Category: #ToryHomelessness

#ToryHomelessness

Homeless people’s deaths ‘up 24%’ over five years

From BBC News: Almost 600 homeless people died in England and Wales last year, according to official figures published for the first time.

The figure represents a rise of 24% over five years, according to the Office for National Statistics.

These are the first official estimates of the number of deaths of homeless people, which show 84% of those who died were men.

Charities say the numbers confirm what they are seeing locally.

The ONS figures show that there were 482 deaths among homeless people in 2013, rising to 597 in 2017.

At The Wellspring charity for homeless and disadvantaged people in Stockport, chief executive Jonathan Billings said: “Almost certainly, over the five or six years, it has become much more prevalent that people we are working with are passing away.”

[Read full article on BBC News website…]

More than 24,000 homeless people will be sleeping rough this Christmas, charity warns

From Welfare Weekly: More than 24,000 people in Britain will spend Christmas sleeping rough, on public transport, or in tents, according to worrying new research from one of the UK’s largest homelessness charities.

The research, commissioned by national homelessness charity Crisis and undertaken by Heriot-Watt University shows that 12,300 people are currently sleeping rough on the street and nearly 12,000 are spending their nights in cars, trains, buses or tents.

The number of people sleeping rough in England is more than double what government statistics suggest. Those are based solely on local authority estimates using local information or a physical count on one given night.

Crisis and Heriot-Watt’s research completes the picture by collating the government figures with other crucial sources of data. These include academic studies, statutory statistics, and data from other support services that record people’s experiences of sleeping rough which aren’t captured in the government’s count.

Shockingly, between 2012 and 2017, the numbers have soared by 120% in England and 63% in Wales. Numbers in Scotland fell by 6% over the same period.

Those sleeping without a roof over their head are constantly exposed to dangers, including extreme temperatures – but also to abuse, with homeless people almost 17 times more likely to be victims of violence and 15 times more likely to be verbally abused compared to the general public, according to previous Crisis research.

A recent poll for the charity by YouGov showed that the majority of Brits (61%) feel angry, upset, or frustrated about the state of homelessness across the country, and feel the government should do more to tackle the crisis.

[Read full article on Welfare Weekly website…]

At least 320,000 homeless people in Britain, says Shelter

From The Guardian: At least 320,000 people are homeless in Britain, according to research by the housing charity Shelter.

This amounts to a year-on-year increase of 13,000, a 4% rise, despite government pledges to tackle the crisis. The estimate suggests that nationally one in 200 people are homeless.

Shelter says its figures, which include rough sleepers and people in temporary accommodation, are likely to be an underestimate of the problem as they do not capture people who experience “hidden” homelessness, such as sofa-surfers, and others living insecurely in sheds or cars, for example.

Newham in east London is ranked as England’s number one homelessness hotspot, with at least one in every 24 people in housing insecurity. More than 14,500 people were in temporary accommodation in the borough, and 76 were sleeping rough. In the capital as a whole, 170,000 people – equivalent to one in 52 – have no home.

Outside the capital, high homelessness rates were recorded in Birmingham, Luton, Brighton & Hove, Slough, Dartford, Milton Keynes, Harlow, Watford, Epsom, Reading, Broxbourne, Basildon, Peterborough and Coventry.

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

A squeeze on Housing Benefit is driving more people into homelessness, says new report

From HuffPost UK: Tory welfare cutbacks are to blame for the decade-long increase in homelessness from private rented housing, new research says.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates, introduced in 2008 to calculate housing benefit for poor households, increasingly leave tenants short of the actual rent, according to a report by Manchester Metropolitan University.

Homelessness rates have more than doubled since 2010, when LHA was cut to cover the bottom 30% of the market and later frozen altogether.

[Read full article on HuffPost UK…]

“National disgrace”: At least 449 homeless people died last year

From HuffPost UK: At least 449 people died while being homeless across the UK in the last year, a shocking investigation has revealed.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in partnership with Channel 4 News, has found a former soldier, a physicist and a travelling musician were among those who lost their lives.

Among the tragic findings, one man’s body showed signs of prolonged starvation. In one week alone, 14 people died.

There is no official figure for the number of people who die on the streets, though a series of reports suggest homelessness is rising.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said: “Rising levels of homelessness are a national disgrace, but it is utterly unforgivable that so many homeless people are dying unnoticed and unaccounted for.

“To prevent more people from having to experience the trauma of homelessness, the government must ensure housing benefit is enough to cover the cost of rents, and urgently ramp up its efforts to build many more social homes.”

[Read full article on HuffPost UK website…]

The number of homeless pensioners is the highest it’s been for a decade

From The Big Issue: The number of pensioners being accepted as homeless has skyrocketed by 40 per cent in five years, according to new figures.

A total of 2,520 people aged 60 and over were classed as ‘without a safe and secure home last year’ – the highest number for over a decade.

The government figures for January to March of this year also uncovered a 54 per cent rise in single parent families forced to turn to temporary accommodation.

There has been a three per cent increase on the number of families waiting for a permanent place to stay with 79,880 altogether in hostels and B&Bs. This figure has risen by 56 per cent since the onset of austerity measures in 2010.

[Read full article on The Big Issue website…]

The Guardian view on homelessness – do ministers care?

Editorial comment in the Guardian: “The National Audit Office report into homelessness lays bare the legacy of human waste caused by the callous indifference and intellectual vacuity of Compassionate Conservatism, a Tory creed – promoted by David Cameron – where responsibility shifted from the state to individuals, families and communities. Read more

Labour MP John Healey: Homelessness has doubled since 2010 – the Tories are to blame

John Healey MP writes in the Independent: “It should shame us all that in the 21st-century, in one of the richest countries in the world, the number of people sleeping on our streets has doubled in just five years. Over 100,000 children are now sleeping in temporary guesthouses and hostels – accommodation that’s often cramped, unsuitable and short-term.”

[Read full column on Independent website…]

Homelessness at record levels as numbers rise at ‘appalling rate’ since Tories came to power

From Daily Mirror: Rough sleeping in England has hit record levels, doubling under the Tories, as a homelessness charity say numbers are rising at an “appalling rate”. The number of rough sleepers has risen by 133% since 2010, and by 51% in the last two years, according to official figures released this morning.

[Read article on Daily Mirror website…]