Tories promise to tackle root causes of homelessness with new Foundation

Speaking yesterday at the launch of the Conservative Party's new Homelessness Foundation, at the Crisis charity, David Cameron said: "Homelessness isn't just about literally having no roof over your head.  We're also ignoring what's called the 'hidden homeless'.  That's the people who move from one sofa to another, night after night, with no stability and no security.  And it's the families who are forced to live in crowded conditions in hostels and B&Bs while they wait to be re-housed."  David Cameron's full remarks are here.

The Foundation will look at how public policy might be reshaped to tackle homelessness in all of its forms.  There will be a particular emphasis on the root causes of homelessness.  Grant Shapps, Tory housing spokesman, told ConservativeHome that he had invited all of the leading charities to join the Foundation and all had accepted.  John Bird of The Big Issue (to which Iain Duncan Smith has become a contributor) will be one of the advisors.  Also involved are Thames Reach Bondway, Homeless Link,  Shelter, Crisis (which has Tory origins), the Simon Community and St Mungo's.  It really is a sign of the times that these charities are willing to sign up to a Conservative research organisation.

The Foundation's Advisory Board looks vulnerable to being captured by the big, established charities in our view but Grant insists that smaller groups, following different approaches, like Aquila Way in Gateshead, will also be involved.

One of the root causes of homelessness is family breakdown.  Shadow Welfare Secretary Chris Grayling addressed the issue of parenting in an article for the Yorkshire Post on Wednesday.  He identified four priorities:

1. "To start with, we have to end the blight of generational worklessness. That's why we published in January plans for the most radical reform to the welfare state for half a century. We aim to dramatically improve the support people get when they seek to return to work, but we will also remove entitlement to out of work benefits for those who refuse to take responsibility for their own fortunes and who refuse to take part in the return to work process."
2. "Secondly, we need zero tolerance of truancy, and early intervention in schools and by health visitors to help troubled parents and the children whose family circumstances mean they are being left behind."
3. "Thirdly, we need a welfare support and benefits system that protects families' stability. The tax credits system should not make it more financially attractive for some couples to live apart rather than together."
4. "Finally, we need to recognise the limitations of politicians, and place more responsibility in the hands of local communities and the voluntary sector to tackle the challenges we face."

> PDF of the Homelessness Foundation's launch document.

Comments

[Tony Makara]

This is really good news and an opportunity for policy to have a directly positive effect on people's lives. It is tragic to think of all the young people who are living on our streets, young people who should be living at home in the loving environment of family life. Often these people are too young to make mature judgements for themselves and run away from troubled home life as a quck-fix, only to find themselves having to deal with even greater problems on the streets. These people exist but they don't have a life as such. Government and the voluntary sector must do what it can to help them find a way home.

[The Silent Majority]

Solution to homelessness = Build more houses

Simple really.

Tory policy
1) stop building homes in gardens
2) stop building on green field sites
3) allowing the wealthy to buy up 2nd homes like there is no tomorrow

Will only create a greater housing crisis!

The Silent Majority tells it as it is to all parties!

Yours
The Silent Majority

[Tim H]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

[Neil Wilson]

Looking at some of the specimens that walk about Liverpool asking decent people for money to buy smack with, I would argue that the route cause of homelessness is hard drugs.

This in turn leads to a situation where it is impossible for family members to put up their wayward siblings or offspring, leading to them living on the streets, making money by begging.

Not saying it applies to all of them, but certainly the ones that are most visible.

[Tony Makara]

Tim H, your frustration at not being able to work is highly understandable. I agree that workfare is a punitive measure and will not create or become a pathway into work. Far better if a Conservative government introduces a scheme like the 1980s 'Community Programme' and puts the long-term unemployed into paid work for twelve months. These schemes should also contain a training element leading to recognized skills. Workfare will only lead to young men who resent being forced to work for nothing into signing off the dole and drifting into criminality to gain access to money. The way to bring these young people back into the mainstream is through waged-work. However I feel that people should be expected to join a waged scheme otherwise the scheme won't work. I look forward to seeing James Purnell embrace David Freud's welfare to work proposals, then we will see that Freud's proposals are flawed, that they don't work, and then the Conservative party will have to come up with a better strategy. I can see that Chris Grayling wants to be radical over welfare reform, this is good, hopefully such radicalism will include looking at the options for schemes like the 1980s Community Programme which was successful in offering waged work to the jobless at a time of mass unemployment.

[Terry]

You have to change the benefit trap where people who are unemployed and only likely to get low-paid jobs simply cannot afford to go for something which may or may not work out. If you are getting housing benefit and reduced council tax plus dole money, your job has to compensate for all of these. What about a benefit entitlement for a fixed term so that you can try a job to see if it works out, and if it does the benefits continue to help you out, if not they are preserved without all the agro of a fresh claim? We need people with experience of the dole system who can advise on how best to reform it - I write as someone desperately trying to keep my unemployed and unqualified stepson with a council roof over his head.

[Yet Another Anon]

Government and the voluntary sector must do what it can to help them find a way home.
That depends on why they left in the first place, it may well be that their families threw them out and don't want them back for whatever reason, it may be that if they go back they end up getting their head kicked in or maybe killed.

