About homeless people?

[Catabogus]

Am I being unreasonable (or more likely, dim) not to understand why there are now so many more homeless people on the streets than there were 10 years ago?

I’m partly talking about London - I have started going semi-regularly in the early morning for work, and I am shocked to see very how many people there are now obviously sleeping on the streets. It’s far, far more than 10 years ago.

But I’m also talking about the much smaller city where I live. There are now people almost ‘camping’ in doorways: they’ve set up sleeping bags and boxes and cardboard and are obviously there night after night, in the cold and rain.

There have always been one or two well-known “tramps” in my city, and one younger man who was suspected of actually having a nice home to go to at night despite making money from begging in the day, but these are now young and old, men and women, far more than I’ve ever seen before, and they are clearly living year round, day and night, in all weathers, on the streets.

AIBU to be shocked? Are we going backwards as a society? Is it the benefits system that is failing and causing this? Or other things I’m missing? I feel really depressed about it.

Catabogus Are we talking about Bournemouth by any chance ? The homeless problem is much more defined than it used to be .On a short walk from the square to Arcade about a dozen rough sleepers . Really bad .

I am sceptical about the illegal immigration argument. All of the homeless people I have spoken to (or overheard) in my city appear to be British. Same with most of those I have spoken to around King’s Cross Station in London.

I don’t doubt that there are plenty of irregular immigrants in the UK but I don’t think that is what is striving street homelessness.

Catabogus Are we talking about Bournemouth by any chance?

No, not Bournemouth. I’m sad to hear it’s bad there too.

Because of nearly ten years of Tories who don't give a fucking shit.

Some are faking it, we all know it happens. Dp catches the train to work with a couple who hop on and change into their homeless clothes in the loo every morning

Fascinated by this. I worked with the homeless for years and it's hardly a lucrative gig to be worth faking – nor worth putting up with the violence and abuse regularly received.

Not every homeless person smells bad and sleeps in doorways. The 'hidden homeless' population, sofa-surfing and vulnerably housed, is far greater.

But unfortunately there's very little public sympathy for the ones without a dirty face, so... I wonder if your DP's couple are having to dress up like Fagin because otherwise nobody will take their issues seriously?

I don't know this, of course, but I very much doubt they're a comfortably-off middle-class family. People don't do things like this because it's fun.

Around where I am, many street drinkers are Eastern European.

The local AA have sessions in Polish and Lithuanian.

That doesn't mean they're homeless, though.

So far we have as explanations: changes in benefits system, decline in support for homeless-specific services, cuts to other services (eg mental health), decreasing availability of social housing...

Plus irregular immigration which I am not so convinced about.

It’s truly shocking. We are a rich country - one of the world’s richest. Yet we have people sleeping on the streets, and presumably, come December/January, some will freeze to death.

I don’t know what we can do about it.

I was going to name change but can't be bothered. It's a major reason why I struggle to leave an abusive relationship. I tried a few years ago. At the time I'd saved up some money, enough to pay several months rent. No landlord would take me. A few would have accepted a guarantor but I had noone. I'm not writing here for sympathy. I just hate the myth that mostly people are homeless because they're unable to cope with running a home. You need a home in the first place to be able to run it. In the past, it was the case, you could relatively easily rent on benefits (I did when in low income work requiring top up benefits). So generally homeless people were those in need of help and support, probably supported housing. Now the financial safety net has gone. Landlords understandably won't let to someone without the means of paying. Market rents are higher than benefit amounts.

Homelessness has absolutely rocketed in the town where I live. There's numerous reasons for it - reduced spending on support schemes including mental health is one, but I suspect that the main factor is the loss of places to sleep - the council shut three of the shelters in the area as a cost cutting measure, which was a lot of beds lost, and there was a big derelict building, where a number of homeless used to squat for a couple of years, that was demolished and turned into luxury retirement apartments.

You used to see two or three rough sleepers, a couple more beggars during the day. Now there's easily 20+ regulars.

Around where I am, many street drinkers are Eastern European.

The local AA have sessions in Polish and Lithuanian.

That doesn't mean they're homeless, though.

I’m not talking about street drinkers though - I mean those who are actually asleep on the street at midnight, and are still there at 5am.

I work for a retail business that has a big problem with rough sleepers in doorways, under fire escapes etc. Part of my job is to find solutions to stop them sleeping there ( though I do also guide local staff with referrals to local organisations too). I usually find out that our staff are helping them with food, clothing and sleeping bags etc even though they cause problems for for them and they get to know their background. Yes the problem has increased massively over the last 4 years and it's all over the UK. When I started in this team we had maybe half a dozen problem sites a year, now it's 3 or 4 new ones every month.
Very few of the rough sleepers at our sites aren't of British origin. For some reason a lot are Scottish. Most of them were in care as children, oquite a few are ex armed forces. Mental health issues appear to be the main driver and, if they aren't abusing drugs or alcohol when they start rough sleeping they soon are to cope. The women often avoid the hostels as they feel safer of the streets.

