Green shoots

Grand Union, an arts organisation based in Birmingham, released a documentary in July on the homeless gardening project, The Growing Project. The Growing Project is a community-led growing scheme working with organisations who support vulnerably-housed people and people experiencing homelessness. The documentary was filmed in four different project locations. Grand Union set up the project in partnership with Spring Housing, Crisis Skylight Birmingham, SIFA Fireside and St Anne’s Hostel.

• Watch the documentary on YouTube here: youtube.com/watch?v=e08152BOG78

Sheening armour

Actor Michael Sheen has pledged £10,000 to the charity Arts & Homelessness International. Sheen answered the call for donations from the charity made in late July. The charity offers positive change in people and policy through the arts and creativity. In late July it set up a Crowdfunder to support their work, having struggled in its fundraising efforts since the pandemic. Sheen urged everyone “fortunate enough to make good money” to “step up and help.”

• Find out more about Arts & Homelessness International on its website: www.with-one-voice.com

Act update

As of 5 July 2021, the Domestic Abuse Act requires councils to prioritise people made homeless through domestic abuse when assigning accommodation. Under the old legislation, victims needed to be assessed as “vulnerable” and domestic abuse itself was not a stand-alone reason for people to be prioritised. A figure of £1.5m has been allocated to councils to implement this and further changes made to the Domestic Abuse Act include a duty to provide support alongside safe accommodation.

• Read about the new legislation here: www.gov.uk/government/news/more-support-for-domestic-abuse-victims-and-their-children-as-domestic-abuse-bill-receives-royal-assent

Criminal act

Homelessness charities and housing groups have signed a joint letter demanding changes to the deeply unpopular Police, Crimes, Sentencing & Courts Bill. The coalition says that in its current sorry state, the bill would criminalise “any person staying in a car, van or other vehicle – or indeed has a vehicle parked near where they may be sleeping rough.” Unmoved, MPs voted through the bill in the House of Commons, and it will now be read in the House of Lords. The bill could become law should it progress through the Lords.

Village people update

Welcome news from Manchester, where the homeless charity Embassy has seen its plan for a village of 40 modular homes approved by the Manchester planning committee, according to the BBC. The village will be built along the Bridgewater Canal, and the homes offered exclusively to homeless men.
A similar project  exclusively for women is set to be launched by the charity soon. Issue 132 (May – June) of the Pavement reported that shipping containers would be converted into 40 new homes. Rising costs mean the homes will now be made of bricks and mortar, with the first homes opening in 2022.

National support

More than 100 councils and charities across England are backing Homeless Link’s campaign, Support Don’t Deport. It is calling for the government to scrap new rules that made rough sleeping grounds for cancelling or refusing a person’s right to remain. Aware of the massive repercussions it will pose on people’s safety and status, organisations working with homeless people have been quick to come out against it. Instead of these rules, Homeless Link is calling for increased investment into employment support and immigration advice so non-UK nationals can break the cycle of homelessness.

• To see the councils and charities signed up to Support Don’t Deport, visit this website: www.homeless.org.uk/standagainst-rough-sleepingimmigration-rules 
  

Olympic champion

Following the success of the first Refugee Olympic Team in 2016, this summer the Tokyo Olympic Village welcomed Cryille Tchatchet alongside 28 other team members from 11 different countries. In an interview with Eurosport, the weightlifter spoke about his journey from homelessness, to representing the refugee community. Now based in the UK, he spent his first months sleeping rough in Glasgow and Brighton after participating in the former’s 2014 Commonwealth Games. After reaching out to the Samaritans, Tchatchet was eventually able to gain refugee status. Tchatchet now works as a community mental health nurse, in tandem with his weightlifting career.

Big plan

This summer, The Big Issue launched a new campaign to prevent ‘an avalanche’ of people from becoming homeless. A nine-point plan has been drawn up, calling for, among other things, the £20 universal credit uplift to become permanent. This demand sits alongside the long-term goals to increase social housing stock and investment into green jobs. This plan comes in the wake of The Big Issue’s recent research, which found that in the first 90 days of this year, one UK household was being made homeless every three-and-a-half hours.

• Read the nine-point plan here: www.bigissue.com/latest/thebig-issues-urgent-plan-to-stopmass-homelessness
  

Scotland

Health problems

Mental health issues among homeless people, or people faced with homelessness in Scotland have more than doubled since 2013, according to official Scottish Government data. The Scotsman report 27% of homeless households in Scotland in the year 2020-21 included somebody experiencing mental health issues, compared with 13% in 2013-14. A total of 7,397 individuals faced with, or experiencing homelessness had mental health issues in the year 2020-21. Scottish Labour's housing spokesman Mark Griffin called the rise, "a damning indictment of both mental health and homelessness policy over recent years." 

Tour de M8

Sir Chris Hoy is encouraging cyclists to join a 60-mile group cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh to raise money for Edinburgh-based homelessness charity Social Bite. The event will take place on 5 September and will be led by Sir Chris himself. Organisers are hoping for upwards of 1,000 participants, whether in the live event or the virtual challenge, with a fundraising target of £1m. The money will be used to fund two new Social Bite villages in the UK, reports Scottish Housing News. The first Social Bite village project was built in 2018, and accommodates homeless people in pre-fabricated houses.

