Today in the UK there are:
- 90,000 families in temporary accommodation
- 122,000 homeless children
- 52,000 homeless young people
- 400,000 hidden homeless
'Hidden homeless' includes the sofa surfers and couch hoppers, the people who stay with friends or family for a while until the welcome wears out or the overcrowding causes problems and they are once more forced out onto the streets again. The statistics include all those who satisfy the legal definition of homelessness but have not been provided with accommodation. The national charity Crisis estimates that there are 400,000 hidden homeless. |
|
- In 2007 the Simon Community counted 301 people sleeping rough in inner London.
- We know that in Maidstone tonight, between 25 and 30 men and women will be sleeping rough.
- So according to Government figures that would leave around 150 over the rest of the country. Does that make sense?
Official counts are regulated and risk assessed so that only certain places are deemed safe for the counters to look; and if there are under ten rough sleepers in an area then these are not included in the figures. Rough sleepers do not usually sleep in well lit shop doorways and ‘safe places’ they tend to hide away for fear of attack so official counters would be unlikely to come across them.
The way that the count is calculated is changing to recognise the actual problem. We will keep you posted.
|
