to think that in the UK people shouldn't be reduced to living in their cars/ on the streets

[Justforlaughs]

We all know that there are people who are homeless, but I think that it's quite easy to ignore and forget about. A colleague of mine, has just found himself in a difficult situation and has been living in his broken down car, on the side of the road for the last 6 weeks. I am totally ] that he has not been able to get any help. He works (very low wages) but can't afford the rents on any of the properties that are around. He is on a waiting list for a bed in a shelter. What are we doing???? It's a disgrace - not just his situation, it's just brought it home to ME how awful things are for some people.

I did (and do) think that LifepofPo but in the UK, we are supposedly one of the richest countries in the world.

Yes, if only he had, say someone who knew him from work who could lend him a sofa or do something to help.

So why haven't you offered him your sofa?

This has got to be rare though hasn't it? I mean clearly there is a homeless problem, but this guy has a job. I would have thought there would be someone he could stay with for a while in return for a small amount of rent.

Don't you have a tiny space for him to sleep in? A patch of floor, a sofa, an armchair?

I've racked my brains over where I could squeeze him in, I've spoken to him about it, but realistically there isn't anywhere. Our children share rooms as it is. I have offered him our tent and to pay for a pitch at the local site for him.

Actually it drives me mad when people say 'The UK isn't rich anymore'. The UK is rich but the wealth is only in the hands of a tiny minority of people.

For the rest of us wages have gone down shit creek and housing costs and tax through the roof and we're all fucked. Germany and France don't have this problem, their wages are much higher in real terms and the housing costs much lower. People who are in work can expect to afford a decent standard of living there.

We have these stupid housing bubbles where creating a shortage of housing and driving prices up has become an economic stimulator regardless of the fact it is pricing ordinary workers out of the market for housing. It's fucking shocking.

Why cant he have the sofa or a blow up bed in the lounge? Surely you help your friends?

If he is on a low wage then he can claim WTC and HB so no reason to be living in his car. Surely you can give him a sofa whilst he claims?

I was chatting to a young homeless woman who said that her problem was (IIRC) that as a young single woman with no children, she wasn't high enough on the council housing list to get a council housing place, that the council would pay her housing benefit and a deposit to a private landlord, but that private landlords didn't want to take her on as a tenant.

I've not seen her around lately, so I can only hope that she's found a place elsewhere.

Granted the UK isn't Monaco but as a nation we're certainly not poor - we are however blinded by the idea that somehow it is always the individuals fault for not working hard enough or living some sort hedonistic, debauched lifestyle that ends up in them needing others to pay for their mistakes that means cutting services to this group is a vote winner.

Never mind we still manage to find the money to bail out banks, countries, finance projects that are only ever meant to profit private companies etc. etc. Because clearly as a nation we would plunge into famine and disease should any of these companies pack up their toys and leave because we decide to enforce fair rules or make them pay tax.

Strange how the NHS managed to be implemented at a point in time when we were a lot more cash and people poor....

Long term OP the only real solution is to not accept the political stance of the parties we have - not easy when they're all basically the same flavour of career politician and haven't got a pair of testicles between them to actually voice and implement policies that'll upset their chances of money making opportunities.

the problem with 'private landlords' taking on HB tenants is that it is very difficult to get insurance to do so. These tenants do have a higher rate of default than others, made worse since HB is now paid to the tenant not direct to the landlord.

once tenants are in it takes months and lots of expense to remove them if they don't pay. Hence landlords are nervous.

someone in big bad government needs to think of a way round this. Landlords don't want empty properties and tenants need places to live.

Nobody who goes out to work should be in a postion where they are having to sleep in their car with blankets round them because they are so short of money they cant even afford to turn the heater on in their car.

This is so wrong in a Country which is either the 4 or 5 th Richest Country in the world in terms of GDP per Person (EXCLUDING VERY SMALL COUNTRIES ie UAE, BRUNEI or SWITZERLAND) this is why the GINI coefficient is very reliable for assessing relative poverty and we are one of the worst countries for relative poverty in the G20 wealthiest Countries. In fact i believe that excluding poor or delveloping Countries like South Africa or Brazil,our Gini Coefficient is the 2nd worst with only the USA having a worse Gini Coefficient than the uk.

You often hear people say that real poverty is in Africa and that in the Uk we dont have any truly poor people and that you cannot compare the poverty of Africa with what we witness in the uk. Poverty has to be realtive and because of the resources of this country no one who works or is incapable of work though Disabilty or lack of available jobs should be forced in to sleeping in their car.

Oh yes, I could quite see why private landlords were wary about taking on someone who would not only be paying via housing benefit, but also (presumably) wouldn't have any references from previous landlords, a current employer, etc. I suspect that once you're homeless and jobless, an awful lot of otherwise suitable options are closed to you.

YANBU. It's wrong that working in this country doesn't provide enough for the basics. If he was female he could get himself pregnant and be housed, even if it were just in a B&B. But being a single male, the country turns it's back on him despite the fact that he is working. Our system is completely unfair.

Those saying offer him a sofa, that will push him further down the list, which doesn't help him long term.

It is not fair, but it is a growing problem. I volunteer with a homeless project and the amount of people I meet in the same situation as OPs colleague is staggering. It is 2013 and we seem to be moving back to the Victorian times.

Please support the charity Shelter. They do lots of work to help housing problems among the vulnerable as well as helping homeless people.

link to website

You could point your friend in shelter's direction too, OP.

(you have probably already sought advice but just in case)

Well in the world's 8th richest country a lot of things don't add up, sometimes people are down on their luck and sometimes people don't make the right choices. I know of a woman who lives in a van but she wants to, has a perfectly good home but wants the van and her poor children also live in it.