ROOF Blog

The Big Issue in the North, together with a number of Premier League and Football League clubs, is holding regional open trials to select the England team that will travel to compete in the Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup. The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded. It has triggered and supports grassroots football projects in over 70 nations working with over 30,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.

A report commissioned by the Howard League for Penal Reform has called for a reduction in the number of prisoners and the closing of some jails. The report said that prison and probation funding should be diverted to tackling the causes of crime, and suggested that short-term prison sentences be replaced with community-based responses. The report said that overcrowding threatened to ‘bring the penal system to its knees’ with the prison population doubling in the past two decades to an all time high of around 84,000.

A Salvation Army report has warned a generation of young people are binge drinking to such an extent they are at risk of social exclusion and homelessness. The report, Seeds of Exclusion 2009, says it is concerned for a new generation of young homeless adults who appear to be self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. Relationship breakdown and lack of supportive relationships are cited as the main reasons for homelessness. However, the research indicated that 59 per cent of those questioned reported an alcohol addiction, rising to 66 per cent among the 18- to 25-year-olds.