Homelessness: what can we do?

SOLVING homelessness and rough sleeping requires both funding and drive and perhaps even a change of attitude.

As its causes can range from government policy to circumstances of personal health and wellbeing, deciding on the direction of funding can be problematic when there is the need to focus on prevention as much as providing aid and support for those on the streets.

For many rough sleepers who feel isolated and alone, a shift in public attitude towards perceptions of homelessness are also important.

In recent months, the Welsh Government announced an extra £500,000 funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping across Wales.

This brings the total pot for this year to £2.6 million alongside the £6 million allocated to prevent homelessness in WG’s most recent local government settlement.

While WG’s commitment to the issue is welcomed, elements out of their control – such as roll-out of Universal Credit – could leave more people in crisis, according to Newport East MP Jessica Morden.

“More than one in four people are waiting more than six weeks for their first payment and almost all Welsh local authorities expect Universal Credit to increase homelessness in their area,” she said.

While she regularly works with Newport council, housing associations, the Citizens Advice Bureau and assembly colleagues to provide “urgent help” she believes UK Government policy is a major cause of homelessness.

The new benefit system will continue to roll out in Newport this November and the MP urged people experiencing any problems to “seek advice as early as possible.”

For Newport West MP, Paul Flynn, homelessness can only be reduced after we understand its causes - which he said are rarely a lack of housing provision.

The MP, who has written on the issue in the past, believes the main causes are addiction to drink, drugs and gambling, followed closely by family breakup and mental health problems.

He added the “best group” he has visited is Emmaus, the international charity which describes the homeless as “companions”, providing them with food and shelter in exchange for work recycling second-hand furniture.

He credited the charity’s ethos which “restores self-respect and independence” and has pressed for such a centre to be established in Newport.

As evidenced by the account of Newport rough sleeper, Ross Dewi Edwards, who we featured earlier this week, sleeping rough can be dangerous and at times, degrading.

In recent years, many individuals have attempted to launch projects to provide more immediate help for street homeless by providing them with safer places to sleep.

Charity Nests, once revealed plans to use metal ‘pods’ to provide accommodation for rough sleepers – with each pod lasting for 10 years and fitted with a toilet and solar panels.

As previously reported, charity ‘Amazing Grace Spaces’, run by Eden Gate, wanted to convert shipping containers into 285 sq ft homes with a bedroom, toilet, living room and kitchen area.

While the project is yet to materialise, Cardiff Council has now adopted a similar idea after receiving Welsh Government funding for a pilot project to site eight units at an Ely hostel.

In the past, Newport council has also floated several short term solutions for tackling the issue, including proposals for a Public Spaces Protection Order in 2015.

The controversial proposal could have seen street homeless fined for living in the centre but was rejected by councillors.

Newport council’s current policy towards the issue uses a mixture of early intervention work to prevent homelessness and work with charities, police and other organisations.

The most recent WG statistics from April to June 2017 also assessed the way 21 of 22 Welsh councils dealt with homelessness, in terms of “assistance provided” which refers to service users.

Over this period, Newport council prevented 159 people from homelessness, including 90 single person households.

But cabinet member for regeneration and housing Cllr Jane Mudd said a backdrop of “continuing austerity measures” have affected council budgets and created other issues in doing this work.

This includes increasing pressures on residents because of financial problems including benefit cuts and increased household costs.

“It must be stressed that the success of this work depends on the engagement of individuals,” she added.

“This can be problematic for a range of reasons, particularly with people who lead chaotic lives”.

Newport East AM, John Griffiths, who recently visited staff from Newport’s Wallich centre, pledged to “continue to do all he can to tackle homelessness in Wales”.

He said that “It is wrong that in modern day Britain so many people are living without a safe, warm and secure home” describing it as the result of UK Government austerity.

South Wales East AM, Steffan Lewis, also added that despite the best efforts of charities and organisations, the issue has reached a “tipping point” where it has become “so big that it is impossible to ignore”.

The only solution, he said, involves reversing UK Government welfare reforms and service cuts which “are the cause of an increasing number of people sleeping on Newport’s streets”.

Other national charities, who do important work in Newport, have also made calls for change across Wales.

Llamau, mentioned earlier in our feature series, is also the lead organisation in the End Youth Homelessness Cymru coalition, launched earlier this year.

The campaign aims to unite charities, academics, businesses, former homeless people and others to develop a strategy for the future.

With several high-profile events, the campaign has already been backed by Newport-born actor, Michael Sheen and Wales’ First Minister Carwyn Jones.

Chief executive of Llamau and Newport resident, Frances Beecher, believes that this national joined-up approach will make a real impact.

“We have heard from people across the sectors that see the level of injustice that exists in our society and that the issues of homelessness and deprivation are issues they want to tackle,” she said.

“We are all in this together, with everyone playing their part. No one person, no one organisation can achieve what we need to”.

In many ways, Llamau’s project and its focus on collaboration, communication and sensitivity is something that is being adopted in a smaller scale with Newport’s multi-agency group.

With the upcoming diverted giving scheme - encouraging the public to give money to charities rather than street beggars - charities like the Wallich will receive a much-needed funding boost to carry out their vital work in Newport.

From benefit sanctions, prison and mental health, to addiction, domestic violence and family breakdown, the cycle of homelessness is likely to continue in the short-term.

But reactive and preventative schemes, public support and better understanding of the issues involved, are important steps forward.

The heart-breaking causes and circumstances behind every person facing housing crisis or sleeping in the winter cold are often more complex than we can ever understand.

Although some people beg on Newport’s streets for financial gain, it’s worth remembering that a lot of those seen on the streets are there for genuine reasons.