Homelessness appears to be on the rise as cuts start to bite. Five Cif readers tell us their thoughts and experiences
gherkingirl: Changes to the single room allowance mean I might not be able to pay my rent
Becoming homeless came as such a shock to me. I was on a year out from university accumulating work experience and living the life of the average twentysomething in London. Then I was raped in the kitchen of my houseshare just before Christmas. I tried to pretend nothing had happened, but within days I'd been let go from my job. I spent the next months frantically job searching and crying constantly. I paid the rent from my small savings pot and eventually, racked by trauma and scared my rapist would come back, I went to the police and told them the full story, which included the drugs that had been in use at the party preceding the rape. When my flatmates heard this, having been told a different version from my rapist and furious they might get in trouble, they made me leave.
I spent the next few months on the sofas, spare beds and floors of friends. My attempts to find a job were hampered by my emotional state and the fact that I had no address. Eventually the council agreed that I had nowhere else to go and put me in a hostel for women on parole, which I had to sign in and out of.
After a year of this accommodation limbo, the council told me that they had decided that I wasn't intentionally homeless and that my status was vulnerable. They rehoused me to a permanent one-bed flat. The moment I was handed those keys, my life began again. I loved my privacy, my safety, my choices, my own front door. I painted, primped and preened it. I made it a home and thrived, apart from the terrible agoraphobia that enveloped me.
Now my housing benefit is in jeopardy because of the changes to the single room allowance from 25 to 35. No one can tell me for sure that I'll still able to pay for my flat in 2012. The fear of losing my home is so acute that my agoraphobia has become paralysing again and my anxiety is extreme, making me even less fit for work than a few months ago. I feel like if I lose my home again, I'll lose my grasp on my self. I'm not sure I can do this all over again. At least I had hope the first time.
Wayne Stubbs aka ragged: Everyone threatened with homelessness is 'vulnerable'
It is possible simply to fall through the net. After my business failed, I ran out of money and was given notice on my flat, I had a blazing row with my mother, whose sofa was my final resort. 'Call the council,' she stormed. 'They don't just throw people on the street any more.' But they do.
'Since you are a single man with no disabilities, we are not obliged to house you,' said West Berkshire Council. 'But we are obliged to give you advice.' 'OK, then, advise me,' I said. 'Our advice is that we are not obliged to house you,' they deadpanned.
After two nights sleeping in the arrivals hall at Heathrow, thinking I could get away with it if I dressed like a backpacker, security cottoned on and a nice police officer gave me a ride in a van to the airport perimeter and told me not to come back. The night after that was in a bus station. The one after that in a church doorway. I slept fitfully during the day in public libraries.
Some of the charity workers were sympathetic and said they thought they could find me somewhere to stay, but as I wasn't 'vulnerable', I wasn't a priority. Cold, damp and stinking, I was rescued after 10 days by sheer blind luck. A friend I hadn't spoken to for years emailed out of the blue and immediately offered a sofa. I'm now well back on my feet. But having come close to the edge, I religiously keep three months of rent in the bank. Just in case.
My advice to policymakers is that there needs to be housing of last resort available to those who need it which those with no options can access before they end up on the streets. Councils have a statutory duty to house children and those deemed vulnerable, but this should be extended to everyone. It need not be expensive or squalid, and should be a stepping stone to getting people back on track, not a long-term solution. If easyhotel.com can provide people with safe, warm places to sleep in Central London for £30 per night (and presumably make a profit on this!) then it is to the shame of UK society that there are people sleeping on the streets.
Thierry Schaffauser: Abolish private property
I always managed to find a place to stay, but at different points in my life I have been in big trouble with housing. Most people think you take up sex work to avoid homelessness, but the problem can be the opposite. Most landlords are not happy to have a sex worker for tenant, and I often had to lie about the origin of my income. If you can't produce a pay sheet, it is difficult to prove that you have a job, and many people do not consider sex work to be real work; my neighbours once put together a petition to get rid of me after they saw me on TV at Paris's annual hookers' pride march.