They may well be a threat to their family on the other hand - the fact is that family life is never going to be perfect and how good it is varies from one familyt to another and the state or voluntary organisations are never going to be able to sort everything out.

After my last one failed and put me in hospital, I made a public vow that next time not only would I succeed, but I would also make sure that as many as possible would die at the same time.
Whether you kill yourself or not is up to you, it is unacceptable though to kill others not directly wrong for your predicament.

People attempting to kill others at the same time as they attempted suicide should be executed in an unpleasant way - murder is murder whether the purpetrator is trying to kill themselves at the same time or not.

[Tony Makara]

"Whether you kill yourself or not is up to you"

Yet Another Anon, such throwaway remarks are ill-judged and fail to take into account the severe mental dilemma that those contemplating suicide have fallen into. Many people take their lives because they feel no-one cares about them, often all these people need is support to get them through a difficult time. The Conservative party's appreciation of and support for the voluntary sector is such a welcome development. Such voluntaries bodies, through their support of the destitute, literally save lives on a daily basis. People touching lives, people saving people.

[Patrick Ratnaraja]

How many more houses can you build in Britian?
1.Stop people buying four houses
2.Stop the European immigrants (the main reason for housing crisis)
3.Strict regulations for work prmits (another reason for housing crisis)
4.Train the Locals and Tax incentives for training so that we don't need foreigners to do our jobs.

People who come here on work permits not only compete for our jobs, they become Councillors as well. I am yet to get selected for a safe ward and some one(A commonwealth Citizen) who arrived here on a work permit recently was selected for a safe Conservative ward.

[woodentop]

Yet Another Anon @ 23:30 - although the tone of your post is rather unpleasant, it does serve to highlight the fact that most homelessness has at its root serious mental health issues and social difficulties. Many if not most of those on the streets or moving rootlessly about suffer from addictions to alcohol, drugs or both and until these issues are addressed, it is only going to be scratching at the surface if one looks at the homelessness problem by itself. There has got to be some joined-up thinking here.

[Dontmakemelaugh]

"Speaking yesterday at the launch of the Conservative Party's new Homelessness Foundation, at the Crisis charity, David Cameron said: "Homelessness isn't just about literally having no roof over your head. We're also ignoring what's called the 'hidden homeless'. That's the people who move from one sofa to another, night after night, with no stability and no security. And it's the families who are forced to live in crowded conditions in hostels and B&Bs while they wait to be re-housed." David Cameron's full remarks are here".

If only we lived in a perfect world. Apparently Cameron has noticed that we don't and is complaining, but fails to recognize that his lunatic attachment to the EU immigration policy contributes a great deal to overcrowding.
Yesterday a young woman was sent to prison (I watched it on the box in Tesco's) for unlawfully smuggling a baby into Britain in order to obtain council accommodation. She originated from Nigeria and came to Britain via Sweden (I believe) before, courtesy of the EU, finishing up in Britain.
We can never tire of saying how much the deluded fruitcakes (politicians) have contributing to our self inflicted problems, but doesn't Cameron sound soooooo nice and that is all that matters. So where is he going to build all these houses that he needs to house the ever expanding EU aggrandizing additional populations that will be entitled to apply for a house in England (forget Scotland and Wales) ie., east Europeans and the, no doubt, soon to be added, Serbia, Kosovo and Turkey.
It looks as if there will be more sleeping on the pavement whilst the rest of us live like sardines in a can.
So where are you going to build these new towns, Dave. I suggest you make a start in your rural community - they will love it.

[Patrick Ratnaraja]

When the Turks come into Britain not only there will be cheaper Kebabs, the housing crisis will get worse and also there will be more muslims.

This means that more Mosques have to be build too unless they change their names to Johnson.

[Malcolm Shykles]

DC said "And causes like the severe lack of affordable housing in our country."

In the late 60's when I was in this position as newly married, we stayed in a small flat with shared bathroom and w/c, while we saved the deposit. Others saved while living in houseboats and caravans.
I do not see why we should be supplementing the savings of others by paying for "affordable housing" through tax.
This "affordable housing" or rabbit hutches, with no gardens nor scenery are the slums of tomorrow.
One answer is renovation of the large Victorian Estates with modern fuel efficient housing.
Many couples would be better of renting, which was what most were doing until Labour brought in well-meaning, socially motivated legislation.
Instead of protecting tenants’ interests it resulted in the virtual destruction of the market. It also detracted from the aim of a flexible, mobile workforce by creating tenants that never move.
It is hard to believe that giving security of tenure for life - and for the lives of spouses and offspring - while controlling rents through the ‘fair rents’ system, at uneconomic levels, could ever have been contemplated. No landlord in his or her right mind would buy and supply property to let under those terms.

[Yet Another Anon]

"Whether you kill yourself or not is up to you"

Yet Another Anon, such throwaway remarks are ill-judged and fail to take into account the severe mental dilemma that those contemplating suicide have fallen into.
I was highlighting the fact that there is a huge chasm between someone killing themselves and choosing to take others with them which is still murder (except in self defence or war - ie heroic self sacrifice).