Hidden homeless living in CAVES and air raid shelters

[TonyGosling]

'Hidden homeless' living in CAVES and air raid shelters as temperatures plummet below freezing
Dec 30, 2014 09:33 By Jennifer Williams
Many have been hit by a spiral of benefits sanctions and rent arrears - and some are suffering Victorian diseases such as trenchfoot
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hidden-homeless-living-caves-air- 4889987

The shocking extent of the ‘hidden homeless’ sleeping rough has been revealed - with many sleeping in CAVES and air raid shelters as temperatures plummet.

Many have been hit by a spiral of benefits sanctions and rent arrears - and some are suffering Victorian diseases such as trenchfoot.

Homeless organisations say 'frightening' cuts mean more hostels could shut, and numbers could soar even further.

An investigation by Manchester Evening News found insecure jobs, benefits changes and funding cuts have combined to spark a visible surge in rough sleeping.

Official figures show the number of homeless people on Greater Manchester streets is 24 - but charities believe the figure is far higher.

Councillor Daniel Gillard has just concluded a Manchester Council inquiry on the issue, which spoke to dozens of homeless organisations.

He believes around 150 people are now sleeping rough in the city centre – six times higher than the official figure.

He said the authorities had more or less got a grip on the problem in 2009, but since then numbers have rocketed.

Manchester’s Booth Centre, which provides advice, activities, training and hot food for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness, said it was seeing around 170 people a week, a third more than two years ago.


In Stockport, the Wellspring centre estimates a 60% increase in rough sleepers and believes there to now be around 50 in the town.

Both charities pointed to benefits sanctions as one cause.

One Stockport man told how he had been ‘sanctioned’ seven times in a row, meaning he could not afford his rent and eventually lost his flat – but cannot get another due to his arrears.

And people have been living in the Stockport cave revealed by Manchester Evening News 18 months ago.

Others have been camping out in the town’s old air raid shelter.

Although the council sealed it up for safety reasons last month, some of the bricks have already been removed.

Before Christmas, Stockport's precarious riverside warren was home to a girl sheltering with her boyfriend.

It also appeared the camp had been trashed and robbed.

When investigators returned a few days later, there were already more cave-dwellers, sheltered by a makeshift fireplace in a rocky cranny and blankets hung up on strings.

Across the town there is a network of hideouts just yards from public view that have long been used by the homeless.

A sweep by the police a few weeks ago found people living in the Dodge Hill air raid shelters, a mile-long warren on the edge of Heaton Norris.

Booth Centre chief executive Amanda Croome said she was seeing more people who have recently lost their job, while rent arrears, combined with benefits sanctions, are a major issue.

“We are seeing a lot more people with benefits problems, which leads to debt and problems with housing,” she said.

“That means food poverty is increasing, so we are seeing a lot more people who are dependent on the breakfasts we serve.

“Whereas before, most homeless people had benefits, now they have nothing.”

She pointed to the closure of Greater Manchester Police’s dedicated vagrancy unit two years ago as a significant factor – as its officers used to work closely with the centre to get people housed.

The Salvation Army’s 110-bed hostel closed under the council’s first wave of cuts - but despite the rising figures, Manchester council is now looking at cutting back homelessness funding further as it seeks £60m in savings for 2015.

Inspector Rik Byatt, of Greater Manchester Police, said since the begging unit was disbanded, the responsibility for dealing with rough sleeping is now shared across departments - meaning more staff than before are dealing with the issue.

Earlier this month, the Mirror reported on a 52-year-old man set to spend Christmas in a cave - because he has nowhere else to live.

Ray Burton moved into his makeshift home on Llandudno's Great Orme limestone headland after he was told to leave his flat.

Ray grew up in the South Wales Valleys and things started going very wrong in his life when he was put into care at the age of 13.

