The number of people sleeping rough in Towns and Cities up and down Britain has soared by up to a third since 2010, figures show.
Perhaps unsurprisingly – considering the higher than average housing costs – London has one of the highest rates of homelessness with 6,437 people saying that had slept rough in 2012/13, up 62% in just 2 years.Most startling of all is the revelation exposed in a recent report published by the charity Homeless Link, which shows that 14,000 sixteen and seventeen year olds had asked their local council for help last year after discovering they were about to be made homeless.
The Chief Executive of Homeless Link, Rick Henderson said:
“The effects of homelessness upon 16 and 17 year olds can have a massively negative impact on the path their life takes, yet too many local authorities are failing young people when they are most in need.
“Our partners in the sector are leading the way with innovative and effective programmes to support young people and help them get their lives back on track. We strongly encourage local authorities to follow these good examples and act now to ensure young people receive the help they need and are entitled to.”
Leo, who was forced to sleep on friends sofas just a few short months after his 18th Birthday, told Sky News:
“I feel lonely and like I don’t really have a voice. I’m not really accountable for anything despite going to college. I don’t feel like a real person.”
Experts agree that homelessness is a complex issue with many different causes including family breakdown, unemployment, low incomes, lack of affordable housing and cuts to local support services.
Campaigners claim that welfare cuts are likely to have an even bigger impact on homelessness figures, as those in receipt of benefits, and who are often unable to work due to sickness or disability, see their benefits slashed and are now expected to contribute toward council tax rates for the first time, together with the impact of the coalition government’s controversial ‘bedroom tax’ on housing benefit and other welfare cuts.
Campaigners also say that homeless statistics do not take account for the ‘hidden homeless’, and that the true figure for the number of people sleeping rough on Britain’s streets, or friends sofas, could be much higher than official figures suggest.
Government ministers insist they are taking homelessness seriously and have pledged £400 million for local councils to assist them in helping those faced with a life on the streets.
Communities Minister, Don Foster said:
“We have one of the strongest safety nets across the world. If you look, for example, at rough sleeping in London, out of the 6,000 people in the last 12 months only 14 of those were under 18.”
- See more at: http://welfarenewsservice.com/britain-rocked-by-homelessness-crisis/#.Uf6zgW19ak8
