AIBU to think its not acceptable for a homeless woman to have to give birth on the street.

[Thelnebriati]

Homeless woman gives birth to premature twins on a cold street outside Cambridge University college
www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/homeless-woman-birth-premature-twins-17471458

Unless, I suppose you could say

That the increase in rough sleepers is due to society being too tolerant of people who make 'bad choices' (insert drink, drugs, debt whatever here)
And helped them so they didn't need to help themselves

And so the answer is to toughen up
Not let people think they can get away with whatever with no consequences
This will encourage better choices in society

???

I'm not right wing myself but I have read this sort of theory. Links into personal responsibility and small state, trying to think in practice how it translates to street homelessness. That fits, I think.

Now, please remind me why austerity started?

Was it because of the global recession? Which was caused by the bankers recklessness?

Ruby austerity was due to the recession caused by the international banking crisis, brought about by greed and bad practice on the part of some of the financial sector.

If I remember correctly.

The banks were bailed out at a cost of billions.

Ha xposts

It's as tragic now as it was back then but it has been a problem under the government's of all political stripes

No, this is bollocks. Homelessness has massively increased under the Tories, as has child poverty and the gap between rich and poor. This is a direct result of Tory policies (eg austerity / benefits caps breaking up communities/ bedroom tax / crippling cuts on social spending).

Those who think it's all the same no matter who's in power are lying to yourselves.

If you voted Tory you should feel responsible if you see homeless people on the streets as it's a wholly predictable consequence of Tory rule.

Austerity was a political choice. There are other economic measures that could have been used.

Who exactly is going to come on here and say YABU?

17% apparently. Fucking hell.

Homeless pregnant women are a symptom of what is going wrong in our society. They are not the cause. They are like the rash that appears once you already have a fever and chills and headache and nausea. Austerity has to have well and truly gripped hold of that persons immune system for us to be able to see the rash coming up. Yes the rash is visible and shocking, but we know the cause, right? The cause is the virus. The rash is just a symptom.

Quick Google puts lots of figures on what taxpayer paid, most common number seems to be £500 billion.

People have short and selective memories.

Aha and didn't that happen under a Labour govt who perhaps should have foreseen the effect of irresponsible lending and a false boom in the economy which was all due to the ridiculous increases in house prices?

Let's not make this into a political game. You can't just blame a party when you know nothing about the individual case.

Austerity is what's making our society sicker. I wouldn't say labour are the cure, but at least they have a political will on the left to at least try and prevent the sickness developing and getting worse.

My friend's daughter works for our local council in supporting the homeless.

We discussed this today and she said that in our area, and all areas she's aware of, they absolutely always find accommodation for pregnant women and those with children.

No ifs, no buts. ALWAYS. No woman who approaches them, or whom they're made aware of, in those circumstances is ever left on the street for even one night without the offer of accommodation.

However they won't always accept the help. Not so much the ones with children - because the support team will intervene with SS, and even police, immediately if someone attempts to make children sleep rough - but pregnant women do sometimes refuse help.

There is far more to this story than is being considered on MN.

Austerity was a political choice there's plenty of other political measures that could have been used

Yep, like giving everyone free broad band and in the meantime putting all the companies who provide such services and jobs out of business. And then borrowing even more money and getting the country further into debt for future generations to pay back. Or increasing taxes for the wealthy which may lead to them just moving their businesses and themselves out of the country. Its not always that simple, is it.

@FoamingAtTheUterus If social services had been aware of this woman, which is almost certainly not the case, she would now have been left homeless pregnant. Nonsense to say that cuts in SS are to blame when you know absolutely nothing about the circumstances.

Just puerile idiocy being spouted here about a situation unknown to everyone. Me included.

@DowntownAbby this was my initial thoughts, though I don't have any direct experience as your daughter does.

The Labour party is being blamed for the actions of international banking conglomerates?

I've heard it all now

austerity was due to the recession

Austerity began after the recession, but it was an ideological policy brought in by a party who believes in small government and seized the chance to make a huge attack on the welfare state.

We were never going to recover from austerity. There is no plan to get to better times and replace what they destroyed, no investment in the people of this country to get the economy going again and create better lives.

Instead we get Brexit - they'll sell the rest of it off now.

We are no more than cattle to the kind of elite Boris and cronies represent. They don't care about pregnant women living on the streets. They might burn some money in front of her to prove their loyalty to each other and contempt for the poor, though - this is what Boris's chums thought was a jolly jape at uni. (Boris denies he did it, but it's irrelevant whether he did or not IMO - he was part of the club, it was this kind of person he chose to align himself to).

www.thesun.co.uk/news/2833129/bullingdon-club-oxford-why-burn-50-notes/

Oh yeah I forgot about that.

What a charmer.

@phlebasconsidered, you are spot on about rural deprivation. Even for those in work, the costs of living rurally are much greater, although housing may sometimes be cheaper.

@Rubyroost

That is not true. I helped a friend who could not access help from the council when pregnant and having left her husband. She was not an illegal immigrant, she had a spousal visa and was told by the local authority although she was a taxpayer and legal immigrant working full time in the NHS,
she had no recourse to public funds and thus they could not help her. She was advised to get help from her sponsor i.e. British husband who was abusing her. She was also denied help from a refuge as she needed to pay rent upfront. Given she was also being financially abused that was a non-starter. Ask you daughter again, she will confirm they are situations the council cannot help.

My friend's daughter works for our local council in supporting the homeless.

We discussed this today and she said that in our area, and all areas she's aware of, they absolutely always find accommodation for pregnant women and those with children.

Exactly...even in austerity Britain..I don't for a moment believe the authorities knowingly allow pregnant women or babies sleep on a pavement.

Even if they're put in a b&b or hostel, they won't be sleeping on the streets.

@Fraggling my point is if you want to play a game of political football then we can blame Labour as much as Conservative. The Labour Party were in charge of the country and could have regulated the banks. As it was they allowed vulnerable people to sometimes borrow 110% - and more) mortgages with little ability to pay back such mortgages. These people were then in negative equity, a massive problem. You know this is the lovely labour party that cares about people. I wonder how much of that could contribute to homelessness. I know of quite a few who had their houses repossessed under such circumstances.

There were two long tern rough sleepers in my small city centre ten years ago. An old guy who had slept rough for decades, had been offered help from many sources but preferred to live that way, and a young guy who had trouble staying in hostels and struggled to maintain other accommodation due to his drug and alcohol issues.

Now there are people in every doorway each night, a tent city in a field next to one local landmark, another tent village next to the river and various people camping in local woods. The difference is very striking if you haven't visited the town for a while. I don't see who else is to blame but the government of the last ten years?

Mentally healthy, NT, pregnant, homeless women do not, ever refuse a warm, safe bed for the night.

The help needs to kick in well before these women become sick enough to end up on the streets refusing what little help there is left to them and it needs to be adequate enough to prevent them becoming homeless.

@LoveNote no they wouldn’t all behomec by now but first action point when elected was to make sure more people stayed warm and had access to food and warmth during winter. A Tory MP got caught charging for food bank vouchers on a app... shows who wants to actually help.