By Paul Atherton FRSA
Just fix the problem. That’s what I would say to people who are in power and genuinely want to end Homelessness.
As I struggle, trying to “Move On” with ill-educated Council staff trying to prove I was made intentionally homeless 9 years after I first approached them with all the evidence to prove that wasn’t the case, it’s clear that they are not interested in helping whatsoever.
It becomes obvious too that the law isn’t designed to help the homeless either.
Why isn’t the default, believe the person. Why is the person absent of a home presumed to be guilty of some form of deception and has to prove their innocence.
The law says, your homelessness begins from the departure of your last Settled Residence, but doesn’t define what the term “settled” or “residence” means. This allows council workers to interpret this in any manner they like.
That’s extremely poor law.
It should be explicit what it is, not vague or even interpretable. It makes decision making subjective and not objective, as it should be.
Politicians and law makers need to rethink this, their end point should be “end homelessness”, and in that way they can reverse engineer their processes from that goal to the homeless person.
This would eradicate all the stupid bureaucratic nonsense that prevents people from resolving their own problems.
Housing Benefit should be able to be used for any accommodation.
Why for instance, am I allowed to claim Housing Benefit to live on a boat, but not in a camper van or a caravan? Why will they only pay for the mooring of a boat if it’s a residential mooring (insanely expensive) as opposed to non-residential (very cheap)
Why can’t I use my Housing Benefit to pay for Hotel accommodation as a home?
In a world where 6 months is considered a tenancy with no protections there after, nearly ALL alternatives to a tenancy offer better protections, longer tenure and better security.
Homelessness means you’re absent of a home… not a property.
A home can be anything you call it
The approach to the homeless for Covid19 proved my thinking perfectly.
The approach was get “Everyone In” the bureaucracies were thrown out of the window, the questions weren’t asked. If you said you were homeless, you were and accommodation was found.
Why we’ve got to return the nonsensical process that proved utterly worthless for decades is beyond me.
But that’s what’s happening all over the country.
It’s time to stop doing what’s been proven not to work and start doing what’s been proven to be superbly effective.
As I began, I’d tell the country’s decision makers to… Just fix the problem!
