. Now he's with my parents on Universal Credit and on a lot less and is only seeing a mental health worker as it's court ordered.

Which comes first mental health problems or substance abuse ? how do we house people with such anti social /criminal type behaviours? Why are drugs so rife and normalised now? I can certainly see the benefits to the state to keep this sector of society nearly comatose