Ken Loach backs homeless campaign
FIFTY YEARS on from the ground-breaking homelessness film ‘Cathy Come Home,’ Nuneaton’s famed film director has spoken out about the ‘shocking’ state the nation is in.
In doing so, Ken Loach has backed our ‘Help the Homeless’ campaign, to raise awareness of the support available to those who are the victims of what he described as a ‘failure by the government.’
The Palme d’Or winner is the proud patron of Doorway, which helps 16 to 25-year-olds who are either homeless or at risk of it, and has been since the charity was started two decades ago.
The 81-year-old has seen the good work that the charity carries out but the outspoken director said that the current homelessness problem is an ‘indictment on politicians and the government’
Back in 1966 he was raising awareness to the plight of the homeless in his film ‘Cathy Come Home’ and he said that he is shocked that, 50 years on, the situation is now worse than ever.
He then went onto direct ‘I, Daniel Blake,’ the 2017 BAFTA for Outstanding British Film, which looks into failures in the welfare system and its impact.
“I have a huge amount of respect for Doorway , Carol (its manager) is a terrific woman, and I have a huge amount of admiration for her,” he said.
“I am in London, so I am probably not in touch as much as I should but every time I am up, I am so pleased to be able to go and see her and the team there.”
As a youngster growing up in Nuneaton, he does not recall seeing homelessness: “I know we had what are traditionally called tramps, you’d see the same few faces but not really homeless people.
“It is shocking that that is the situation now in Nuneaton.
“When we were doing research for ‘I, Daniel Blake’ we came to Nuneaton and, through Doorway , Carol put in touch with some young people and they were hugely important to the story, really crucial.”
Talking about the national homelessness problems, he said: “It is not an indictment on society, it is an indictment on the politicians and government.
“It Is about housing, it is a market for builders, if they don’t make enough money for the houses, they won’t get built.
“There are people on the streets, sofa surfing because they cannot get a home, it is catastrophic. It is the whole fabric of society that is falling apart.
“We need more houses and we need more jobs, people are absolutely precarious, they don’t know if they will be working from one day to the next, they have no trade union rights.”
He admitted that his efforts at raising the profile of the issues is not having the desired impact: “I do feel some dissatisfaction with that, Cathy Come Home is now more than 50 years old and the situation is worse than it was before.”
The former King Edward VI Grammar School pupil said that building more council homes is key to getting people off the streets: “For me, one of the solutions is providing more council houses, built with director labour, no sub-contractors, so that it helps to create jobs too.”
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has, unlike many others across the country, built some new council houses, but Mr Loach said more needs to be done.
“It is not entirely the fault of the local government, they are starved of funds, the government is starving them of funds,” the 81-year-old said.
“They (the government) blame local authorities, but it is the local authorities that are starved of funds by the government. Some local Labour authorities, still quite right wing, they need to move with forward with the times.”
On hearing about the Winter Night Shelter that is run by churches in Nuneaton from December to February, he welcomed their efforts but said: “It is shocking that we need it, it is an absolute failure by the government.”
He is famed for his political views and he pulled no punches in terms of how he views the political landscape in his own town, saying: “It is the most extraordinary stupidity that Nuneaton has a Tory MP, he might be a nice guy, I don’t know him, I have never met him but he is a representative of a party that supports the big businesses,” he said.
In terms of the ‘Help the Homeless ’ campaign, he said: “I am pleased to support Carol, Doorway and all of the other organisations involved in the campaign, I have a huge amount of respect for them and the work that they do.
“I would say I am absolutely supportive of organisations like Doorway, Shelter and the work that they do and the campaign for highlighting them. But for me, if you don’t get involved, in terms of the movement under Jeremy Corbyn, then the reason why we need places like Doorway will never change.”