He spent a period of time at the now notorious Bryn Estyn children's care home in Wrexham, where he says he was abused.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

This is the third world model
These destitute people do not have a vote

[TonyGosling]

Homelessness duty 'would cost councils £44m'
10 May 2016 0:01 am | By Heather Spurr
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/policy/health-and-care/homelessness/hom elessness-duty-would-cost-councils-44m/7015149.article
Introducing a new homelessness prevention duty would initially cost English councils £44m a year in total, a report has found.
A panel of housing experts, organised by Crisis, last month officially published its recommendations calling on ministers to introduce new duties on councils to prevent people becoming homeless.
Inside Housing revealed in January that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is considering changing the law to bring in the new duty, which has already been implemented in Wales.
Today’s provisional research findings, undertaken by academics and published by Crisis, found that local authorities would spend in total £43.9m a year on homelessness prevention under the new scheme.
However, it found that these extra costs would eventually be offset by £46.8m a year due to fewer full homelessness duty cases, because people would get help quicker.
The DCLG has not confirmed whether or not it would match new legislation with extra money for councils.
Last year, the Welsh Government imposed a duty on councils to prevent homelessness within 56 days, backed with £4.9m for 2015/16.
English councils’ responses to the expert panel’s conclusions have been mixed, with many warning that they will need additional investment and housing in order to implement the recommendations.
Labour mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales said last month: “If you say somebody’s homeless and I have to house them, I have to have a place to house them. I can’t magic things up.”
The DCLG has been contacted for comment.
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/policy/health-and-care/homelessness/hom elessness-duty-would-cost-councils-44m/7015149.article

[TonyGosling]

https://www.facebook.com/Phillipo83/videos/vb.1508594923/1020746853306 0671/

[TonyGosling]

Holy COW!
Home Office using private data collected by homeless charities to identify & deport EU nationals @RichardVaughan1

https://inews.co.uk/?p=85943

Home Office uses homeless charity database to deport EU nationals
The Home Office was given secret access to a homeless database administered by outreach groups to target EU national sleeping rough
Richard Vaughan 2 days Sunday August 20th 2017
Home Office officials used a homeless persons database to weed out EU nationals in a bid to remove them from the UK as part of “collective expulsions”, according to campaigners. The Whitehall department was given secret access to a mapping tool by the Greater London Authority to enable them to monitor and locate rough sleepers on the basis of their nationality. The details emerged through a series of freedom of information requests by the civil rights charity Liberty, which uncovered a chain of emails revealing how Government officials used the database to track and deport vulnerable migrants. Crisis of compassion It follows a new policy introduced by the Home Office in May last year brought in to crackdown on EU nationals sleeping rough in the capital on the grounds they are “abusing” or “misusing” freedom of movement rights. Liberty believes it is part of a pattern of “collective expulsions”, particularly targeted at Eastern Europeans. Martha Spurrier, Director of Liberty, said: “Since Theresa May first boasted of creating a hostile environment for migrants back in 2012, vulnerable foreigners have been systematically targeted by a Government obsessed with deportation, whatever the human cost. “There is a crisis of compassion in our political system and it needs to be exposed and undone. The Government must come clean and end these secret deals – or we will look to challenge them in court.” The move is just the latest in a string of recent attempts by the Government department to access sensitive databases to target individuals by their nationality. Hostile environment Last year it emerged the Department for Education had agreed to hand over details of up to 1,500 schoolchildren a month to the Home Office in an attempt to create a “a hostile environment” for undocumented migrants. A similar arrangement exists with NHS Digital, which is required to hand over personal patient details to the Home Office on request to help track down suspected immigration offenders. The latest arrangement tracking homeless people using the GLA mapping tool ran for six months until homeless charities and help groups were alerted and raised their concerns. The Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) database is administered by homelessness outreach groups and holds information about people sleeping rough in London. In 2015, the Authority developed a tool which maps CHAIN data and can be filtered by geographical area and recorded characteristics – including nationality. In one email obtained by Liberty, Home Office immigration enforcement asked whether the mapping tool could “narrow down” the location of individuals to help them track them. The official even acknowledges that such efforts maybe open to FOI requests. Misuse of freedom of movement “The only thing I would like to see is either the post-code or the name of the individual hotspots on the borough maps. This would allow us to quickly narrow down the locations,” the official states. “We will use the maps in our authorities for deployment and briefings. Neither will be in the public domain but both would be susceptible to production on foot of a FOI request.” Later emails reveal growing concerns within the GLA about the neutrality of the database and the Home Office’s use of the data. The access was revoked in February 2017. A Home Office spokesperson said: “No-one should come to the UK with the intention of sleeping rough and those who are encountered doing this may be misusing their free movement rights. “We work closely with councils and homelessness outreach services to ensure that those who are vulnerable receive the care they need, while supporting local authorities to tackle illegal immigration in their communities.”