Homeless issues

Citation

(2001), "Homeless issues", Property Management, Vol. 19 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2001.11319aab.024

Homeless issues

Homeless issues

The debate about homelessness and begging is in danger of stereotyping people on the street as "drug using scroungers", says national homelessness charity National Homeless Alliance. It is necessary to understand why people beg in order to address the very difficult circumstances that homeless and other vulnerable people face on a daily basis. The debate about homelessness and begging could be in danger of over-simplifying the issues at the expense of very vulnerable people on the streets of our cities.

The NHA urges the public to understand that although not all people begging are homeless, all are marginalised and often very damaged people.

There are many complex reasons why people beg or end up on the street. Many have spent much of their life in institutions and find there is a lack of support when they leave the care system, prisons or the army. Some may have a mental health issue which they're not getting support for. Many will be escaping some form of violence or physical, mental or sexual abuse, particularly young people. Many 16-17 year olds have great difficulty in getting benefits, as they are severely restricted for this age group. A number will also be dependent on drugs or alcohol for many reasons relating to their negative experiences and vulnerability.

No one likes to see beggars and those who beg find it demeaning and don't want to do it – using it as a means of last resort. Research recently published by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (May 2000), says:

… people's experiences of rough sleeping almost invariably preceded their involvement in begging … people begin to beg due to the absence of state benefits when they started to sleep rough.

No one should be in the position of having to beg.

Dominic Fox, Chief Executive of National Homeless Alliance says:

We have to address the complex reasons why people beg and why they may be homeless. We have to prevent these very vulnerable people needing to beg by providing adequate services to support them with the complex problems they face.

We have to ensure that these people who are some of the most damaged in our society, are not "demonised" and seen as "undeserving" through their dependency on drugs or alcohol, but are offered adequate support, quickly when they need it, to help them.

Services for people with drug or alcohol dependencies need to be readily available. People should not have to wait the currently unacceptable weeks or months before they can access rehab services, if at all.

Support services need to be available for all vulnerable people who need them. These include: outreach services who help people off the street in the first place; day centres who provide food, shelter, training and support; and resettlement and tenancy support services, which help ensure people can successfully make the huge leap from living on the street to a more settled lifestyle, and help them sustain it.

It is positive that the public are being encouraged to give to services to help these people. However, we need to ensure that this money is additional to services and is not what enables them to function. This is the government's role.The worst thing that could happen would be that the public give to services thinking that would enable vulnerable people to stop begging, and the services are still not adequately enough resourced to meet the demand.

NHA welcomes initiatives that bring additional resources to front-line services. We welcome the Government's support for local agencies. NHA members look forward to receiving donations and offers from the public to volunteer.

NHA also calls for the issue of poverty and social exclusion to be central to this debate. Income support is very low, especially for young people and asylum seekers. Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that people often continue to beg because of this.

NHA members recognise that access to alcohol and drug programmes are inadequate on a national basis. They fear that without proper resources and strategies in place, the experiences of people begging to support their drug and alcohol addiction will continue. NHA members urge the public to join them in calling for significant improvements in the provision of drug and alcohol services and for the adequate statutory resourcing of all support services to vulnerable people.