• Find out more on the Social Bite website: social-bite.co.uk

Bookworms:
Exciting news from the world of books. Author Jennifer Kavanagh’s latest work, Let Me Take You by the Hand, collects and maps stories of homeless people in London today. The book, released in early June and published by Little, Brown, features research and writing by the Pavement’s very own Mat Amp and Alastair Murray.
To find out more about the book, and where to purchase, visit here: littlebrown.co.uk/jennifer-kavanagh

Renewed hostility

So much for the Home Office being “truly sorry” for the woeful Hostile Environment policy, which was apparently disowned soon after an independent review into the Windrush scandal in 2018. More than 65 homelessness organisations signed a joint statement in May this year condemning government plans to use rough sleeping as grounds for removing someone from the UK. The government plans are part of a new immigration rule that criminalises and deports migrant rough sleepers. Liberty Investigates revealed in April that the Home Office had acknowledged the new rules may discriminate against ethnic minorities.

Off-target

Knowing Everyone In, the scheme which saw homeless people put up in hotels during lockdown in the pandemic, would eventually have to be replaced with a longer term, realistic goal to end homelessness, the government announced its intention to fund 3,348 new homes for people sleeping rough, allocating more than £150m to councils in October last year. The homes were to be built by the end of March 2021, the government said, but the deadline came and went without being met. In late May Inside Housing reported the government had confirmed it missed its target, but wouldn’t say how many homes had actually been built.  Housing reported the government had confirmed it missed its target, but wouldn’t say how many homes had actually been built.

Eviction notice

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned a wave of evictions would occur in England, as the government lifted the renter eviction ban on 31 May. About one million households fear losing their homes, as eviction bans are lifted and eviction notice periods drop from six to four months. Meanwhile, 400,000 renters have already received, or been told they will receive, an eviction notice. Research commissioned by the charity indicates people on lower incomes, Black and minority ethnic households had the highest levels of concern. The BBC quoted Joseph Rowntree Foundation economist Rachelle Earwaker warning she, “worried that there will be a wave of homelessness coming through."

• For tenant advice and support visit Generation Rent at www.generationrent.org
• Or, in Scotland, visit Living Rent here: www.livingrent.org
• You can also contact Citizens Advice. Call 0800 144 8848 if you’re in England, or call 0800 028 1456 if you’re in Scotland 
  

Tourist trap

According to BBC South West, families living in temporary accommodation in Cornwall have been removed from hotels to make way for paying customers wanting to visit the southern coastline. Approximately 130 people have been moved out of these hotels already. According to Olly Monk, councillor for Newquay Trenance, business owners now “want to get back to normality”, realising that “they can make more money going back to their normal business model.” The number of households in temporary accommodation in Cornwall more than doubled in 2020, with the council planning to invest £40m into increasing their emergency, long-term and specialist accommodation stock.

SARprise

Changes to housing support came into force at the end of May, providing extra financial assistance to care leavers up to the age of 25 and anyone who has lived in a homeless hostel, regardless of age, for three months or more. The changes, which will see an increase to the Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR) and changes to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), were originally set to be introduced in 2023, but have been brought forward. Minister for Welfare Delivery, Will Quince said, “these changes are an immediate boost for some of the most vulnerable young people in our community.”

• Read up on these changes to the SAR and LHA here: www.gov.uk/government/news/care-leavers-homelesspeople-extra-support

SCOTLAND .. Levelling down

Scotland introduced a temporary legal ban on evictions during the pandemic, but as the pandemic eases, and regions move into new ‘levels’ of restrictions, tenants have been sent eviction notices. Only days after Edinburgh moved into level 2, ending the legal ban on evictions, people from 16 separate households were brought before Edinburgh Sheriff Court facing eviction for rent arrears, Edinburgh Evening News reported in early June. Among the landlords rushing to serve pandemicstricken tenants with an eviction notice were Edinburgh council. A spokesperson for The Scottish Tenant’s Organisation called the legal action “ludicrous.”

• For accommodation see the List in the centre pages of the magazine
  
  

Yes, it's an extender

Temporary measures brought in to house people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic in Scotland have been extended by an extra three months to 30 September 2021, Scottish Legal News reports. Measures allowing local authorities to shelter people sleeping rough or experiencing homelessness in hotels and B&Bs were due to expire on 30 June. Announcing the extension, Housing Secretary Shona Robison said: “We are extending these measures while the path of the pandemic remains uncertain, and will keep the situation under review.” 

Finding a way

A Way Home Scotland, a coalition of individuals, organisations and authorities working to end youth homelessness in Scotland, launched its second Youth Homelessness Prevention Pathway. The new pathway sets out to outline ways to prevent homelessness for all young people, it follows the success of the first pathway in 2019, aimed at care leavers faced with homelessness. Scottish Housing News reports the pathway contains 16 recommendations and three calls for action, including an emphasis on creating local strategies tailored to the population. The Scottish Government published statistics for the year 2019-2020 showing 8,319 people between the age of 16 and 25 presented as homeless to their local authority.

Be Kind

Kindness Homeless Street Team, a community group based in Glasgow, served more than 200 people at their outdoor soup kitchen on one freezing, snowy night in late February. The street kitchen is set up in George Square on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and regularly serves a group between 130 and 150 people. Laura McSorley set the Kindness Homeless Street Team up in 2019. Speaking to Glasgow Live she said the soup kitchen was seeing “loads and loads of new faces” during the pandemic.

• Visit the team's Facebook page at facebook.com/KindnessHST

Unbelievable "success"

Some quite literally unbelievable news: the Scottish Government has revealed there are only 11 people sleeping rough in the whole country. According to the Daily Record, the government says the lowly number is down to the success of schemes designed to house people during the pandemic. The figures were released in response to a Freedom of Information request. Colin McInnes, chairman of Homeless Project Scotland, was having none of it. “Last Friday night, we fed 240 people at our soup kitchen in Glasgow. What we see on the streets suggests there are more than 11 rough sleepers in Glasgow, never mind Scotland.”