The Homeless - legally doing too little!

Where I find myself operating there is a policy whereby the homeless are supported by those in authority by them being afforded the 'statutory minimum' provision. What this really means is that the town considers itself to have no homeless and should any of these awful people arrive, they are given the fare to one of the large cities north or south of us, so that they can be hosteled.

When discussing this with a member of the council they continually used the term 'statutory minimum' and when challenged over this, the response was that anything less would be unlawful and anything more would encourage the 'wrong sort' of people to come to our town. Not only that, but offering them housing or other support would merely perpetuate the problem, the homeless need to be made to stop being homeless and settle down (somewhere else?).

It seems that this attitude also prevails within Westminister's bounds regarding the topic of soup kitchens with their, "If you feed them, they will come," approach to the homeless.

A couple of years after my discussion with the councillor, we had a well-known local tramp die of exposure whilst sleeping rough in a bus shelter. There was an outcry and the public were outraged and civic leaders postured and spoke out about 'doing something' and here we are, at the close of the 2010/11 winter with still nothing done and any public, or morally-driven, sense of purpose now gone.

About three years ago I approached the housing department and told them that I would organise a charity and bunch of volunteers to attempt to deal with homelessness where we are. All they had to do was provide a pair of down-at-heel houses and we would provide, and manage the funding, of temporary accommodation.

This was greeted rather negatively with various reasons (we don't have the housing stock) and various attitudes (if we did that, people would come here and we don't have a homeless problem at the moment) and loads of well-meaning inactivity (well, nothing has happened so it is inactivity whether those who read this and feel guilty/angry/whatever like it or not!).

So before people get on their high horses over Westminster, can I suggest that you stop and look at your own community and see what is offer there? I imagine that you will find pretty much the same, and if not 'Well Done' now take a look at the next place along the road from you and ask yourself, "How can I influence, aid or support them?

If we take one of the quotes from Westminster and change the name, I wonder how many of us could say the same for our place of residence or ministry?


My Town believes that food handouts only serve to keep people on the streets longer, damaging their health and life chances.

Well? rather than all the posing and self-righteous blog-writing, what are we going to do about it? Not Westminister (unless you live there) but where you live. An opportunity for a 'Churches Together' project. A need to get together and raise up candidates for our local councils.

We need to stop muttering, writing and being outraged and start being the difference!

Now, before the next winter

Pax