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Homelessness

awkwardbydesign said:
I consider myself fortunate to have escaped that life, but I know there are plenty who, for one reason or another, feel unable to use the "official" bodies set up to cater for them. So although I have given to a homeless charity I will still give to individuals on the street.
BTW, refusing to give to one because you can't give to all is a cop out to make yourself feel justified in not giving. Find a better excuse.
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Thank you for your story, and the insight it offers to this thread.
The advice is contradictory on this thread though, some saying 'offer food', you saying 'give money'. While I accept your point (though not the accusation that goes with it), I'm still left with the dilemma as to a) how to decide whether giving money will help, or make things worse, and b) who should receive it.

Do I just give to the first couple of people I see? Do I just give to the first couple of people I see who will benefit, not make things worse (and if so, how do I pick)? Or do I have a strategy (day 1, first couple, day 2, second couple, and so-on)?

This is a, slightly flippant, response to a, slightly offensive, reply to something I said earlier. It does, however, reflect what is a genuine dilemma, not merely an excuse not to give.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
It does, however, reflect what is a genuine dilemma, not merely an excuse not to give.
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I have also been somewhat troubled by charity, and it is only recently I have started to give to the homeless again. I take each person as I find them, and I am not concerned with what they do with the dosh. I gave one poor wretch a £10 note the other week, he was over the moon and I felt really embarrassed, but it will not stop me from repeating this, maybe a fiver max next time.
My daughter, trustingly, gave £10 to a homeless woman recently, They talked and walked together for a bit, and when she boarded her train, realised her phone had been stolen. It may have been a coincidence but she figured it was the girl. Next time she said she would get the money out first before giving them money.

Bloss
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
This is a, slightly flippant, response to a, slightly offensive, reply to something I said earlier. It does, however, reflect what is a genuine dilemma, not merely an excuse not to give.
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You may find it offensive, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. And you appear to be over-intellectualising the whole thing. Even slightly flippantly.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Do I just give to the first couple of people I see? Do I just give to the first couple of people I see who will benefit, not make things worse (and if so, how do I pick)? Or do I have a strategy (day 1, first couple, day 2, second couple, and so-on)?
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I think some would argue that we should never underestimate our ability to make a difference to just one unquestionably worse-off person on any given day. Perhaps even two or three, but not necessarily ten or twenty and probably not two hundred or ten thousand. Just one person. The fact that we might not be able to help scores on a daily basis is irrelevant because although small contributions may be insignificant against the bigger issue, such contributions to just one person can be very significant indeed. You could simply decide to give something, perhaps a pound, to the first person who asks for spare change or simply give it to someone who's obviously in need of financial help and take it from there. If I go to town tomorrow, I'll give a pound to the first person who asks for change or obviously needs it more than I do myself. Who knows, I might even give another pound coin to someone else.
 
This is a genuine thing BTW but I just don't carry cash anymore. I dont even have cash for parking I use ringo or what ever. I cannot remember when I last had money in my pocket.
 
my wife who is also passionate about these matters will go and buy them food rather than give money as she feels they may possibly misuse
 
Darmok said:
Under Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, squatting in residential property became a criminal offence on 1 September 2012

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...hment_data/file/220062/squatting-circular.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/aug/31/charities-end-squatters-rights-homelessness
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Absolutely typical of the Tories. There are 20,000 empty properties in London, but you can no longer squat them. It is appalling given how many are sleeping on the streets in freezing weather.

If you do squat, the police will evict you, plus you can be fined up to £5,000 and imprisoned for six months.

There were loads of unemployed people squatting when I was young. A number of my friends did. The criminalisation of the squatting of is another indicator of just how much the Tories hate the poor.

Jack
 
Mullardman said:
There have always been a few homeless. However, the MASSIVE increase has nothing to do with the World Economic Crisis, or the EU, or anything similar. It is entirely caused by Tory Govt policy. End of.

Also as hinted above. Mealy mouthed crocodile tears and platitudes from the likes of May and her crew are just insulting to everyone who has a brain. I've said it more than once. Don't judge them by what they say.. but by what they do.
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Which policy do you have in mind?

As usual, Mr Mullardman, why would your post be no surprise.....nice to see a thoughtful, balanced post from you for a change


I guess you would accuse “evil Tories” as responsible for eveything bad...


You really do have a chip on your shoulder...

