The 'new and unexpected breed' of Britain's homeless

moving house but with no new home to go to a former Submariner the inn is packing up at his flat in Guildford one of the most affluent parts of Britain after his marriage broke up he then spent four years retraining to become a lawyer but he now can't find a full-time job and quite simply his money's running out the sum total of my own monthly income moment from my three part-time jobs brings in the grand total of about six hundred pound a month and the rent and the flat of nine hundred and seventy pounds a month so you don't need a PhD in mathematics 46 years old Ian now finds himself homeless his way of dealing with it may seem extreme but he's determined not to go on benefit nor to go into debt instead he's taking a tenth I'm going to live in the woods are there alternatives yes I could probably get a room in one of the shelter's intone I'm not being snobby about it it's just a fact that I don't really want to I don't want to live in a hostel yeah I'd rather be staying in my nice flat of course I would 15 years in the Navy have taken the fear out of the practical side of things but Ian knows this camping trip may not all be the stuff of a boy's own adventure earlier in the week I had had a slight sort of down woman and I did get to the point I thought what are you doing here what why how did you end up here the last time homelessness was found at the top of the political agenda more than 20 years ago places like this in the Home Counties could virtually look on as spectators the cardboard cities which sprung up in London and other urban areas have long since been swept away but the specter of rising homelessness has returned and Channel 4 News has discovered that this time it's pulling down people and parts of the country barely affected before 20 miles away in Crawley stands one of the last direct access hostels in the southeast for us leapers they provided a bed for more than 250 people in the past 12 months Peter Mansfield Clark is the manager it's a different type of homeless person we're getting in now we're getting people who if you'd like a slightly higher up the social sky or who've been having they've been working for most of their lives and things have gone wrong with them since the recession started Joe's been here for three days just 21 he seems bewildered at how quickly his life has started to fall apart when he just seemed to be getting it together six months ago he had a job in construction earning 450 pounds a week and was living with his pregnant girlfriend in a nice flat it's the work that didn't come through and then it got less and less so I still had a job but there just wasn't there ours or the amount of days that I know not enough to keep me keep me going properly not enough to keep things sweet at home the financial pressure put strain on the relationship and Joe was forced to move out he ended up homeless but securing a new roof over his head may make securing a job even harder so I've got a job today I'd have to leave here not because of them here but because the council won't or the government won't pay for me to stay here they won't pay the Housing Benefit yeah because I've got a job so they even want you to have a job and no roof over your head or it's weird I feel bit trans as the numbers looking for a bed here and at similar places across the country rise the government figures on rough sleeping are coming under renewed scrutiny when the coalition came to power the official count figure for rough sleepers was 440 the government changed the way the figures were collated insisting all areas provided either a count result or an estimate so in 2011 the official figure was up at 1768 the government certain it's got a clear picture of how many people are sleeping rough up and down the country but how accurate are their figures Channel 4 News surveyed frontline homeless organizations like there one and two thirds of them told us that official statistics significantly underestimate the level of rough sleeping and what's more the figures are rising last twelve months we've had to turn away just over nineteen hundred people and those nineteen hundred almost five hundred of them were females and we're saying those people I'm really sorry with all you've got to stay on the streets it really is the government trying to make things look a lot better than they actually are it's I think they like to think they are getting on top of the problem and they want other people to think they getting on top of the problem and in fact they haven't and the problems getting a lot worse and Peeta's experience is repeated across the country according to the umbrella group homeless link it survey 200 homeless organizations and two-thirds reported rough sleeper numbers rising members are seeing an increase in rough sleeping as a result of the recession it's quite widely known that homelessness tends to kick in quite late after a recession and when I sing some of the results of that coming through people who've been doing everything they can to solve their homelessness and it's just got too far and they've come over the edge and ended up on the streets Manchester as one of the country's biggest cities it's no stranger to the problem of homelessness yet the official figure for rough sleepers at the last count was just seven I met up with Peter Green on the streets of the city centre where he's been working with the homeless for more than 20 years he took me on our own unofficial rough sleeper count so four guys in here by the looks of it all fast asleep in the wound of not somebody else over there this is where Raymond sleeps he's one of our regulars and that's the sixth we've seen in a walk was taken a matter of minutes exactly the argument has always been that the official rough sleeper figure should be read as a snapshot so that trends can be monitored but Peter who runs a drop-in center for the homeless says they're now so out of kilter they're almost pointless how do their figures tally with your understanding of the situation in this area with something we all sit and have a laugh about the figures certainly don't tell it with the numbers of people that we're seeing just don't we're near and we're seeing a hundred plus or eighty to a hundred plus people a night and does the disparity and figures matter of course it matters yes it's a message to the people who are sleeping rough when his future plans are not made for them to get them into accommodation into housing but the Department for Communities and Local Government insists the figures are accurate in a statement released a Channel four News it said it is the responsibility of local authorities to provide accurate numbers street counts are independently verified we believe this represents a significant improvement in the way local areas assess the number of people sleeping rough every day the queue of people waiting for food outside the Barnabus drop-in center forms early homelessness has always been the preserve of the vulnerable but charities say ongoing changes to the benefit system are pushing people who previously held things together however precariously into difficulty Damien has struggled with mental health issues since he was 19 but managed to keep a roof over his head then he failed the government's new fitness for work tests and with some of his benefit gone his life began to unravel they never cross the minds that that had seen yourself as being ours there's so many songs I used to come into Manchester for for a night out and I'd see a few but I have no idea that there were so many on the streets eight weeks in he's still struggling to make sense of his new life you lost your good you you're constantly filled with a sensation that you want to go home but you don't have a guy you know at the home - girl - you see people moving around and around five o'clock comes people finishing work and going past junior you you sat there no idea where to go what to do the Department of Work and Pensions told us there was no reason why changes to benefits should leave anyone homeless but charities may need more convincing fearing that cuts to services will see vital safety nets taken away there is really a sort of perfect storm and possibly more ahead because we're seeing not only that increase in in rough sleeping in many areas and in general homelessness the local authorities are under pressure too but the ability to respond to it is really being cut back there's no job in a city solicitor's office yet but there is some progress for Ian he's been offered a room at the pub where he's working part-time I don't have any form of tenancy agreement or any security of tenure at all it's really on a recent favor basis which could end at any time and you haven't taken the tent down no the tents still there it's still there for Damien however the routine remains unchanged the nighttime case it's it's it's cold well-lit rough it's framed yeah this not a nice is the places sorry

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 90,680

Keywords: homeless, spending cuts, Jackie Long

Id: nQhVZ5jp1rE

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 31 2011