|
Homelessness won’t just disappear.
Many people feel frustrated that numbers seem to be increasing and wonder
what can be done to help. Unfortunately, there are no quick fix or single
remedy solutions - clearing our streets of rough sleepers may be cosmetically appealing - but the real solutions lie in sensitive and often long-term support
and rehabilitation.
One needs to read the story of each homeless person’s life to understand homelessness and why so many people are without adequate shelter and lacking the skills to cope with independent living. As each page is turned new insights
and explanations start to emerge and it is then that we see that to be homeless
is the result of a combination of events and problems. Problems, which are sometimes short term, but more commonly full of vexing and entrenched issues and behaviour.
Take a mixture of mental health problems, family breakdown, erratic school attendance, low educational achievements and learning difficulties, followed
by inevitable consequences such as minimal skills, poor job prospects, abusive relationships, vulnerability and loss of confidence, and one starts to appreciate the problem.
When a homeless person comes into one of the hostels that Church Housing Trust supports, staff encourage them to face up to problems, to get help and take advantage of the various projects and programmes on offer. These provide homeless people with a real chance to turn their lives around by learning life skills such as budgeting, cooking and basic health care; acquiring job skills and gaining access to housing and support networks.
Some Figures…
| As a whole, Britain has a staggering 380,000 homeless people living in hostels, in temporary B & B accommodation, or sleeping on friends’ floors [1] . This does not include visible street homeless. |
| Of young homeless between a fifth and a half have been in care. Young homeless are twice as likely to have been physically or mentally abused [2]. Within the Church Housing Trust supported hostels, two thirds of 18-25 year olds cited family conflict as the main reason for becoming homeless. |
| Of women and children, 17,000 women are currently homeless as a result of domestic violence. There are 100,000 households in temporary accommodation waiting to move into suitable homes. [3] |
| Of the 3,500 homeless staying in the hostels that Church Housing Trust supports, 80% are male, one in 10 were formerly street homeless, one-third recently attempted suicide. |
[1] Hidden Homelessness: Britain’s Invisible City, Crisis, July 2004
[2] Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's quarterly statistical release on homelessness, 2003
[3] Government report,16 June 04
|
