Home secretary criticised for tweets vowing to restrict use of tents by homeless people ‘many of them from abroad’

Home secretary criticised for tweets vowing to restrict use of tents by homeless people ‘many of them from abroad’

  • Bleeping LobsterEnglish
    14•1 year ago

    There are definitely homeless people who are very, very difficult to help, resist efforts to help them and in a way are homeless as a lifetsyle choice. But a vast majority of homeless people are not there by choice, but by circmunstances. They need help, not their last vestige of shelter ripped away.

    If Suella and the tories genuinely cared about solving this issue they’d be funding more hostel places, more drug treatment programmes and more social care. But they don’t, so they won’t. It’s not a coincidence that homelessness fell dramatically under the last Labour gov, while it’s skyrocketed under the tories.

    • darq
      5•1 year ago

      There are definitely homeless people who are very, very difficult to help, resist efforts to help them and in a way are homeless as a lifetsyle choice.

      I agree with this. But also at least some portion of the people within this group are there because the only other “choice” offered to them is: “Full-time employment in order to pay a landlord for a place to sleep.”

      While there definitely are some homeless people whom are very difficult to help for various reasons, I think at least one of the reasons that some are so resistant to help is because there is an assumption about what “help” looks like that goes completely unquestioned.

      • Bleeping LobsterEnglish
        4•1 year ago

        there is an assumption about what “help” looks like that goes completely unquestioned.

        100%. A lot of the hostels have a very strict ‘no drugs’ policy which, while I understand why, is simply no help to any homeless people with a substance abuse issue… which iirc, and speaking from my own experience interacting with homeless people (I was living on the streets myself at 15 and 17 so try to sit and chat when I can) accounts for a large percentage.

        Another one that really boils my piss is Emmaus. They make a big song and dance about how they’re helping people get off the streets, but you can’t claim benefits while ‘working’ for Emmaus. So they get free labour, and the people they’re ‘housing’ are then stuck at Emmaus because they have no income and no benefits. At least, that’s what I found when I dug into it a few years back.