15 May Homelessness
Homeless street sleepers in London
The number of rough sleepers is growing rapidly in London
Number of homeless people is increasing in London as a result of the housing price rise
Homelessness is one of the biggest crises soaring in London with the number of rough sleepers growing rapidly every year. According to shelter, which is a homeless charity, homelessness is a bigger problem in London more than any other part of the Britain with having 1 in 59 people sleeping on the street. 8000 people sleeping rough in the streets of London every year and a bigger number of these consist of younger generation.
According to a homeless charity (Streets of London), one of the biggest causes of people facing homelessness in London, specially the younger generation is because of the financial factors including benefit cuts, funding cuts to services or charities, housing price rise and the increased number of migration in London http://www.streetsoflondon.org.uk/about-homelessness.
Although the mean factor of becoming homeless is the financial problem, but yet there are other factors that could lead to homelessness. According to a charity expert priya Mukherji who is the director of the Radiate Harrow organization that helps homeless people in the area by providing them a warm place to sleep in winter.
Priya Mukherjee claims that people are becoming homeless due to substance abuse, relationship break up, and mental issues “ the homeless people that we usually have in here are people who have been forced to leave their houses because of being alcoholic and becoming homeless has made them turn more alcoholic and depressed because they are lacking family support”.
Based on an article by Guardian about the numbers of homelessness, there are more hidden homeless people than the government has estimated the numbers. According to the government figures there 4750 rough sleepers, but homeless charity workers are critical about this count and are saying that this count does not include those homeless people who are sleeping in cars, public transports and toilets, plus those who are living in hostels, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/02/discharged-to-the-streets-homeless-mans-struggle-freezing-london.
Experts are blaming the government over this issue of homelessness. As one of the biggest causes of homelessness is financial problem, the government can tackle this problem by bringing down the price of housings, creating more jobs for people and provide more funding for homeless charities to help homeless people. The other thing that the experts are blaming the government for with regards to homelessness issue is the lack of support given to alcoholic people by the health services. These experts believe that If the government provide more funding to these health services which can help homeless people or sufferers in general to recover from substance abuse such as alcohol and etc., then the problem of homelessness can be overcome to a large an extent.
Some homeless charities such as Shelter are working towards the ways to overcome homelessness or end homelessness gradually. The charity is running different projects for homeless people in different areas to tackle this problem. According to Shelter the solution for homelessness is not just getting people off the street but there are ways to prevent homelessness such as having affordable houses in the each area and having a better housing benefit system and having more services.http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/tackling_homelessness – how_to_prevent_homelessness.
The government is on the process of trying to strengthen the council responsibility to stop homelessness by providing more housing options for people so that people have more options of housing rather than becoming homeless.According to Michael Newel who is the homeless advisor In harrow housing department, homelessness can be prevented if certain appropriate actions are taken beforehand such as seeking advises on housing options.
