In this piece, reporter Charlie points out that for people with experience of homelessness this cost of living crisis is nothing new.
The people we work with, people experiencing homelessness, have always been experiencing a cost-of-living crisis. They have always had problems paying their utility bills. They have always had trouble affording basic food, let alone a healthy diet.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that the cost-of-living crisis is affecting so many others who are now feeling what people on low incomes, in homeless hostels, on the streets, and unemployed have always suffered. People who have mortgages are having to rely on food banks and stuff like that. That is why everyone is focusing on the cost-of-living crisis now.
The cost of living should have been focused on ten years ago, and on, right on to this present day. It’s only because a larger part of the population is now affected that it has become such a point, and something is finally being done about it.
The people with experience of homelessness, on benefits and with low incomes have always suffered with utility poorness and food poverty. It’s only now that people who vote are being dragged into it that it has become an ‘issue’ and that something is being done about it. It’s always been an issue, but politicians, the media and to some extent the public have always ignored it.
The stuff they’ve done, like the 67 or 68 quid a month – or whatever it is they’ve put on utility bills and the 300 pounds cost of living payment – are things that should have been available to those most in need before this because that has really helped the people who suffer most from food and fuel poverty.
I hear some people say that these payments didn’t really help them that much, but it helped the people who have been suffering for years and years and years. It helped them. And it doesn’t cost anything.
Wealth may trickle down, but that is all it does. When you give money to the people that are most in need it gushes up.
Photo by Mat Amp Instagram @matamp67
