Tag Archives: homeless

Child homelessness numbers when Covid-19 hit the UK shame us all. What will they be by Christmas?

Stop evictions: this is a years-old image – still relevant today because of cruel Tory policies that push poor people onto the streets.

How did the fifth-richest nation on the planet manage to allow nearly 130,000 children to be homeless when a killer virus swept over the country?

The statistic should be a source of national shame, even though I’m not convinced by the Mirror‘s claim that it is the worst level of child homelessness in 14 years.

This Site reported in December 2018 that 131,000 children were set to be living in bed and breakfast accommodation that Christmas.

But I think a worse figure is yet to come.

Earlier this week, This Site commented on claims that reports of people living on the streets have rocketed since the Covid lockdown was enforced in March.

Children weren’t mentioned specifically but you can be sure that they were among those who had been turfed out into the gutter.

And how many children will be forced out of the protection of their home when the moratorium on evictions ends on Sunday (August 23) and landlords are again able to throw tenants out for no reason at all?

This Site has a tradition that I try to continue every year: in December I report the number of children set to be homeless at Christmas.

Every year since I started – back in 2012, if I recall correctly – that number has increased by tens of thousands.

I shudder to think what it will be by Christmas 2020.

Source: Homeless children hit 14-year high as 130,000 stuck in B&Bs and temporary shelter – Mirror Online

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Was the scheme to rehouse the homeless during the Covid lockdown another big Tory dud?

Robert Jenrick: when it comes to doing what’s right, it seems he’ll avoid every opportunity that comes his way.

It seems homeless people really are invisible – to the media, at least.

The Tories told us they were putting people who sleep on the streets into temporary accommodation – with a scheme called “Everyone In”.

Except it turns out that everyone wasn’t in.

Even by the Tories’ own estimation they only managed to bring 90 per cent of then-existing homeless people out of the open air and behind closed doors.

And that estimation comes from Robert Jenrick. What are his words worth?

Not a lot, it seems:

Homelessness charity Streetlink is reporting that reports of people living on the streets rocketed by 36 per cent, year on year, for the period between April and June 2020.

Notifications were also higher than the previous quarter – January to March – which is unusual as they usually rise during the winter months.

According to the relevant charities, it seems the Covid crisis – and the Tory government’s lame response – has led to an entirely new cohort of people becoming homeless as the services and facilities on which they relied closed down.

People who did not have access to public funds – and some of us made loud noises about this at the time – were particularly hard-hit, especially people from foreign countries.

So the jingoistic Tories found yet another way to hammer Johnny Foreigner.

The information puts us in a nightmare scenario of escalation, with the Tories silent on calls to extend the ban on evictions, that ends on August 23.

So it seems the plan is to dump half the population in the gutter while we’re all looking the other way.

Source: Reports of rough sleeping in UK rose sharply during lockdown | Society | The Guardian

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Is rough sleeping set to rocket amid claim Tories are quietly withdrawing hotel room funding scheme

Back to the streets: do the Tories think the coronavirus crisis is over so they can dump homeless people back on the streets?

Homeless people are set to be forced back onto the streets after it was claimed the Tory government is quietly scrapping a scheme to house them in hotels during the coronavirus crisis.

According to the Manchester Evening News,

Indeed. Here‘s RightsNet:

Others see the matter differently:

https://twitter.com/CorbynistaTeen/status/1261392134118076416

Who’s right?

Well, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?

All we have to do is check whether we see more people sleeping on the streets.

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Coronavirus: since lockdown, hundreds are now homeless in Manchester alone

Andy Burnham: he’s Mayor of Greater Manchester. What’s the situation everywhere else?

So how well do you think those Tory policies to protect us all and keep us in our homes are doing?

According to Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, 344 people had been recorded as newly homeless and requiring accommodation between the time the coronavirus lockdown was imposed and April 22.

He said 115 people were sleeping rough.

On top of this, people are being released from prison with nowhere to go, and government support – announced for people found to be homeless before lockdown – isn’t available for the newly-homeless.

Oh – and evictions haven’t stopped completely, despite Tory promises.

That’s just in Greater Manchester. What’s happening to the rest of the UK?

Source: Hundreds of people have become homeless during the coronavirus lockdown says mayor of Greater Manchester | Granada – ITV News

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Coronavirus: homeless families moved into unsafe buildings. What good will THAT do?

Unsafe: these tower blocks on the Ledbury estate, Southwark, are in danger of fire or collapse – and the council has put 60 homeless families into empty flats there.

What’s the thinking behind this? If the disease doesn’t get them, the building might collapse on them instead?

Southwark Council (Labour-run, God help them) has moved homeless families into an estate of tower blocks that require major works to make them safe from fire or collapse.

The four towers on the Ledbury estate have many empty flats because they are unsafe.

They were built using the ‘large panel system’ construction method, which became notorious after the partial collapse of Ronan Point in Newham in the 1960s.

That’s more than 50 years ago! Why was nothing done about these buildings decades ago?

Families who were living in temporary accommodation with shared bathrooms and kitchens are being moved into 60 empty flats in the towers, to allow them to self-isolate during the coronavirus outbreak.

Southwark reckons it has agreed “extra safety measures” with the fire service in order to ensure the flats are safe to occupy.

What’s the last time we heard of a council making arrangements with a fire service about the safety of a tower block? Ah yes: Grenfell Tower.

