If you remember my first blog, I was talking about subject close to my heart (homelessness). I mentioned ‘Having been homeless once, I wanted to do something to help. I went on to study Psychology and then Chartered Institute of Housing and went into social housing. Housing people in the 90s its different from housing people in the 21st century. I supposed back then the housing stock was easily available for those on the housing list’.
Nothing has changed since my last blog on homelessness, in fact it is getting very bad especially in London. Pre Olympics homeless individuals were ‘pushed’ away from major shopping complexes into the communities. This created a lot of complaints from residents who were returning home from work or studies to find someone sleeping on their communal stairwells
or corners of their blocks or corners of their local sweet shops. After Olympics, homeless individuals or groups ( at times couples)were threatened with Fixed Penalty Noticed ( FPN) from their local council to move away or face Fines. Thankfully, due to campaigns some local council have agreed not to give FPN and instead to engaged in a meaningful conversation for a solution. A useful solution could be local Councils considering hiring and training the homeless individuals ( those that are able to work) to do useful things for the community ie sweeping local
communities to painting. Local Councils could placed the homeless in a temporary accommodation to allow them to be able to claim benefits ( most homeless people don’t have fixed abodes) with a view of them getting permanent accommodation through bidding. This idea will work for those who are willing to participate, some homeless people have been on the streets for so long it will be very hard to convinced them ie during the bad whether there was an individual who was approached and after a long conversation trying to convinced them to go to a local hotel ( all paid for, at least until the whether gets better). To cut a long story shot, they were back to their ‘spot’ within two days.
It’s going to be a long journey, but at least a conversation has started ..👍🙏