Whilst doing a very little bit to help homeless families in Bristol – my partner did all the important, collecting stuff – I learned a little about the problem of homelessness and how the situation has, dare I say it, evolved. Homelessness, rough-sleeping, I suppose for many years I had assumed, on the basis of my own eyes, that the problem was solely with drug addicts and alcoholics. These poor people are still homeless and sleeping rough but there is a very different group of people out there these days. Families with children.
There are a lot of them, too, witness the sheer number of items required to ensure they have the bare minimum of Christmas gifts, selection boxes and things to keep them warm. I don’t know numbers, but it’s not just a handful. Most of them are in hostels, B&Bs and in the houses of kindly helpers.
Many are out there simply because the money ran out. There are various reasons, of course, but benefit sanctions and benefits being stopped is right up there. These are not lazy feckless people. They are people who have hit hard times, lost their homes and everything in them, often to loan sharks and pawnbrokers. They cannot work because they have nowhere to live, They cannot get anywhere to live because they cannot work. It’s not just a vicious circle: it’s an ever spinning vicious circle.
The council, along with charities, is doing its best. I really believe that. However, money is tight thanks to enormous government cutbacks in supporting local councils. Councils like Bristol can only deal with the wreckage and misery of homelessness. It can do little to avert it. Which means that the epidemic of homelessness and rough-sleeping will grow still worse. I don’t know about you but I find it all very upsetting. I hate the idea of families losing their homes, having no security and no obvious future. How can we allow this situation to carry on?
I think it’s totally immoral and yet it’s the societal choices we make that allows this to happen. Families lose their homes and famous footballers sign new contracts that will bring them a salary including bonuses of £400k a week. I am struggling to square the circle. I don’t care what it costs. Find these people homes and help them get into work.
I also learned more about ex military personnel being on the streets. I had often wondered how and why that might be. I had thought, quite wrongly, that each and every one of them would be cared for once their service ended. That just isn’t true. In fact, there are many ex service personnel on the street and they are often the hardest to help. Not because they resent any help, they are often too proud, worse still many are still traumatised from their service, traumatised with conditions like PTSD and other mental health conditions. So often, as with homeless families with children, ex service personnel are dependant on charity. On charity. Now I am glad these charities are out there – can you imagine how life would be for these poor people without them? – but what are we thinking about?
We are still a wealthy country. Homelessness and rough-sleeping does not have to be. They are part of the economic choices we make. And if that choice is, knowingly or not, to allow the most vulnerable to suffer, what does that say about us?
The language of feckless layabouts is not relevant to the overwhelming majority of people who are without somewhere to live. They are not scroungers, they are not abusing the social security system; they need help to get back on their feet again.
My eyes were opened today at a problem that is far worse than I ever imagined. The pampered politicians who sit in parliament hurling petty insults at each other, living out their lives in the Westminster bubble need to wake up. And if they can’t be bothered to help, then we must elect people that can. Whoever they are.
