6th August 2024
This piece was originally published in the Big Issue.
With a new government pledging its new strategy to end homelessness, those of us working in the sector are cautiously optimistic about the future, but we’re nervous in the lead up to Autumn as multiple and converging factors could make the situation worse for people at risk of homelessness.
The cost-of-living crisis, the reduction in local authority funding, and the growing problem of homelessness among newly recognised refugees has had a devastating impact on the sector.
As a housing advisor for youth homelessness charity, Depaul UK, it’s safe to say my team and I are on the frontline. People are contacting us in tears most days and many are struggling with mental health issues, exacerbated by their situation. It’s always busy – especially in the afternoons, as people start to worry that they won’t be able to find anywhere safe to stay that night. And every day is different.
We could be dealing with people scared of gang crime, someone suffering from domestic abuse, refugees who have been made homeless because of inadequate support, college and university students with no funds, or young people who have fled home because of a family relationship breakdown. Recently, we’ve also had a surge in more people in full-time employment reaching out. Just last week, my team received four phone calls on the same day, from different young people, all in permanent employment, desperately looking for a safe place to stay.
The racial inequality we are experiencing is also shocking. People from African and Caribbean background are overrepresented in all our client groups, because of deep-rooted systemic, and socio-economic factors, and there are days that go by where we only receive calls from clients who are black.
Local authorities across the country are buckling at their knees, and homelessness services across the country are rapidly closing due to lack of funding. This is something the Government urgently needs to address. I don’t want to see people we’ve worked hard to place in safe and supported accommodation go back to square one because their local authority has run out of money.
Just like its predecessor, this Government has also promised to clear the backlog of asylum cases, which currently stands at around 85,000. We expect that most of these will be granted refugee status, so the Government must be careful not to repeat mistakes made last year, when refugees sleeping rough in London increased by 234 percent. They must work with partners like us to make sure those granted refugee status are supported to access the accommodation they need to avoid homelessness.
Then there’s the prisons system – the new government says it will cut the time served by inmates to 40 percent to create much-needed space, meaning more ex-prisoners, including many young people serving shorter sentences, facing the possibility of nowhere to go on release and urgently looking for a place to stay. New data already shows there has been a 12 percent increase in the number of people released from prison in the past year, and the number of people leaving prison into homelessness has increased by 31 percent. Like many charities in the sector, we’re ready to work with the government to ensure that people don’t end up on the street after leaving prison.
There’s also the commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’. While getting rid of the clause is fantastic news, moves to push legislation through Parliament could worry landlords who, ahead of its implementation, may be more willing to evict those who are already struggling to pay, or who they think will struggle to afford future rent increases. I’d like to see Government collaborating with stakeholders, including private and social landlords like Depaul Housing Services, to make sure that rented accommodation is still available and affordable or those who need it.
Now, I know this might all sound a bit dramatic, but when I am reflecting on these issues and how they might play out as we head into winter, I’m drawn back to a Hemmingway quote from this 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. One character asked another how he ended up broke? The character replied “Two ways. At first gradually and then suddenly.”
That’s why we need this Government to not only focus on the long-term, but urgently address the immediate situation we’re in, otherwise young people now, who will live their whole youth in insecure housing, will be affected for the rest of their lives.
Despite these concerns, we’re remaining hopeful.”
