HOW CAN ONE IN 200 PEOPLE STILL BE HOMELESS?
As the Government announces £100m to ‘end homelessness’, Francesca Cook, 32, explains how she found out it could happen to anyone
MOST PARENTS WOULD find it exciting to show their child around their new home, but for Francesca, it was one of the lowest points of her life.
She was bringing her 10-year-old daughter, Cleo, to a homeless shelter after she found herself with no other housing options when London rents increased.
‘I was trying to be upbeat, but it was agony watching Cleo’s face take in bars on the windows and woodlice on the floor,’ Francesca tells Grazia. ‘ We shared a dirty kitchen with another family and I repeated, desperately, “This isn’t our forever home”.’
Francesca was working at the University of East London as a student advisor, earning around £23k, when she found herself unexpectedly homeless.
She’d been staying with her mum until she could afford to rent, but when her mum suddenly became guardian to Francesca’s nieces, there was nowhere for her and Cleo to live.
The situation is not uncommon. Shelter estimate that one in every 200 people in the UK are homeless. The Government’s own statistics show that 4,751 slept rough in 2017; that’s 15% up on the year before.
So last week when the Government announced a £100m plan to end homelessness and rough sleeping by 2027, charities welcomed the proposals. But many fear the plans don’t go far enough.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, says that at the root of the problem lies deep instability in the rental market and problems with housing benefit. ‘If the Government wants to eradicate roughsleeping for good, this strategy must be followed by a plan to build many more social homes and efforts to create security for those struggling with rent,’ she says.
Rough-sleeping is, of course, the most extreme outcome, and the one which needs tackling most urgently. The Government has promised targeted support to get rough sleepers into long-term accommodation. But Jon Sparkes, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, says, ‘ This strategy is a positive start, but to truly end rough-sleeping the Government must commit to ending all forms of homelessness.’
Shelter point out there are currently 79,880 households homeless and living in temporary accommodation, a group known as the ‘hidden homeless’. This is the highest level in the last 10 years.
Francesca was six months pregnant when she became homeless. She gave birth to her son, Malachi, while living in the shelter. ‘He’d cry all night and keep Cleo up. Her schoolwork deteriorated and, with a newborn, my hormones were all over the place. I hated how unsafe it felt. I never dreamt I’d end up there,’ she says.
After a year in the shelter, Francesca, Cleo and Malachi were allocated a three-bedroom flat through social housing. ‘I’m incredibly lucky,’ she says. ‘I only stayed in the hostel a year. Shelter helped me and I now work for them and can relate to my clients but my experience taught me not to take anything for granted.’ Visit shelter.org.uk and crisis.org.uk