Jennie Sarama
Numerical data relating to homelessness has, throughout history, been hard to quantify. Perhaps, most overwhelmingly because the term ‘homeless’ has a vast connotative reach, but also because it can be applied to those in chronic, episodic, and transitional homelessness, leading to it becoming a kind of ‘umbrella’ term.
Resultantly, a distinction between a palpable, or visible, homelessness with one that goes vey much unnoticed can be cited, which corroborates just how difficult it is to fully understand the scale of the problem and also to seek solutions to alleviate it.
Within the diverse issue presented by homelessness in the UK, there are a vast number of age-related and ethnic layers. A headline from The Guardian two months ago stated: ‘Youth homelessness in the UK has risen 40% in five years, says a UK charity’. The article went on to speak about ‘analysis showing black people disproportionately affected’, which highlights how certain demographics are more at risk of becoming homeless, or have less protection in terms of overcoming it.
Within the report, a DLUHC spokesperson stated: ‘This year we’ve invested £750m to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.’
While these claims about government funding directed towards the prevention of homelessness are commendable, there remains a disjunction between this perceived governmental action and freshly collated statistical data of increasing levels of homelessness in the UK. The severity of the issue is particularly noticeable when looking at the data within a comparative framework that considers past and present data relative to age, background, and ethnicity.
The pandemic has understandably become prominent topic within the debate on homelessness and the urgency surrounding it. Yet, it is often reproduced in reports and articles as a kind of ‘scapegoat’ for why homelessness in the UK has grown so out of hand. Whilst it is probable that a number of cases of homelessness, particularly youth, were conducive to the pandemic and the familial tensions and mental health problems that were likely to have been intensified during the lockdown restrictions, whether or not the same intense pattern between COVID-19 and homelessness can be seen in other countries in Europe is debatable. This raises questions about whether the issue comes down to a more fundamental complacency in government to implement measures and prioritise combating homelessness. The planned governmental cuts to universal credit suggest otherwise.
Last week on the 10 o’clock BBC News, it was reported that 1 in 53 people are currently without a home, with 170,000 people homeless in London, and 86,000 of those being children. Whilst factors like increased pressure due to the housing crisis, the pandemic and austerity were all acknowledged as contributory factors in this national problem, a particular interview revealed how the lack of response from local councils was equally to blame for families remaining in temporary accommodation. Therefore, imposing the question of whether enough is being done from those in positions of power to facilitate much-needed plans to overcome this growing issue.
Despite this, there remains a number of ways that the average reader can help. The most straight-forward being a donation to charities like Centrepoint, or even stopping on your way to work and buying a homeless person lunch/a hot drink. Apps like StreetLink are another new and technological way of encouraging the public to alert local services to people sleeping rough in the streets. It works on the principle of using the app to highlight a street name where there is a homeless person, allowing those involved in outreach services/charities to visit that person and offer accommodation for the night. Whilst this is by no means a long-term solution, it is an important step, bridging the gap between homeless people and others in society.
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Featured image courtesy of Jon Tyson on Unsplash. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