West London Mission Sep 2019

"Westminster, London's wealthiest borough, also has the label of having the largest numbers of homeless people anywhere in London. It's a contrast that highlights all too well the massive gap between rich and poor in 21st century Britain."

"This is nothing new, however. Westminster's wealth has always attracted those who are in desperate need of it."

"What is new however is the stark fact that there has been a big spike in the number of homeless people in Westminster who have travelled here from Europe."

"And worryingly, it's been made clear that some of these rough sleepers bedding down in Westminster could have been victims of human trafficking."

"It comes as the latest data revealed that there are “very high levels of new people coming to the streets of Westminster from around the world”

"A street count in July found 389 people on the street–with just 123 who said they were from the UK and Ireland.This means there are “significant challenges” and limited help on offer for people who are not entitled to welfare support."

www.wlm.org.uk/news/the-shocking-rise-in-the-number-of-eu-citizens-who-are-homeless-on-londons-streets

Jesus, plantlife , I’m sorry. That is truly shit.

Very few of the rough sleepers at our sites aren't of British origin

Yes, that is strongly my sense too.

I don't think you can just blame the torys for the problem. Yes austerity hasn't helped but they inherited a mess from the last labour government.

The country was in a poor state before this Tory government, and has been for a long time. Priorities haven't changed quick enough, budgets have been cut and funding taken from where it was needed so that now there is very little in the way of proactive help and it's all reactive, under funded, under staffed and difficult to access.
UC is not working, but it can't just be changed overnight. One of the issues I have seen professionally is that you have people who have been on housing benefits their whole lives and had rent paid to their landlords directly who are now expected to it themselves so are suddenly given more money than they've ever seen and just don't understand how to budget so that rent doesn't get paid, the end up in arrears and it spirals. Many people on long term benefits like that have physical or mental health issues which again compounds the situation.

There are also those who are homeless due to addiction/MH and do not want to, or cannot, engage with agencies to help them and so will remain homeless because they can't be forced to engage.

I find it truly strange that as an adult, OP, you are only just noticing this now. Its not a new issue, I've been aware of the growing homeless population since I was a teenager living in a large city. I have often visited Manchester for work and there are huge numbers of rough sleepers any time of the day or night.

The number of homeless people rough sleeping has risen steadily every year since 2010, with a tiny decrease last year. We should hang our heads in shame.

metro.co.uk/2019/01/31/165-increase-homelessness-since-tories-took-power-8419274/

It's complicated.

Dh and I were discussing this only yesterday. For a start, in the affluent city near me there are quite a few homeless on the streets. In the nearer, very non-affluent town, there are none. So one could surmise that they tend to congregate where there are more likely to be sympathetic donors.

In London, in particular, many are not British. It would be simply impossible to give anyone who came here a flat/house. And these properties would be unlikely to be in London.

Additionally, some people cannot be housed . It's unfortunate, but some people have had housing, and have abused this. There is one family locally who have been evicted from several council properties. It is simply unfair on their neighbours - fellow council tenants - to have their anti-social behaviour inflicted on them. Thus this family have been pictured living on the street - but what is anyone to do if they commit arson/racist abuse/use the garden as a toilet...

I don't think you can just blame the torys for the problem. Yes austerity hasn't helped but they inherited a mess from the last labour government.

Pretty strange that the rise has been relentless since 2010. Of course you can and should blame the Tories. The country’s in a far worse mess now than it was in 2010.

Clavinova I am not talking about Westminster. I suspect that might be a special case. But even there, you are saying a third of street sleepers are from the UK ?

Of course people-trafficking is a concern, but I am certain that’s not what is going on in my small town. Many homeless people on the streets seem to be young British women.

Universal Credit. We'll have workhouses next. Mark my words.

The Tories will market them as the generous answer to the homeless problem. They won't call them workhouses of course...but that's what they'll be.

They will call them something like "Re-engagement Community Homes" or "Community Settlement Centres" or some nonsense. And people will be made to work there to pay the "rent" for a room and board. The work will be menial...packing stuff for use in hospitals and schools and suchlike.

I've worked with females released from prison (often for petty crimes such as shoplifting, we're not talking murderers) and they have been given a pack with a tent upon release. This wasn't that long ago either. Many female homeless have been sexually assaulted (not saying it never happens to males, but more frequently females), or they are coerced into sex in exchange for a bit of food and a bed for a night. It isn't just young women either, I've seen women in their 60's being told they can't be housed. And what private landlord is going to take someone fresh out of prison? Ironically they end up back in prison again because they've shoplifted so they can eat, or been arrested for begging where they've previously been banned from.

The worst of it will be this...it won't be drug addicts and "traditional" homeless people in them. It will be lone Mothers and single young people who have no family to support them. Care leavers and so on.

They will be "sold" their place on the basis that if they work hard, they will eventually be able to move out and into a rental....having first "proved their worth".

@LakieLady same here! We also had 16. We are down to 5 receny, but have actually just been able to recruit 2 more which is great. So much more work involved since the introduction of the HRA, admin work I mean.