In France, I ended up with other sex workers squatting in a building with no heating, gas or electricity. At least we could have showers, albeit with cold water. One day, we were given notice to leave the building, which we did the day before the police arrived. Thankfully I had found a place to live before ending up on the streets.
Next was London. I left an ex-boyfriend with who I had too many serious problems; I had to leave even though I had nowhere to go. I had sex with a few guys who let me sleep at theirs some nights. Otherwise, I found friends who accommodated me for a few days. After a month, I finally had the chance to find a place.
I think I was lucky to be able to use sex work some of the time to find people who could accommodate me. It has always been my main source of income, and that's why I think prohibitionist measures are a mistake. We don't fight poverty by criminalising people and preventing them earning money the way they can.
I believe that the best solution to end homelessness is to abolish private property. Many buildings are empty because rich people need more money in the bank. Owners prefer to keep their property empty: this increases demand for accommodation, thus raising the cost of renting. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly imposed a law to ban wheat hoarding in order to end the starving of the people. They confiscated the goods of the church and aristocrats and abolished privileges. Spending two-thirds of your income just to have a place to sleep is something most people still find normal in London and are ready to do. What is needed is requisition. Property is theft.
Bernadine Lawrence: The cuts will lead to a huge rise in homelessness
After a series of unfortunate events, including being given notice to quit by my landlady, I found myself homeless and with a four-month-old baby. I was more scared for my baby than for myself. We were placed in a 'bed and breakfast': at least it was warm and we had a bed to sleep in, even if it was infested with bed bugs. There was no way of keeping any personal belongings safe and things often went missing. There was no personal safety either.
One of the worst things about being in a B&B was the lack of cooking facilities, which made it difficult to follow a healthy diet. I relied on a wholefood bakery, but most of the other residents relied on burgers and chips. After a year, we moved into "short-let" housing that was about to be demolished. It was run-down and straight out of a Hogarth illustration. I still refer to that place as Suicide Street (I discovered that the previous occupant had ended his own life).
Eighteen months later, we moved onto a council estate with a good community and facilities and, at last, we had nice neighbours. Sadly, I foresee a massive rise in homelessness and I ask the government, please, to reconsider the 10% reduction in housing benefit to all those on jobseeker's allowance for 12 months. Millions of claimants up and down the country will be unable to make up the shortfall from their rent wherever they move and even those in hostels will be forced onto the streets.
Brian Capaloff aka cocteau8: Short-term cuts lead to future costs
I became a housing adviser in York in 1990, and have subsequently held various related roles for four other English local authorities. I presently run a homelessness service for a Scottish local authority.
There is never a day which goes by that does not present fresh challenges for staff struggling to tread water within a context carefully framed by legislation and government-produced guidance. Inevitably, as budgets are increasingly cut, there is hair-tearing desperation at the complete lack of understanding of the 'bigger picture' by those in charge. The bottom line of budgets are being explored locally during endless meetings with savings being sought and cuts in non-statutorily required roles being demanded, but without the willingness or ability to look beyond that financial year.
When accommodation is being sought for the people walking through our doors, we are aware that any solution needs to be sustainable, or else there is the inevitability of a revolving door of homelessness. For many a roof is all that is needed, but for many others that is the start of the story. A lifetime in care, substance misuse issues or mental health problems necessitate the input of other services for the benefit of their household and for the sustainability of entire communities. Housing support shaped around the specific needs of the individual does not come cheap, but if it helps to create a stable home and prevents the deterioration of situations it is worth the price – especially when considered against the cost of tenancy failure, which comes to more than £20,000.
The health impact of homelessness has been widely documented: the cost of ensuring the provision of a statutory role is hardly cheaper than an array of preventative services. The impact upon communities from the failure to empower the more vulnerable and enable them to set root inevitably results in a cost to the exchequer through greater crime levels, issues of anti-social behaviour and a greater turnover of tenancies across the community.
As managers and providers, we are always required to manage the range of risks faced by our service, its staff and its users. The greatest risk currently being faced by us, however, is the now annual inability to look beyond 31 March. Today's short-termism will inevitably result in greater costs for future communities, health service providers and individuals concerned.
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