This is how things can be changed for the better

Homelessness is an incredibly complex issue, and with 7,000 Londoners recorded as sleeping rough last year, a seemingly intractable one.

Rough sleeping is the most visible and terrible form of homelessness, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more families in London are stuck in temporary accommodation, and still more are “hidden homeless” – sleeping on friends’ sofas for example. A recent London Assembly investigation estimated there are thirteen times as many hidden homeless Londoners as there are people sleeping on the streets of our city.

These statistics are an alarming symptom of the growing gap between the rich and poor in London. However, it is neither banal nor idealistic to argue that it doesn’t have to be this way. Recent political history has shown us that with the right policies and interventions from government, it is possible to turn things around.

Under this Government, we have seen a steep increase in homelessness. Tragically, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has estimated that at least 109 Londoners have died on the streets in the last 12 months.

It is clear that the situation will only get worse if they continue to preside over disastrous welfare reforms, draconian immigration laws, cuts to mental health services and a miserable track record of building genuinely affordable homes.

Earlier this year I visited a drop-in centre based in West London, which provides assistance to members of the local community who are particularly vulnerable to homelessness and mental health issues. In my discussions with volunteers and service users about their experiences and encounters with homelessness, the sadly familiar motif of Universal Credit repeatedly came up.

The centre is now reportedly busier than ever, and I heard accounts of service-users falling behind on their rent after having to wait six weeks or more for their first Universal Credit payment, to then face eviction by private landlords, or even housing associations.

We have seen already cash-strapped local authorities in piloted roll-out areas such as Southwark and Croydon help to foot the bill for council tenants that have accrued insurmountable rent arrears due to protracted payment delays. However, as Universal Credit spreads to other parts of London and the rest of the country, it is sadly likely that the resultant strain will see more gratuitously forced out onto the streets.

There is now an unmanageable onus being placed upon the third sector to pick up the pieces of the Government’s failed austerity policies. This is particularly apparent with the proliferation of independent foodbanks that have sprung up across the capital. One of the most concerning implications of this is that the existence of foodbanks is becoming gradually more normalised.

In the same vein, the staff at the centre detailed how they have had to become an unofficial foodbank of sorts to meet demand from local people in need of emergency food supplies, after having been made to wait for Universal Credit payments.

This is of course a snippet of the bigger and uglier picture in London.

A glance at the latest data published by the Trussell Trust makes for alarming reading: showing that across London, 134,244 emergency food parcels were given out between April 2017 and March 2018, marking a 21% increase on the previous year. The founders of our welfare state would turn in their graves at this reversion to a Victorian-era dependence on charity to prevent our citizens from starving.

It has been abundantly clear for a long time that Universal Credit is a broken system, but the Government have consistently ignored calls from politicians and charities for its roll-out to be paused whilst its multitude of failings are resolved. The National Audit Office have been the latest watchdog to highlight their concerns, concluding in a report that Universal Credit does not offer value for money and has left claimants in hardship. It is now clear that the whole system needs to be scrapped.

More than 135,000 Londoners rely on Universal Credit, with the number set to rise further as the roll-out nears completion. However, it is expected that funding cuts to UC will see a £250m a year decrease for claimants in the capital by 2020/21.

Beyond social security, the Government need to redouble their efforts to tackle the other causes of homelessness and destitution. A good start would be to pursue a more ambitious construction programme of genuinely affordable housing.

We’ve heard warmer words about social housing from the Prime Minister of late, but the statistics tell a different story. In June, Homes England revealed that the number of government-built socially rented homes have fallen by 90% since 2010. None of this has been helped by the fact that Housing continues to be a revolving door ministry. We need a consistent strategy to tackle the housing crisis, but in only two years, four different ministers have been appointed. The most recent lasted a mere six months in post.

On the other hand, the Mayor of London has taken swift action to tackle the housing crisis head-on, securing a record £4.8 billion from government to start building 116,000 genuinely affordable homes by 2022, and directly funding new council housing.

In addition, the Mayor’s sustained campaign to tackle homelessness in London has also begun to see results, as the latest stats from the Greater London Authority show that the numbers of rough sleepers in the capital has slowly started to fall for the first time in a decade.

In the summer, we saw Sadiq Khan launch a new Action Plan to tackle rough sleeping with proposals to double the number of outreach workers, provide more funding to local cold weather shelters, bolster the No Second Night Out service, and improve the access for homeless Londoners to vital mental health services.

This is the vision and the pragmatism needed to end homelessness, but imagine what could be done if the Government were also fully on-board. The Prime Minister recently pledged to end austerity, but she now needs to turn these warm words into action without delay.

Tom Copley is a Labour London Assembly Member.

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