Homelessness on the up

As economic opportunities have declined, the north-east of England has seen many of its’ young people forced into moving to find work.

This has meant that in some areas there is a surplus of housing, stock once occupied lies empty. Some has become a magnet for vandals.

In Sunderland, the Sunderland Housing Group which took over all the City Council’s housing stock less than two years ago has announced plans to pull down 5,000 homes. Some local schools are being forced to close or amalgamate as enrolment numbers fall.

Yet homelessness is actually on the increase. This follows the removal of benefits to refugees and asylum seekers who have lost their appeals for permission to stay. Obtaining exact numbers is difficult. Many of those who lose their benefits and accommodation end up disappearing or being taken in by friends who are themselves already in very dire straits.

Sadly things are due to get worse and there are some clues that it already has. This follows the decision by the Government that after January 8^th asylum seekers who don’t make a claim for refugee status “as soon as reasonably practicable” are refused benefits.

One of the people employed in Sunderland to work with refugees, who did not want to be named, told me he was “aware of 3 people who have been refused benefits since January 8^th because of the legislation.” He could not say how they would be able to cope.  

The plight of homeless people throughout the country has grown in the last twenty years. In 1980 there were less than 5,000 homeless people and families in temporary accommodation. Today’s figure stands at 84,420. This is expected to rise as the social housing stock declines due to a continued policy of council house sales and few, if any, units being built to replace the lost stock.

Just down the A19 from Sunderland, Middlesbrough and the surrounding Tees Valley area has become home to almost 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers since the Government started its controversial dispersal policy in April 2000.

Mehmet, from Albania and a volunteer at the offices of the North of England Refugee Service in the town said: “a lot of people have lost their appeals and are now homeless.” This was a reference to the fact that refugees and asylum seekers who exhaust their application processes have their benefits stopped.

He estimated that the numbers totalled between 50 and 100 people, and recounted that “a friend of mine found three Kurds sleeping in his car.” He himself has been secretly allowing a Kurdish man to live at his house for the last 2 months. “What can I do, I can’t let him freeze to death on the streets.”

Masut, from Turkey Kurdistan, has become so depressed that he wants to return to Turkey. He knows that he could face further persecution when he goes back but according to his friend he has become ‘depressed and has even threatened to kill himself.” At one point he was receiving medication to help prevent him becoming depressed and suicidal. After he lost his appeal this was stopped. “I really fear he will do something silly.” 

Peter Widlinski, a worker for the North of England Refugee Service in the town, is painfully aware that the service cannot possibly hope to support everyone. He is aware of 5 or 6 new arrivals this year who have had their application for benefits refused. They are joining a growing list without benefits or means of support.

He is at a loss to understand the logic of a Government which wants to throw people on to the streets in an area where there are a considerable number of properties lying vacant.

“We are going to be forced to open soup kitchens.”

Of course, even those who do get benefits don’t get a great deal. Income support levels in Britain are only £53.65 a week, but refugees and asylum seekers only get 70% of this, although this figure doesn’t include gas and electricity which brings it close to 80% of the amount received by other claimants. Still, at £37.55 a week for a single person over 25 years it is a pittance. 

For weeks many sections of the national media have been running a whole series of hostile articles about refugees and asylum seekers. In such a situation it would be surprising if there wasn’t a great deal of hostility towards them.  

Rather encouragingly Peter Widlinski felt that ‘on the ground’ things aren’t quite as bad as may be expected.

“There was a lot of hostility towards the first refugees and asylum seekers sent to the Tees Valley in April 2000. It has taken a lot of time involving campaigning, developing links with other agencies and working with the media but everything is getting better. Local people are much more supportive. In many areas, genuine friendships have been developed between those sent here and people who were born here or have lived in the area for sometime.

In some localities houses which would have been boarded up and left to rot, with all the consequent social decay, have been brought back in to use. “It makes sense for local councils to get money to refurbish run down properties rather than let them become a magnet for vandals.”

Homelessness is blight on any civilised society. In areas such as Middlesbrough and the north-east of England it is nothing short of criminal that houses are being left empty to rot whilst human beings are forced to bed down in already overcrowded accommodation or worse, sleep on the streets.

February 2003