Guest Blog : Spotlight on Homelessness in London by Hildagarde

Rules are made to be broken. Generally guest blogs get no alteration / editorial comment on the Barnet Eye, but I am going to make an exception this time. The reason? Because the issue is too important. This blog is written by a good friend of the Barnet Eye who wishes to remain anonymous. I am also posting a link to a charity link for another good friend of the Barnet Eye, one who is also getting up of his backside to do someting for the homeless. This friend is the Dave Hill from the Guardian, who features the Barnet Eye as a Top London Blog. Maybe you are reading this blog as a result of the Guardian link. Anyway please read this blog and if it inspires you, sponsor Dave in his marathon run, proceeds of which are being donated to Shelter.

Here's Dave's Link

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=DaveHillGuardian

Many people in Mill Hill also support The Passage, a homeless charity in Victoria. This is one of the Parish Charities for the Sacred heart Church in Mill Hill Broadway. It is dedicated to helping the hard core homeless in London.

http://www.passage.org.uk/


And here's Hildagardes guest blog, unaltered and unedited (not her real name). This explains what the problems are like and why councils are failing vulnerable people

Guest blog by Hildagarde,

Problems facing homeless people             

 This Christmas as in previous years I have volunteered at a homeless shelter for women. There are a number of things wrong with this, firstly there are apparently no homeless women in London – so if that is the case how is it that every year we are full. This is in part down to the way that the count for the homeless is done. When they count, if there are less than 10 homeless people in any particular area, that figure does not have to be recorded. Only if the number of homeless exceeds 10 in an area is that number recorded. Also when they do the count they stick to main roads and areas – homeless women are vulnerable and therefore tend to avoid busy areas and stay in the shadows – the areas that the authorities do not or will not go – so it is therefore not surprising that the statistics relating to the homeless are wrong and the there are not enough services being offered for them.

So, regardless of the lack of services and the chronic under recording of homeless numbers, when they finally get to see a housing officer they are treated badly. This year one of the women staying at the hostel where I worked is in a wheelchair as she was diagnosed with having MS last August. She went to the housing people in Essex – they said they would provide her with emergency temporary housing. When she arrived at the designated address, the room was on the first floor, the bathroom and toilet were on the second floor – there was no lift, chair lift or any electronic means of travel between the floors in the building. After trying to live there for a number of days she went back to the housing office and explained that this was not suitable accommodation for someone in a wheelchair and that she couldn’t go back. The council then turned round and said that as she had deliberately made herself homeless they were not required to re-house her. Surely a little bit of joined up thinking wouldn’t have gone amiss here. Anyone could see that this lady was in a wheelchair. Even if there were no ground floor rooms available at the time, could an able bodied person not be moved to facilitate a disabled woman who was homeless? The council appear to do the bare minimum to abide by the law!!

On another occasion a woman and her 77 year old mother, again homeless and staying in the shelter where I was working, were subject to appalling treatment. The housing officer of the charity had arranged an appointment for them to see the housing officer in Bedfordshire. They were given train tickets to Bedford and duly attended at the appointed time only to be told by the housing officer that she didn’t think they were eligible to be housed. The housing advice person from the charity was contacted – she in turn then explained to the housing officer in Bedford that they were entitled. Reluctantly they were given emergency accommodation for one night and told to return the next day when the Bedford housing officer would see if she thought they were eligible. The next day they returned – a few more calls were made and they were finally given a place to stay. These are homeless people, most of whom live hand to mouth, and they were given an unfurnished one bedroom flat which was damp with the wall paper peeling off the wall – but they were just glad to have a roof over their heads. The charity I worked for did arrange a loan for them for some furniture as they had none but can you really say that giving someone a flat with no furniture and expecting a 77 year old woman to sleep on the floor is what this society considers to be fair treatment of the elderly? They were not told how long they would have the flat for so were unable to make any firm plans to get their lives back on track. There is however a happy ending to this story. Thanks to friends they have they have now moved to a nicer part of town, paying less rent than the council wanted them to pay and the daughter has secured a permanent job. But none of this was as a result of help they have received through the local authority– this is through private individuals helping and stepping in where the council failed. To a large extent the charity was the prime mover in giving this lady  back enough self confidence to get a job and in her own words treated her like a normal human being!!

But regardless of this happy ending – how can other people expect to get their life back together if they are not given any indication of how long they would might hold on to the accommodation? What happens when the temporary period expires? There is too much uncertainty around getting people off the street and giving them the time and space to get their lives back together. How can anyone plan for the future if they don’t know how long they will be living in a place?

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The Barnet Eye is always pleased to publish guest blogs. These can be submitted using my email address in the sidebar. They are published unedited/unaltered and without comment (usually).