Last week Crisis issued a report that detailed how some 208,000 households are experiencing ‘hidden homelessness’ – living at friends’ houses, sofa surfing, sleeping in cars, garages, and so on. This is in addition to the 350,000 classified as homeless (roughly 850 in the Stroud district).
Homelessness is closer than most of us dare think. Shelter estimates that 1/2 of those who rent privately, more than 2m people, are one pay cheque away from losing their home. 16% of people in the UK (8m people), have no savings – 40% have less than £1000.
Homelessness and rough sleeping doubled under the Conservatives. Whatever you think about Labour, we are serious about supporting those in the UK who have the least. We have significantly increased the minimum wage, abolished the two-child benefit cap and invested large sums in employment support, extra childcare, extending school meals and breakfast clubs. We have introduced Best Start family hubs and introduced the Renters’ Rights Act which will ban no fault evictions.
In addition, we are investing £3.5bn over the next three years to halve rough sleeping, to ban the use of B&Bs for families, and to prevent more households from losing their home in the first place.
By introducing a “Duty to Collaborate”, we are building a joined-up approach to tackling homelessness, linking services such as prisons, social care settings and hospitals, making sure no one is discharged into homelessness or allowed to fall through the cracks.
Ultimately, we need an economy to which everyone can contribute, and a society which supports those who need it.
