To be appalled at the growing number of homeless on the streets.

[heartskey]

There never used to be this many. I think it's scandalous that we have so many with nowhere to sleep. The government don't seem to give a toss. I can't imagine how awful it must be to have to sleep in a cold damp shop doorway on these cold nights. So many young men and increasingly young women having to sleep rough. Our government should be ashamed to just ignore what's going on. That's it really, just needed to vent.

MrsHoolies

I think thats the saddest thing I have ever read.

Snip the saddest thing is that her family saved and saved to send her here from their country 'for a better life'.

I can remember what services were like in the late 1960s: there have been massive cutbacks to many parts of the welfare state, under all governments.
Income tax was much higher then, all tax bands, to pay for that level of services.

People may say they want a decent safety net, but they continue to vote for lower taxes, or at least won't vote for any increase. Therefore, no party dares make real changes.
So the most vulnerable will continue to have less & less support, because the better off choose not to pay to support them adequately.

That's democracy.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2793881-To-think-335-000-extra-people-coming-to-the-UK-in-a-year-is-too-high?

Is no one mentioning the above thread, or is that not PC?

and btw where is khan getting 770 million to make, of all the prioities, more cycle lanes in London????? WTF????

but this gov also has the dosh to upgrade Buck Palace and send overseas to countries that cant be arsed to look after their own poor people either.

its disgusting.

and me and DC (both severely disabled) are on the possible eviction list too, as our DLA and stuff is more and more cut.

Garden bridge over the Thames?
High speed rail link?
These things are NOT more important than feeding, housing and caring for the sick, disabled and vulnerable. IMO.

exactly. endof.

its like oliver twist all over again, the government mr Bumbles in their rich warm mansions with a feast fit for Henry 8th, glowing fires, heating and hot water, and little match girls and Olivers looking longingly in the windows and being forgotten.

me and DC are disabled otherwise wed be there helping in some way..

Dickens must be turning in his grave.

I put great store on the statement that you can judge the greatness of a society by how it treats its weakest members (or words to that effect). If we judge our current society in those terms, I'd say we're doing pretty shit.

x2boys

the lady you speak of just a few years ago would never have been in that situation if she was actively psychotic and suiciadal she would have been an in patient possibly detained in hospital however due to the severe cuts in mental health services there are just not enough beds; the trust i worked for closed down about 3/4 of their in patient services leaving CMHT ,S At cisis point and not being able to provide adequate care to outpatients [who just a few yrs prior would no doubt have been considered sectionable if they had tried to leave hospital ],

Agree. Many people who are seriously ill are now no longer treated in hospital; they're under CMHT or, if they're very unwell, home treatment teams, for a short time. Hospitals now only take people in extreme crisis; the atmosphere on the ward can be awful.

The CMHTs have been cut just like inpatient services, so everyone not actively psychotic or suicidal is expected to be under primary care. CMHT staff now spend all day every day dealing with very ill people which puts enormous strain them.

Primary care has to take the weight of people who a few years previously would've had a CPN and psychological treatment with the CMHT. GPs are expected to see more, iller patients on less money, and are told by IAPT services that their patients are too unwell for IAPT counselling. Many GPs are struggling to cope mentally.

And this is for the people who are in the system.

rosetespot I really hope that doesn't happen to you, don't the council have a legal responsibility to provide accommodation when you have a child. I always thought they did. Hopefully it won't come to that for you, what an awful worry though. Good luck.

Heartskey, councils do have a statutory duty towards families with children, and other people considered to be vulnerable. However, depending on where someone lives, the outcome can be very different. In areas where social housing is greatly oversubscribed, a b&b, or accommodation miles away may be the only solution a local authority can offer. In parts of the north, there is more affordable housing available, (that was part of the story in 'I, Daniel Blake', for those who haven't seen the film.).

Much more genuinely affordable rented housing is needed, the Right to buy should be withdrawn in England, as it has been in Scotland, or at least stopped in areas where 50% or more has been sold. I won't hold my breath.

Scotland is looking better and better to me all the time. They appear to be really progressive.