Simon
 
I usually ask them if I can buy them a cup of coffee or something to eat, or if there's anything else they need.

My wife works with kids who've been taken into care, many of whom came off the streets. You wouldn't believe the life many of them have experienced, and the events that lead them to the street.
 
My only hope is that Corbyn gets in and says very firmly that these IS such a thing as society... and that his actions are as big as his words.
 
Simon Vess said:
Which policy do you have in mind?

As usual, Mr Mullardman, why would your post be no surprise.....nice to see a thoughtful, balanced post from you for a change


I guess you would accuse “evil Tories” as responsible for eveything bad...


You really do have a chip on your shoulder...

Simon
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mmm now I would consider myself a tory but a close friend who is pretty disabled had her pip taken off her and were it not for the strenuous efforts of a barrister friend attending the tribunals etc would now be suffering a great deal . heaven help ordinary folks who don`t have barrister friends . not only that but as I have mentioned earlier because of the benefit changes a local housing project for the vulnerable is shutting down . now I expect labour would be just as bad but it does stick in the throat
 
Simon Vess said:
Which policy do you have in mind?

As usual, Mr Mullardman, why would your post be no surprise.....nice to see a thoughtful, balanced post from you for a change


I guess you would accuse “evil Tories” as responsible for eveything bad...


You really do have a chip on your shoulder...

Simon
Click to expand...

Whereas you have a totally balanced view?

You my friend, are in deep, deep denial.

Homelessness in England rises 54% since 2010 | The Independent
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www.independent.co.uk › News › UK › Home News
30 Jun 2016 - Homelessness has increased for the sixth consecutive year Getty. Homelessness among English households has risen 54 per cent since 2010, according to government figures. A report, released by the Department for Communities and Local Government, reveals there were 57,750 acceptances in ...
Homelessness set to rise by three-quarters in next decade amid ...
www.independent.co.uk › News › UK › Home News
10 Aug 2017 - Homelessness set to rise by three-quarters in next decade amid soaring levels of rough sleeping. Hundreds of thousands of households across ...
Number of rough sleepers up by 134% as Tories accused of 'light ...
www.independent.co.uk › News › UK › Home News
12 Sep 2017 - Number of rough sleepers up by 134% as Tories accused of 'light touch' approach to tackling homelessness. Government condemned for ...
Number of rough sleepers in England rises for sixth successive year ...
https://www.theguardian.com › Society › Homelessness
25 Jan 2017 - A homeless man sleeping on a bench in London, which accounted for 23% of the total of rough sleepers in England. ... reflected seven years of Tory failure: “The number of people sleeping rough fell under Labour but has more than doubled since 2010, and has risen every year under the Conservatives.
Homelessness at record levels as numbers rise at 'appalling rate ...
www.mirror.co.uk › News › UK News › Homelessness
25 Jan 2017 - The rise has coincided with £5 billion worth of cuts to housing benefit support since 2010, alongside a 45% cut to funding for the Supporting People programme, which funds homelessness services. Homeless people sleeping rough in London (Image: PA). Private rents have increased by an average of ...
Rough sleeping - our analysis | Homeless Link
www.homeless.org.uk/facts/homelessness-in-numbers/.../rough-sleeping-our-analysis
How many people sleep rough each night? According to the latest figures, collected in the autumn of 2016 and published in January 2017, 4,134 people are estimated to be sleeping rough on any one night. Is rough sleeping on the rise? There was an increase of 16% from 2015 to 2016, while since 2010 rough sleeping ...
Homelessness in England up 50% since 2010 - Westminster
www.politics.co.uk › News › Westminster
22 Jun 2017 - New homelessness cases in England have risen 50% since 2010, according to government figures published today. Councils accepted 59,090 households as homeless and in 'priority' need of housing in 2016/17 - compared to 40,020 in 2009/10. While the year-on-year rise has been gradual, the figures ...
Homelessness rise 'likely to have been driven by welfare reforms' - BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41241021
13 Sep 2017 - The number of homeless families in the UK has risen by more than 60% and is "likely to have been driven" by the government's welfare reforms, the public spending watchdog has said. Homelessness of all kinds has increased "significantly" over the last six years, said the National Audit Office. It accused ...
[PDF]The homelessness monitor: England 2017 - Crisis
https://crisis.org.uk/media/236823/homelessness_monitor_england_2017.pdf
by S Fitzpatrick - ‎2017 - ‎Cited by 54 - ‎Related articles
since 2010. A recent sharp contraction in. Central and Eastern European nationals sleeping rough has masked an ongoing increase in rough sleeping involving. UK nationals (up by 6% in Q2 2016/17 compared with the same quarter a year earlier). • At nearly 58,000, annual homelessness acceptances were some 18,000 ...
Rough sleeping rises 55 per cent under Coalition - Telegraph
www.telegraph.co.uk › News › Politics
26 Feb 2015 - The figures show an annual rise in estimates of people sleeping rough over the last five years, and a 55% increase on the 1,768 in 2010. The North East has seen the biggest increase in rough sleeping since the previous year, of 40%, according to Homeless Link, the umbrella organisation for ...
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How do you sleep?
 
