ROOF Blog

The Salvation Army is to rebrand its hostels for the homeless as LifeHouses. Maff Potts, Salvation Army’s director of homelessness services said: ‘This is a defining moment for the Salvation Army. The word ‘hostel’ was linked with old-style warehousing of people and didn’t convey that there’s more to our support services than simply housing. LifeHouse clearly demonstrates that we are about providing purpose and relationships - two words which are at the heart of our delivery of support services.’ Around 3,500 people stay at the organisation’s 83 UK and Ireland centres each night. The charity will also expand activities run in the centres, and the training offered to improve the self-esteem, mental health and employment prospects of the people using the centres.

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.

Shelter has won an historic legal case at the European Court of Justice on behalf of a homeless woman with four small children. The case was wholly funded by the Government’s legal aid services. Shelter represented Nimco Hassan Ibrahim, a mother of four children, after her housing application was turned down by Harrow Council. The case, which lasted three years, finally went before the European Court of Justice who ruled in favour of Mrs Ibrahim. Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said: ‘Shelter did not fund this case, as claimed in a daily newspaper, and none of our funding or donations from the public or corporate sponsors has been used. The case was wholly funded by legal aid through the Legal Services Commission.’

The Electoral Commission is reminding people living in temporary accommodation that they don’t need a permanent address to have a say at the next general election. The independent elections watchdog has produced a poster encouraging residents in shelters, hostels and bed and breakfasts to discuss how to register to vote with their accommodation managers. The project is being supported by Homeless Link, whose chief executive Jenny Edwards commented: ‘Homeless Link believes it is crucial that those who are experiencing homelessness use their political voice to influence the environment in which they live and the services they use. We welcome the recognition of the importance of homeless people’s votes and are working to increase awareness of voter registration procedures.’

At least 5,500 properties owned by London’s authorities are unoccupied, more than 3,000 of which have been vacant for three months or more. This is despite 353,000 people across the city waiting to be housed. The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, created fury among campaigners. Duncan Shrubsole, of homelessness charity Crisis, said: ‘It’s scandalous to have so many properties empty and we would urge all local authorities to make sure they are using their council housing to maximum capacity.’ Councils today defended their position saying many of the houses were uninhabitable. Lambeth Living, which manages social housing for Lambeth council, has 1,090 properties empty, 848 for more than three months, and 18,000 households on its housing waiting list — 8,000 of those families of two or more. A spokeswoman said empty properties were usually awaiting repair, redecoration or re-letting.

The problem of homeless people sleeping on Britain’s streets may have been transferred to hospitals, according to a new study. Although the government claims that the number of people sleeping rough has fallen by three-quarters since 1988, figures obtained from 173 hospital trusts under the Freedom of Information Act reveal mounting pressure on the NHS from the homeless. In England, a homeless person is admitted to hospital for problems related to drugs or alcohol every three hours. A total of 13,872 people with ‘no fixed abode’ were admitted to hospital over the last five years for drug or alcohol misuse. Total drug and alcohol related admissions of homeless people have risen by 117 per cent since 2004.

Crisis has warned that despite the budget deficit, 75% of the British public want the Government to address the growing gap between rich and poor. A YouGov poll commissioned by Crisis also shows that the majority of people in UK (60% of those with an opinion) say that the recession has made them more worried about the gap between rich and poor and the same proportion want to see the poorest protected from budget cuts as they can least afford to pay. Leslie Morphy, Crisis chief executive said: ‘With the election looming, politicians vying for votes must recognise people’s desire for a fairer society. They must not forget those who are poorest, amongst whom homeless people are some of the most vulnerable. They must pledge to protect them.’

Liberty and Housing Justice are among the charities that have become so alarmed about the ways in which the human rights of rough sleepers are increasingly being threatened by the authorities that they have produced ‘The Rights Guide for Rough Sleepers’.

In the run-up to the London Olympics in 2012, which is also Mayor Boris Johnson’s deadline for ending rough sleeping in London, the number and the severity of enforcement measures against rough sleepers has been growing.

The guide will clearly set out the rights of homeless people so that they know what their legal position is.

Crisis, the charity for homeless people, is launching a campaign to resist unpopular plans by the government to ask housing benefit claimants to pay back up to £15 a week they are allowed to keep if they negotiate cheap housing deals.

The Department for Work and Pensions had planned to end this after calculations showed it could bring in £160m.

For some of the least well-off, the change could amount to £15 a week, reducing by a fifth the cash in hand of someone receiving jobseeker’s allowance of £69 and leave some of the poorest families across the country some £780 worse off over the year.

Leslie Morphy, Crisis chief executive, called on the government to reconsider, saying: ‘This proposal would have a grave impact on some of the poorest households.

‘It’s not even likely to make the savings the government hopes, because claimants will no longer have an incentive to seek cheaper properties and landlords may simply raise rents to meet the maximum local authority level.

‘For people who are already struggling to make ends meet, losing a huge chunk of their income will make it even harder to get by and we are worried that this could lead to an increase in debt, rent arrears and homelessness.’

The national homelessness charity Emmaus is marking the 60th anniversary of the Emmaus Movement by launching a campaign designed to allow the stories of homeless people to be heard. A newly launched website is asking people to tell their stories of significant moments in their lives and to add their voices to the stories already posted by the residents of Emmaus Communities. Contributors will receive a story in return and will play an important part in helping to make people who are often ignored to have a voice. The site has already attracted some high profile contributors such as Cherie Blair, Terry Waite and Fern Britton.