Not enough is being done to combat homelessness

As a current homeless person who has been placed in temporary accommodation courtesy of the Rapid Rehousing Pathway grant, I have taken great interest in the recent articles concerning homelessness from Sally Anne Hart, Peter Chowney and the response from the council.

In November of last year, the council invited submissions for a consultation they were undertaking on homelessness. I duly made a submission from my own first-hand experience and large parts of it echoed the sentiments of Sally Anne Hart.

To give a brief précis I stated that when I met a representative of the council to discuss my situation the meeting lasted less than 10 minutes and there was no help from the council available to me. I pointed out that in my opinion they only provided help to people that they were obliged to under the Homelessness Reduction Act and it was discriminatory against single males. I also pointed out that the voluntary sector was a lifesaver for many in the homeless community, providing support to a community abandoned by the authorities. After receiving an automated reply I never heard from them again.

It is a shame that the recent responses have resulted in the manipulation of statistics to distort the truth about such a serious subject. Peter Chowney quotes an average of 19 rough sleepers in Hastings for the month of February. The council quotes figures for the period November to February forgetting to mention that the Snowflake shelter is operational in this period (run and funded by volunteers). Furthermore, large numbers have been taken off the street by the injection of money from central government under the auspices of the Rapid Rehousing Pathway. The person who requires congratulations for this is the bid writer who I am informed is very good at his job.

I agree with the comments made by Peter Chowney about the level of rents. The very few properties that landlords are prepared to rent to benefit claimants are usually over the threshold for this area.

With regard to being unable to impose a burden on private developers to provide affordable housing, has he not observed the consistent record profits being reported by property development companies. As for the possibility of the council becoming involved in the building of social housing, did he not state a couple of weeks ago that the council was not able to pursue this pathway because they were not registered as a housing provider? I found it amazing that this comment was allowed to pass unchallenged.

I have tried to keep this as brief and informative as possible despite having much more to offer on the subject. I was pleasantly surprised by the interest that Sally Anne Hart has taken in this huge blight on society as during her election campaign I do not recall her mentioning it. It is even more beneficial to this area that she has joined a committee discussing the issue.

However, I would remind her that her party have now been in power for 10 years and in this period homelessness has increased exponentially. I would urge her to lobby for more help to be given for the building of social housing and the removal of obstacles such as the right to buy with a big discount after only 3 years tenancy and the restrictions on a council reinvesting 100% of the proceeds from social housing sales.