Mullardman said:
Whereas you have a totally balanced view?

You my friend, are in deep, deep denial.

Yawn...

How predictable..

Your response is as vacuous as it is predictable, and facile....good to see nothing unexpected here

Straight out of the Noddy Guide to Politics that I well rememember from my student days in the 60’s and 70’s and all those hard left groups who were going to bring Red Revolution
( championed these days by the likes of Paul Mason and his ilk)

I could equally attribute any other social parameter to the government

And the Guardian is hardly polically neutral...the Daily Mail of the Left

Happy Christmas


Simon













How do you sleep?
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hifinutt said:
mmm now I would consider myself a tory but a close friend who is pretty disabled had her pip taken off her and were it not for the strenuous efforts of a barrister friend attending the tribunals etc would now be suffering a great deal . heaven help ordinary folks who don`t have barrister friends . not only that but as I have mentioned earlier because of the benefit changes a local housing project for the vulnerable is shutting down . now I expect labour would be just as bad but it does stick in the throat
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I am certainly not going to defend the current Tory administration which I consider to be one of the most incompetent in my lifetime, but to lay the blame for every ill of society at the their door is rather overstating the point

Luckily in our country governments do not have that degree of micromanegerial control over our lives
Also we can all quote “exceptions which prove the rule” eg “ i know smokers who lived to 100 ergo smoking csnnot be bad for you” kind of reasoning

More to the point, those who would describe thenselves as on being on the Left of politics often behave with santimoniousness as if they alone heve the monopoly of campassion
Anyone who challeges Left Wing dogma is an evil selfish greedy uncaring fascist( or something similar)
The facts tell a very different story.....look at the track record of left wing administrations in this and other countries over the last 50 years or so
I suggest that the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions and unintended consequences” would be appropriate

Simon
 
Simon Vess said:
The facts tell a very different story.....look at the track record of left wing administrations in this and other countries over the last 50 years or so
I suggest that the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions and unintended consequences” would be appropriate
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Actually they don’t. If you do the research you find Democrats/Labour preside over stronger economic performance than Republican/Conservative. There are many graphs and charts that can be googled up to prove this. The notion that the right-wing is fiscally competent is pure propaganda fantasyland. In the UK there were serious issues in the ‘70s, but that was as much to do with Ted Heath’s Tories as anyone else, and since then the short-term boom/bust squander of the ‘80s propped up by North Sea Oil and selling the national infrastructure to private buyers for short term tax breaks and the current Cameron and beyond shambles that will sink us economically for a generation or more are owned 100% by the Conservatives. Also worth remembering that the collapse of the neoliberal financial infrastructure in 2008 was a global issue with the epicentre firmly centred at GW Bush’s Republican administration. To summarise: Conservative/Republican = vacuous short-termism that inevitably goes wrong as it is so poorly thought out (this being charitable, one could easily argue there was much cynical asset-stripping of national infrastructure purely for the benefit of party financers). Labour/Democrats = far more in the way long term strategy and intellect, but rather backward-looking ideologically and still far from perfect!
 
Simon Vess said:
Also we can all quote “exceptions which prove the rule” eg “ i know smokers who lived to 100 ergo smoking csnnot be bad for you” kind of reasoning
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Fwiw, the word prove when used in this context means 'tests' in the same way that proving ground means testing ground. This means that the exception tests that the rule is valid rather than proves the validity of the exception, and when the exception is found to be just that, that is, the exception, it proves, we switch to the more conventional sense of the meaning, that the rule is valid and that the exception does not negate the rule's validity.
 
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