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.

I'm still confused at the problem of hostels. A man who has had substance-abuse issues, has been in prison, has no permanent address - oh, yes. People will be queuing up to give this bloke a job and rent him accommodation. Not. So if a charity can give that person safe accommodation and work, how is that not a start?

Anyone who is against this model clearly has a political objection, like those who knock the Salvation Army. The latter organisation does fantastic work with homeless and missing persons, yet I see people on here thinking it's ok to criticise them because of a superior religious objection.

The impact of things like child and adolescent mental health services alongside youth workers, and general MH provision is huge. For example there used to be many more targeted youth workers based in A&E departments who would pick up on young people who had been admitted involved in overdoses or domestic violence situations and start intervention there and then. However these have all been cut and only private charities are occasionally able to provide this service now. So the young person doesn't get the support and the problem goes unidentified. The increase in domestic violence is a big problem.

The main overall cause of homelessness which has risen dramatically over the last 10 years is the ending of Assured Short-hold Tenancies and the problems in the rental market...

See, this is the kind of thing I mean! Thank you, OxfordCat - that has given me a lot of food for thought.

Because you have people wondering how on earth anyone can survive on the average wage of £35000....

Whilst "income" of a disabled person, (if they can jump the hurdles to get it) can be half of that...

If they can't jump the hurdles its nothing.

Because until you see it you dont see it. And if you know it exists but you don't live it its not hard to believe its their fault, theyre the ones with the drug problem/drinks problem/depression. Why should your money as a tax payer support someone elses rent or living work free when you work for it....

From your post OP:

“And I want to know why - and why no one is talking about it (apart from us here now)”

Tory Britain.

Keep this in mind when you vote next month.

It has risen quite a bit in Glasgow too and I’ve noticed small ‘camps’ appearing.

I work for a group of companies that provide everything from million pound apartments to homeless shelters. There is no doubt that one subsidiseds the running of the other. So if you don’t sell those properties, you lose money to fund other products like homeless shelters.

Homeless shelters tend to be funded by charities or the council etc I thought.How does selling a expensive housing subsidize homeless accommodation? Do you mean through the profit companies make and therefore general taxation?

Direct and visible result of Tory austerity. Hitting the poor hardest and creating more who are left completely unsupported. Lots directly affected by savage cuts in mental health, social housing, local authority funding etc. Never known it as bad since mid/late thatcher years when eg Lincoln’s inn fields was one big campsite of homeless people.

But hey it’s ok because now there’s an election suddenly the tories have found some money (but they won’t share any figures).

Sickening just sickening.

And I want to know why - and why no one is talking about it (apart from us here now)

Yes, I would have expected this to be attracting a lot more headlines, and be a topic of general discussion. Especially as we have an election coming up. But no one I know is talking about it and I’m not seeing much coverage in the press or online. It surprises me.

Not because I’m a Mumsnet revolutionary!

It’s austerity.

No housing benefit for the young, sanctions, slashed budgets for local authorities so they can no longer provide services, zero hours contracts, universal credit, nowhere near the mental health budget needed... it takes so little for people to be knocked into a downward spiral because the safety nets we used to have are threadbare or missing entirely.

@Boysey45 no there are many companies that provide both.

The main overall cause of homelessness which has risen dramatically over the last 10 years is the ending of Assured Short-hold Tenancies and the problems in the rental market
I believe this is true.
Homeless people are no longer down and out drug addicts, many hold down jobs, houses are scarce, rents are massive, any viewing will have 30 people.
The parks in the city centre are like shanty towns at night.
Many fell on hard times through the recession too.
That and the 6 month deposit required to rent a property.

If you ever needed proof that homeless people are firmly filed under "undeserving poor"...

hostile architecture

Blame the Tories, its them who have cut drug, alcohol & mental health support, stopped housing benefit for under 25 year olds, forced anyone under 35 to only be allowed enough for a shared house & reduced council budgets to stop them building new council houses while they sit all warm & cosy in their big houses. It's then who should have blood on their hands & be kept awake at night feeling guilty about the homeless who freeze to death on our streets, something that should never happen, yet still people vote for them. When you are putting your X on your ballot paper next month, think of the homeless & don't vote Tory.

Because drunk, homeless and mentally ill people dont vote in sufficient numbers to count.

And Brexit.

Passthecherrycoke O.K thanks for that.

I think this is a political thread dressed up.

No bloody wonder with the extortionate rents in London - even for a house share. I wonder why people don't get more up in arms about this issue to be honest. The mind boggles.

@Catabogus

Yes, I would have expected this to be attracting a lot more headlines

Who owns the main stream media? Tory donors! You will never see this on their newsfeed, or if you do, it is buried.

The housing market is complicated by foreign property investors in a way that it wasn't necessarily in the past. For example, in London, high net worth individuals and investment companies are still purchasing high-end properties although at a slower rate. This has the effect of reducing the overall number of properties available which detrimentally affects those at the bottom of the property ladder.

At the same time, other foreign investors are looking more to regional centres and snapping up buy-to-let investments.

That may seem a positive but actually when housing ownership moves away from the local community to abroad, it tends to negatively impact those who are most in need.

Housing safety nets have always been community-based but if housing is owned by overseas businesses then (to be blunt) you remove the moral implications of providing housing and it becomes a financial transaction. That attitude always disadvantages those at risk of poverty.

The Tories approach has been to encourage large overseas corporate investment in the housing market at the expense of small local landlords and LAs (although they say they are doing the opposite). They've actively encouraged the commodification of the housing sector and that negatively impacts on everyone.

I think this is a political thread dressed up.

So what if it is? Life is political. Decisions made in Parliament affect real people's lives. Real people sleeping in doorways tonight, real people who can't access the support services they need because the government made a deliberate decision to cut the funding for such services. I appreciate that for anyone who is a Conservative voter that's an unpleasant fact to face, but it's the simple truth. Not everyone who is on the streets today will be there as a direct result of Tory policies, but a fair proportion of that 169% increase since 2010 will be. Cut funding and people inevitably suffer. And that's where we are today.

What @housebuyingistheworst said. I went to New York 20 years ago and couldn't believe the amount of homeless people on the streets and was more thankful that the UK at the time didn't have the problem. People just walked passed these people and I thought what an uncaring society. Now we are in the same boat. I don't know why we look to the states and copy them
It's a race to the bottom.

OpheliaBalls - your photo has me wanting to weep. So so sad. And the Tories are STILL ahead going into the election. I despair, I really do.

I think this is a political thread dressed up.

It’s not dressed up. It’s a political thread in its naked glory.

I stayed at a city centre hotel recently. It was round the corner from where my dear departed great aunt used to live in the 80s. When I was a kid she’d take me And Dsis to little park nearby and have a picnic. I thought I’d head over their for a little stroll. There were at least ten rough sleepers/tents in the bushes on a Tuesday morning. The place had changed Beyond all recognition - I wouldn’t take a kid there for a picnic now.

I see it in Westminster too. I’ve been walking the same way to work for ten years. Rough sleeping has increased massively in that time.