Recently in homelessness Category

With 100 days to go till the start of the Olympics, charity St Mungo's has warned that homeless people should not be excluded by the games.
It has released a briefing showing the extent to which past Olympics have been bad for homeless people, both during the games and afterwards, and called for things to be different this time round.
The call comes with homelessness and rough sleeping on the rise, despite the target of bringing an end to rough sleeping by the end of 2012, both in the capital and elsewhere.

(Image on Flickr from UK in Italy)

The previous government set a target to end rough sleeping this year, which the London mayor Boris Johnson is still committed to in relation to the capital.
However, latest figures show a 23% rise in rough sleeping from autumn 2010 to autumn 2011, to 2,181 people.

The government has responded with £18.5m for councils to provide advice for people at risk of homelessness. But its press release on the figures opens with a message for EU citizens not to come to London without firm plans (more than half of the 446 rough sleepers in London as of 2011 are from overseas).

"Non UK residents now account for over half the rough sleepers in our capital, so anyone heading here with tales of Dick Whittington in their head needs to realise that the streets of London and our other cities aren't paved with gold," says housing minister Grant Shapps.

However, the homelessness sector sees the causes of the rise as lying elsewhere - in cuts.
Here are some figures from a recent Homeless Link survey of 500 services:
• In the last year 75 homelessness projects have closed, in the last two years we have lost 2206 bed spaces in hostels and other accommodation services
• The number of services that do not have an empty bed on an average night has increased from 77% to 83%
• 58% of projects have had their budgets cut in the last year.
• 55% of projects have been told by councils to expect further cuts.

And St Mungo's chief executive, Charles Fraser, says: "Homelessness and migration are inextricably linked, and without a coherent approach to helping people leave the streets behind them - through a combination of assertive outreach work, the No Second Night Out initiative, and emergency housing - we will continue to see people stuck on the streets whilst their health deteriorates."

(Image on Flickr from sk8geek)

The six, along with one woman, have appeared at Luton Crown Court facing charges of Conspiracy to Hold a Person in Servitude contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 and Conspiracy to Require a Person to Perform Forced or Compulsory Labour contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977. There are 16 counts in total.

The defendants are:

Tommy Connors (Senior), aged 51, his sons Johnny Connors, 30, Tommy Connors (Junior) 26, James (Jimmy) Connors, 23, and Patrick Connors, 19, daughter Josie Connors, 30, and son-in-law James Connors (Big Jim), aged 33.

 

Josie Connors remains on bail. 

All seven will appear at Luton Crown Court on February 13, 2012.

The charges follow a police raid on the Greenacre caravan site in Great Billington, Leighton Buzzard in September.

Homeless Link is launching today a Homelessness, Mental Health and Wellbeing Guide to help frontline homelessness workers.

This comes with seven out of ten people who are homeless reporting having one or more mental health need. However, a third of them say they lack the support they need to address their mental health.

Research has also shown that four in five people who are homeless report a history of anxiety or depression and over a third say they have attempted suicide. 

The guide includes:

It's becoming increasingly clear that homelessness is getting worse as the economy continues to falter and cuts - including to vital benefits and housing services - start to bite.
More evidence comes today from a big report from Crisis, which The Guardian has covered.

One of the things that Crisis is calling for is the reversal in cuts announced to housing benefit.
Our welfare rights columnist, Gary Vaux, has set out the gravity of these changes and what they mean for social care.

(Picture from sk8geek on Flickr)

A picture is worth a thousand words - or may be many more.

And the portrait being held up of Islington pensioner Roy Aldridge shows a life that can't be summed up in a thousand words.

The portrait by painter Patrick Michael Lee was inspired by a photo he saw of Roy at 'Street Stories', an oral history project for St Mungo's and a photo of him appeared in an accompanying exhibition shown at the London School of Economics..

Former Whittington Hospital porter Roy, 69, is a resident at the Hilldrop Road housing project in Islington - a supported housing project for older men who've experienced homelessness and managed by the charity St Mungo's.