The Economist - USA (2019-12-21)

The EconomistDecember 21st 2019 Britain 83

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Justnowit islookingratherfriendless. 7

V

ery differentjourneys have brought

the guests at the Soup Kitchen on Lon-

don’s Tottenham Court Road together.

Craig, a 34-year-old decorator from Swan-

sea, was left by his wife, sold his house and

spent the money on crack so that she

couldn’t get her hands on it. Nick, a 37-

year-old from Grimsby, ran away from his

debts. Deyan, a 40-year-old from Bulgaria,

with a master’s in economics, has strug-

gled to find work in London that covers the

rent. Paul, a 53-year-old also from Swansea,

travels around looking for work.

Most are sleeping rough, either full-

time or intermittently. Their attitudes to

this vary. Craig celebrates it: “If you don’t

have anything, you have total freedom.

That’s something you can’t buy.” Nick

longs to return to Grimsby to see his son,

the thought of whom makes him tear up.

But first he would have to pay his debts, for

which he would have to get a job, for which

he needs access to his bank account, for

which he needs to pay off his debts. Paul

seems resigned, but regards Craig’s view as

“very naive: the street is a chaotic place. Vi-

olence can come out of nowhere.”

Mortality statistics support that idea. In

2018, an estimated 724 homeless people

under the age of 75 died, most of whom

were sleeping rough or in shelters. The av-

erage age is 45. The number of deaths has

increased by half since 2013.

According to Crisis, a charity, around

170,000 households are homeless. That in-

cludes sofa-surfers and people in hostels.

Less than a tenth are regular rough sleep-

ers. Numbers fell in the first decade of this

century, thanks to a Labour government’s

efforts to deal with the problem, but have

increased sharply over the past ten years.

Rough sleeping is a complex problem,

in that it is associated with relationship

breakdown and addiction. But it is also a

simple one, in that the main driver is the

cost and availability of housing. In 2011

housing benefit was cut from half of aver-

age local rents to 30%. For people in Lon-

don, income reductions were particularly

sharp. According to Thiemo Fetzer, Srinjoy

Sen and Pedro Souza of Warwick Universi-

ty, in Camden the average loss to house-

holds was £1,924 ($2,530) a year.

With a continued net decline in social

rented housing, privately rented accom-

modation covered in part by housing bene-

fit is the main source of subsidised housing

these days, so the cut in housing benefit

had a big impact. Crisis says that evictions

from the private rented sector were the

main reason for the increase in homeless-

ness in 2010-18. The savings to the public

sector were minimal: lower spending on

housing benefit by central government was

mostly offset by higher spending by coun-

cils on shelters and suchlike.

A new law designed to bring numbers

down that came into force last year re-

quired councils to take “reasonable steps”

to help all homeless people. That may be

why numbers across the country dipped

last year, though campaigners point out

that “reasonable steps” can be interpreted

as giving rough sleepers a list of hostels.

The decline may also be to do with local-

ised efforts such as that in Manchester,

which is trialling a version of the Housing

First policy that has worked in Finland (see

Europe section). Rough-sleeping numbers

in Manchester are down by 37% this year.

But in London, numbers continue to

rise (see chart), and not only among

Britons: the fastest-growing group is from

eastern Europe. They now make up nearly

half of rough sleepers in Westminster, the

borough with the biggest problem. It has

“ample accommodation” for them, says

Ian Adams, the councillor responsible, but

since housing benefit was withdrawn from

unemployed European migrants in 2014,

the government will not pay their bills, and

since a High Court decision in 2017 they

cannot be deported for sleeping rough. “It’s

really frustrating,” says Mr Adams. “We

have our hands tied behind our backs.”

With London’s streets awash with rain,

the city’s rough sleepers look like having a

dank Christmas. But some look on the

bright side. Paul stopped drinking 30 years

ago and has managed to stay sober by going

to Alcoholics Anonymous at 7.30am most

days. “I just have to walk past some people

on the streets, off their heads on drink or

drugs, and I think how lucky I am.”^7

On any winter night, around 5,000

people will be sleeping rough

Rough sleeping

No crib for a bed

Something to make you change your mind

Streets of London

Source:GreaterLondonAuthority

London, rough sleepers seen on at least

one night during the year, ’000

0

2

4

6

8

10

2000 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 18

Years beginning April