Recent research by homeless activists and academics warns that if existing trends are allowed to continue then the rate of poverty and homelessness will rise to unprecedented levels. Recent actions such as the emergency 'Everyone in' initiative implemented during the pandemic indicate that governments can reverse this trend if they exercise the political will and determination to resolutely act.
Some people can't resist seeing signs of imminent future events in all kinds of omens. In every action appears an omen! If a bird flies into your window, someone will die in your house, hear three taps on the door then death is coming, and if an icon falls from the wall—then troubles await you. I prefer to ignore such warnings. Two people predicted that I would be run over by a car. I ignored their warnings and was run over by a car. But I am damned if I want to become too anxious about the future and live a life of fear in dread of foreseen or unforeseen events.
I prefer to retain the little freedom I have than become a hostage of negative emotions. But there are some predictions and warnings I don't ignore. That is when charities and academics warn of soaring poverty and homelessness over the next few years.
Further, I don't think we should leave this to 'fate' or assume that it is inevitable and irreversible. The British government could do something to counter poverty and homelessness if it genuinely wanted to.
Recent research demonstrates that the rate of poverty and homelessness is set to rocket throughout the United Kingdom. The reports are not based on guess work, speculation or 'a moral panic' but proper research based on past and present economic, social and political trends. For instance, a report by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research forecasts a long recession that could last into the next decade. The number of households without savings in the United Kingdom will double to 5.3 million by 2024.
A recent study by Heriot Watt university in Edinburgh and the charity ‘Crisis’ calculates that if existing trends are allowed to continue then an estimated 66,000 will be homeless by 2024, 8,000 will be sleeping rough (sleeping outdoors, unsheltered) and 9,000 will be forced into unsuitable housing.
The organization 'Resolution' warns that 1.3 million people will be pushed into absolute poverty. Councils throughout Britain have told researchers that they can't cope with the rising applications for accommodation from people on the streets.
The main factors driving the rise in homelessness are rising rent, exorbitant increases in fuel, rampant inflation of food items, and stagnant wages which just can't cover all those rising costs. {Of course, family conflict and domestic abuse are also very important.} But a further cause is government policy which is committed to imposing harsh policies of austerity where social housing and the welfare state have been severely cut back. For example, the removal of a 20 pound universal Credit Uplift as well as failing to index housing allowance in October last year has been the last straw for many poor people. Most local authorities {78%} reported that access to the private rented sector accommodation became more difficult during 2020-21 with 57 % finding access to social housing as more challenging.
Now many families have nothing to cut back on. It is no longer a choice between eating or heating. Instead, you are both hungry and cold. Starving under blankets!
But this bleak situation can be reversed. People point to the relative success of the state's 'Everyone in' during the pandemic when practically all the homeless were granted temporary accommodation as a measure to contain the spread of Covid-19. A chemistry professor based in England told me "This action shows that the government could end this problem of homelessness if they really wanted to. But after the pandemic ended, they just put those people out on the streets again."
The measures taken by the ‘Everyone in’ initiative were that all local councils were ordered to provide emergency accommodation for all the homeless in 48 hours, evictions were momentarily banned, and poor people were given a 20 pound uplift in Universal Credit. The results were that as many as 37,000 people sleeping rough between March 2020 and January 2021 were provided with accommodation. Between autumn of 2019 and autumn of 2020 the number of people sleeping rough fell by 37%.
Unfortunately, after the pandemic finished, the moratorium on evictions, the universal credit lift, and accommodation for the homeless were lifted. A unique opportunity to get to grips with the homeless problem was wasted by a myopic and short-sighted government that refused to make homelessness a priority!
The response of some council officials in response to homeless people seeking aid can be callous. Homeless people are abandoned by the state in the name of that absurd oxymoron 'intentionally homeless.' Such a term is not only an insult to the homeless but to human intelligence.
Matt Downie, the chief executive of Crisis, a homeless charity stated 'But I am struck once again by the huge number of people facing homelessness who have to go through the often complex and frightening process of requesting support from their local council only to be told they cannot be given accommodation because they are not in priority need or that they were intentionally homeless. This was the case of at least 22,000 families and individuals in 2020-21. Homelessness should not be 'managed' in this way which says some people 'deserve' to be helped and others do not.
Homelessness should be ended for everyone. There are much more intelligent and open-minded ways to respond to homeless people. Indeed, Matt Downie argues that 'What the pandemic illustrated, in my view, is how it is possible to support more people experiencing homelessness and reduce the number of people who become homeless.
Polly Neate, the chief executive of the charity ‘Shelter,’ agrees. She states, 'Too many people are losing the battle to keep a roof over their head—struggling to pay rent and put food in their mouths. With homelessness on the rise, whoever becomes the next prime minister needs to get a grip on this crisis fast.'
Forget fate and taking on the literary belief that 'the Poor will always be with us.' Where there is a political will, there is a way to ending homelessness.