The government can afford to announce £240 million for Grammar schools; don't give me all this 'we can't afford it' crap.
Cuts to benefits, the NHS and social care are down to ideology, not necessity.

What do we need to do?
What can we do?
Well, the "people" are angry. But we are angry at the immigrants, scroungers, professional beggars, people getting tax credits, people who don't work, people who own houses, higher rate tax payers, non tax payers, those who qualify for early years education when you're 2 quid a week over the cut off, the people who have a mortgage at 400 a month while you pay 1.7k in rent....
Why don't we start getting angry at the cause, not the result?
Because under austerity, we're all getting fucked over to some degree, rising prices, less jobs available (unless you're NHS or a teacher. Then there's loads available because you're all leaving in droves)economic growth is stagnating and trickle down economics doesn't fucking work. Austerity doesn't work.
But while we're angry at each other, the leavers the remainers the left the right, the black or white whatever.
Nothing. Will. Change. Ever.

hops off soapbox

I'm sorry I went on a bit of a tangent there, but everyone is suffering.
To stop it, we need to stop buying the line that it's raining when we're being pissed on.
Most of the worst things in this country relating to austerity don't effect me, but I'm from a family where it does. Try telling struggling average Joe that actually immigrants,pro beggars, benefit scroungers etc aren't the problem. They'll look at you like you've grown 10 heads.

One of the reasons why it used to be so hard to give up smoking was because, back then, you could smoke anywhere, so you were constantly in places where you'd smoked habitually and lighting up was normal to you.

It's the same with addicts of any sort. If they're in the places where they've shot up/drunk/whatever then it just being there is a reminder.

So what can be done? You can't really relocate people, can you? "Here, you usually shoot up here in London so in order for us to put you on our give-up-shooting-up programme, you'll be moved to Doncaster, and you have to undertake not to come back here for two years...."

Well said Cocklodger, totally agree. Love it when I find someone else with their eyes open.

Where do you stand on the new world order or is that pushing it a bit too far?

I wonder what it would take for the inhuman benefits system to change , in fairness its always been rude towards the claimants but with sanctions etc its worse now...i really worry about how truly how many people have died due to the benefits system, cutting off money etc, to the point where I wonder if in the same way counting dead women would bring attention to the issue would something similar re: this issue aswell...just a pondering...

heartskey Thu 08-Dec-16 17:09:35
rosetespot I really hope that doesn't happen to you, don't the council have a legal responsibility to provide accommodation when you have a child. I always thought they did. Hopefully it won't come to that for you, what an awful worry though. Good luck.

thank you,

yes but we wont know whats happening till the bailiffs give us a day that they are coming.We cannot get help unless we are legally homeless you are legally homeless when the bailiffs give you a date to move out.

So we wont really know anything till then which does not help my anxiety.

Good thread, and sadly, all too true.

My situation (and that of friends of mine) is not as bad as this but I still can't get over how in this country in 2016, I can't work full time and expect to afford to rent a modest one bedroom flat on my own in a semi decent area. So many of us in our 30s have to pathetically rent rooms in parents' homes.

What the heck happened with all this affordable housing and shared ownership etc?? Snapped up before it's built, unfortunately. And foreign buyers have started snapping up 'apartments' near me (this is frigging Guildford!), not just London now.

Fgs, what with low wages and high rents (come on, £900 minimum for an ok one bedroom flat), what can individuals even lower down the ladder than me expect to change in the near future??

meanwhile Teresa 'Christian' May and Farron all go to church on their sundays and pray for the poor in society......pray but do nothing about it.

faith without works and all that......

bloody hipocrites.

It's shocking to think that in a so called civilised country we're letting people sleep on the streets. They tell us it "only" costs us 40p each or something to provide for the queen. How much would it cost each one of us to make sure there were enough hostels in the country to make sure everyone had a roof over their heads. I'm sure most people would be happy to pay more than that for the homeless.

I've always thought sanctions were an appalling idea. Benefits are the lowest amount that is required to live in our society - and then they cut them? How are people supposed to live, on thin air? The government know damn well people are dying as a result of this, yet they're still ongoing - why why why haven't they been stopped already??

PostTruthBreakdown

I agree posttruthbreakdown totally its almost barbaric.