What can possibly go wrong?

Source: Inside Housing – News – Homeless families to be moved into blocks with systemic safety issues amid coronavirus crisis

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Coronavirus: Hotel housing for rough sleepers – but how do B&B users self-isolate?

Endangered: People who sleep on the streets are more likely to catch coronavirus, and more likely to have respiratory conditions that make them vulnerable to serious harm if they do catch it.

This may strike fools as foolish but the wise will understand.

People who live on the streets are as likely to catch the coronavirus as anybody – more so, as they have no way of isolating themselves and the virus can be airborne.

They are more likely to have underlying health conditions including respiratory diseases, which could make the effect of coronavirus on them far more serious.

And if they remain on the streets, they are equally likely to transmit the virus to many more people.

Soup kitchens and day centres have been closing with little or no warning.

So the Mayor of London’s office is to be applauded for booking rooms with the Intercontinental Hotels Group to ensure that homeless people have space to self-isolate.

The Big Issue has taken its vendors off the streets; supporters will be asked to provide funding online for the duration of the crisis.

But there are concerns over families who have been placed in temporary accommodation like bed & breakfast establishments by councils that could not find permanent homes for them.

That’s a fault of Tory governments, of course; council houses have been sold off without enough cash being provided for replacements to be built.

And Tory policies are likely to have put people in need of accommodation in the first place – because of the Bedroom Tax or wage depression, or other policies that clamp down on the vulnerable.

So again we see that Tory short-sightedness has endangered people.

Source: Coronavirus UK: Rough sleepers will be housed in central London hotels | Metro News

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Coronavirus: How can Scottish hotel say it’s following government advice by sacking staff?

Is this the tip of a vicious coronavirus iceberg?

Owners of the Coylumbridge hotel, near Aviemore in Scotland, have sacked 12 staff members – making some homeless after they were ordered off the premises – claiming that they were following government advice.

But the government is stumping up cash to ensure that staff can be “furloughed” – remaining employed even though there isn’t any work for them because of attempts to contain the virus.

Some of the employees were from foreign countries and are unable to return home because of travel restrictions; they have literally been turfed out onto the streets.

I wonder if other businesses will do the same or worse – unscrupulously ridding themselves of employees they consider dead weight and falsely claiming that the government made them do it.

EXTRA: It seems hotel bosses are now claiming that the staff were sacked in an “administrative error”.

How does any organisation sack people, order them off the premises, subtract pay if they have taken more holiday time than they had earned, and blame the government for it, in an “administrative error”?

Source: Scottish hotel sacks 12 staff over coronavirus making them homeless | UK news | The Guardian

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Do Tory voters even realise they voted to make kids sleep in bins – and risk dying in the crusher?

Sleeping in bins: This young woman was found in a bin in December 2018.

A refuse collector in North Wales found two children sleeping in a wheelie bin whose contents he was about to consign to the crusher.

Think about that: this man would have ended two young lives without even realising they were there.

They – and he – were lucky; according to the Health and Safety Executive, seven people have been killed in the last five years – because they were sleeping in bins.

It’s what our votes have condoned; under the Conservatives, homelessness has skyrocketed.

And their figures on the number of people sleeping rough have been found to be seriously inaccurate, recording only one-fifth of the real number.

The statistic is produced by taking a “snapshot” of the number of people found sleeping on the streets on a particular night of the year – usually in the autumn.

One is moved to ask whether those carrying out the count thought to look in the bins.

Source: Two kids found asleep in wheelie bin by stunned worker about to put it in crusher – Mirror Online

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Band calls on fans to help the homeless. Will you?

This Writer has always liked The Levellers and now I like them more.

The band is using its current tour to help homeless people in the towns where the tour will be stopping.

Here are Charlie and Matt to explain how it works:

I’ll be seeing the band at Llandudno at the end of this month and I intend to help.

If you’re a fan, check the lists on this Facebook page to see what you can bring.

Levellers have a new album, called Peace, out on August 14.

Here’s a taste of what it is and what they’re about:

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This right-wing millionaire is mocking rough sleepers with plan to make them sleep in bins

Peter Dawe: If he likes bins so much, why doesn’t he sleep in one?

Here’s the story:

And here’s the correct response:

Source: Multimillionaire invents ‘bin pods’ for rough sleepers by joining wheelie bins together – Mirror Online

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Tag Archives: homeless

Child homelessness numbers when Covid-19 hit the UK shame us all. What will they be by Christmas?

Like this:

Was the scheme to rehouse the homeless during the Covid lockdown another big Tory dud?

Like this:

Is rough sleeping set to rocket amid claim Tories are quietly withdrawing hotel room funding scheme

Like this:

Coronavirus: since lockdown, hundreds are now homeless in Manchester alone

Like this:

Coronavirus: homeless families moved into unsafe buildings. What good will THAT do?

Like this:

Coronavirus: Hotel housing for rough sleepers – but how do B&B users self-isolate?

Like this:

Coronavirus: How can Scottish hotel say it’s following government advice by sacking staff?

Like this:

Do Tory voters even realise they voted to make kids sleep in bins – and risk dying in the crusher?

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Band calls on fans to help the homeless. Will you?

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This right-wing millionaire is mocking rough sleepers with plan to make them sleep in bins

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