Page 18 Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 21, 2019
The children living in
shipping containers
Top official
condemns
housing for
homeless
Cheap solution:
Shipping
containers
used as housing
in West LondonTHOUSANDS of children are
living in shipping containers or
flats built cheaply in old office
blocks, a leading welfare official
said yesterday.
They are among 124,000 youngsters
living in temporary accommodation
arranged by councils after their fam-
ilies became homeless, the Children’s
Commissioner said.
Anne Longfield said children in home-
By Steve Doughty
Social Affairs Correspondent
less families were often put up
in short-term accommodation
that was dangerous, not fit to
live in and often far away from
other family members, friends
and schools.
But her report said only a
minority of children in tempo-
rary accommodation stayed
there for long. Three out of five
have been found new homes
with their families within six
months, and only one in 20 –
about 6,000 children – are in
temporary accommodation for
a year or more.
Miss Longfield called on the
Government to launch a large-
scale housebuilding programme.
She said: ‘Something has gone
very wrong with our housing
system when children are grow-
ing up in B&Bs, shipping con-
tainers and old office blocks.
‘Children have told us of the
disruptive and at times frighten-
ing impact this can have on their
lives. It is a scandal that a coun-
try as prosperous as ours is leav-
ing tens of thousands of families
in temporary accommodation
for long periods of time.’
It is thought there are morethan 210,000 homeless children
in England, of whom 124,000 are
on the official homeless registers
and living in temporary housing,
and a further 90,000 said to be in
‘sofa-surfing’ families living with
relatives or friends.
Housing Ministry figures say
that of homeless people helped
by councils last summer, six out
of ten were single adults, while a
further 26 per cent were lone-
parent families and 8 per cent
were couples with children.
Miss Longfield’s report said: ‘A
recent development has beenthe repurposing of shipping
containers. The units are typi-
cally one or two-bedroom and
small in size, meaning that over-
crowding can be an issue. They
can become really hot in sum-
mer and too cold in the winter.’
The Local Government Asso-
ciation, the umbrella body for
councils, said: ‘The severe lack
of social rented homes availa-
ble... means councils have no
choice but to place households
into temporary accommoda-
tion, including – in emergencies- bed and breakfasts.’
Tight squeeze: Scene inside one of the containersFROM PREVIOUS PAGE
fishermen took to their boats looking for
the shark, while police officers reported
blasting away at suspicious shadows in
the water. However, in the midst of the
panic, Dr Lucas and other experts still
insisted further attacks would be very
unlikely. They were wrong.
Matawan was a nondescript town 30
miles north of Spring Lake and 16 miles
inland, with a ‘swimming hole’ in the
creek next to a disused wharf. July 12
was a scorching day and six young boys
set off to the creek to swim.
A retired sea captain, Thomas Cottrell,
saw a suspicious 8ft-long grey shape in
the water making its way up the creek
on the incoming tide. Before he could
raise the alarm, the boys were in the
muddy water.
One of them felt a sandpaper-like
object graze his leg and, looking down,
saw a monstrous tail. Others noticed
what appeared to be an old plank in the
water. Suddenly, the ‘plank’ surged
towards 11-year-old Lester Stilwell and
seized him. The other boys fled, running
naked down Matawan’s main street
screaming: ‘Shark!’
Local people ran to the swimming
hole and found the water tinged red
but no sign of Lester. One, Stanley
Fisher, jumped in and spotted the boy’s
body. He grabbed it and was back by
the bank and getting out when the
shark bit him.
Mr Fisher was repeatedly pulled under
and resurfaced four times before he
managed to break free. His right thigh
was stripped of 10lb of flesh. He died
later in hospital, his last words being: ‘I
did my duty.’H
ALF a mile downstream,
other boys were swimming
off a dock when they heard
faint cries of ‘Shark!’ and
hauled themselves out. Joseph Dunn,
14, had his hands on the bottom rung of
the ladder when he was seized.
The boys formed a human chain and,
with the help of arriving adults, rescued
Joseph after a vicious tug-of-war with
the shark. His left leg had been torn to
ribbons, but he survived.
On July 14, Michael Schleisser and his
friend John Murphy were out fishing in
an 8ft motorboat off Matawan when
something tugged the boat so violently
it stalled the engine and a shark dragged
the vessel backwards.
Standing at the stern, Mr Schleisser
hit the thrashing fish with an oar handle
until it stopped moving.
They signalled for help and were
towed to shore where the 350lb Great
White was laid out and dissected.
Its stomach contained a large
quantity of fleshy material and bones
weighing 15lb, including the shinbone
of a boy. The evidence indicated that a
single rogue man-eater had been
responsible for all the carnage. There
were no more attacks that year and no
more confirmed deaths from sharks on
the U.S. coast for another 20 years.
This summer, holidaymakers at Cape
Cod can only hope no such killer returns
to stalk the beaches.