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It feels so strange not to have been in Central London for weeks now.
It's a horrible irony that people are homeless who previously worked in hospitality.
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Funny how good opportunities sometimes get wasted, eh?
Depressing, but entirely expected.
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A report on recommendations by the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness:
Bob Blackman said the government should now seize the opportunity to introduce the “housing-first” model, which sees rough sleepers given a permanent place to live as a priority before interventions in any other issues in their lives. This initiative is already used by a number of other countries such as Finland and Denmark.
“It is my belief that the housing first model is the way to deal with what will be needed after coronavirus,” he said. “Here, people who are rough sleeping are taken off the street and given a property, and then assessed as to what their needs are. Support is then placed around them, and any medical needs are attended to so that they can recover and move on to a normal way of life”.
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Let's see how this works out. I do worry about 'housing units' being low-quality, poorly located, etc.
Who will deliver it? Councils or private agencies? No details yet.
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An unusually informative article on the current situation. If her reporting of the Windrush Scandal is anything to go by, I hope Amelia Gentleman continues to report on this issue. Much of the information that is interesting here is provided by Sadiq Khan:
The government has said about 90% of rough sleepers have been housed in hotels. However, Khan said this was not the case in London, where 400-600 newly homeless people were arriving on the streets every week. “The government is not helping us with the new people on the streets,” he said.
(my emphasis)
It's very far from over. I wonder if those new arrivals are more people who have become homeless as a result of the coronavirus crisis. We heard earlier about the homeless hospitality workers, but most of those were probably working in London when the crisis hit. If those other people are 'arriving in London', they may have had other jobs elsewhere.
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Some more funding has been announced:
Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of Crisis, called the extra funding “a real step forward”, but added: “Money alone will not provide a guarantee of safe and secure accommodation during and after this public health crisis. We need emergency legal measures to ensure that every local council can provide housing support to everyone experiencing homelessness, regardless of their immigration status.
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I suppose it's anyone's guess what's going to happen now--homeless people are still very much at risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and of spreading it, which was the reason why some of them/they were taken off the streets in the first place. It doesn't look to me as if beyond the temporary accommodation any work has been done to get them permanently under cover. :(
This is on top of the looming evictions threat:
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Eviction ban has been extended if I understand it correctly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53851945
Problem punted down the road. By four weeks.
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Thanks, I can't imagine that they'll actually do anything meaningful, though. I'd love to be surprised.
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Contrasting approaches to homelessness in Dorset (where I hope the hateful nonsense proposed won't get anywhere) and Wales:
If Wales can pull this off, it will be amazing. I still hold out little hope for any lasting improvement in England.
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Ten years of disgusting vandalism in social policy = a 170% increase in rough sleeping in London:
The statistics, released by the Greater London Assembly, show that 10,726 people were seen sleeping rough in the 12 months to the end of March this year.
That amounts to a 21 per cent rise on the previous year and is nearly 170 per cent higher than the 3,975 figure recorded in the 2010/11 financial year.
An analysis included with today’s statistics suggests that the sharp increase could be partly down to more extensive searching as a result of extra funding for outreach workers under the government's rough sleeping initiative.
The statistics – which includes the discovery of 7,053 sleeping on the capital’s streets for the first time – will nonetheless add to concerns about the scale of the problem in London and the failure of efforts so far to address it.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/rough-sleepers-london-record-high-a4543741.html
Guardian story:
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Fortunately, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Tories don't have a majority there, but always great to do a spot of victim-bashing, right?
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Charities have just re-iterated the call to repeat the 'everyone in' approach, and warned against communal winter night shelters:
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Often-overlooked rural homelessness:
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Ah, those sunlit uplands ...
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Rough sleeping is often an indicator of developments that have hardly been noticed because the people whom it affects have no voice. This is worrying:
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Still wondering what's going to happen this winter ...
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Thanks, Al. I really hope that doesn't affect too many, but it's known that there were people who stayed outside during the first lockdown. I imagine something similar will happen again. Hope everybody stays safe.
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So depressing, but obviously expected.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-return-pandemic-levels-rough-sleeping-b943464.html
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About
Homelessness
Posted by
@Oliver Schick
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/19/fears-of-catastrophic-coronavirus-outbreak-among-homeless-in-hostels