Halting the increase.
“There but for fortune go you or I”. An old protest song. But even half a heart makes the connection to homelessness in 2016.
It’s growing and more people are noticing. Social media are reflecting the anxiety. Housing charities are turning up the volume. Last weekend some of our councillors spent a night out to understand better.
At Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead we’ve seen an upturn in clients facing actual or threatened homelessness in the past year. National stats show rising numbers of ‘street homeless’.
So many causes. Relationship break-down; mental health problems; drug or alcohol dependence. All familiar to our advisers. But we can also confirm the Observer* newspaper: “The most common trigger” is tenancies ending with no alternative available.
If policy-makers want safe accommodation for everyone they must generate more homes in all tenures. If they want to stop homelessness growing only more homes at affordable rent will do.
Citizens Advice online – help on housing, whatever the problem.
* Rising homelessness is a symptom of our country’s poor social house Observer 06/03/16. Extract: The most common trigger for homelessness is being unable to find a new home when a tenancy comes to an end. Too often, we talk of the housing crisis purely in terms of home ownership, but the lack of affordable homes to rent is just as serious.