pinpointing resources for people facing homelessness

"We have failed as a society when so many people are forced to sleep rough. But they are not alone; the scourge of homelessness extends far beyond our streets. Hidden away in emergency B&Bs, temporary bedsits and on friends' sofas are hundreds of thousands of other homeless people, including families with children."
(Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Shelter).

 

Homelessness has been described as “a scar on our city” by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (Khan; 2016). This growing critical issue is particularly present in London where the city’s population of rough sleepers accounts for almost a quarter of the entire country’s community: according to Streets of London (2018), more than 8,000 people slept rough in the City of London between 2016-17. However, while most people’s narrow image of what is homelessness entails is someone sleeping rough, the term encompass a much wider reality that affects more than 400,000 people in the UK. Indeed, more than ‘house-lessness’, there is a growing share of the population that is forced to live in insecure accommodations such as squats, hostels or in overcrowded spaces (Streets of London; 2018). For example, in the Borough of Westminster the data indicated that out of the 398 people aged between 16-25 years old who had approached the council, only 93 were given the adequate support necessary (Centrepoint, 2017).

 

Whilst parts of the wider population, and most importantly, key policymakers use rhetoric that describes homelessness with stereotypical images such as ‘drug addict’, ‘scrounger’, or ‘unwashed’, only few of them invest in identifying and tackling the key causes of homelessness. This is despite the fact that various charities have cited family breakdown and mental health issues as the true leading causes of homelessness (Centrepoint, 2017). Yet the response from government actors in recent years could only described as wanting; the Guardian reports that the NHS has had funding slashed for its top homeless mental health team known as the Camden NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). This was a 42% reduction in funding, when compared to the previous year. This directly contradicts Theresa May’s constant promises to increase NHS mental health services (Campbell, 2018).

 

In the face of severe government austerity and increasing cuts to public services, the number of people facing destitution continues to grow. People experiencing homelessness often face difficulties accessing services, or do not know where to look for relevant, effective support. The silence surrounding the issues homeless people face contributes to their demonization, and is reinforced by the police through the 1824 Vagrancy Act which specifically targets rough sleepers and the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act which further serves to criminalise them (McCulloch, 2018).

The suggestion that homeless people pose a security threat to the general public due to violence, drug abuse and alcoholism further perpetuates misplaced negative stereotypes. John Sparkes, the chief executive of Crisis stated that, “Homeless people are far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators, and rough sleepers are 17 times more likely to be victims of violence compared to the general public” (Marsh, 2017). There is a crucial need to not only deconstruct the languages and concepts surrounding homelessness but also to provide adequate services and to locate diverse experiences of homelessness within their broader social, historical, and cultural context. Indeed, as Neale (1997) argues, ‘homelessness’ is not a homogenous concept and there is a need to take into account that, because “power structures operate at different levels, there will be various ways of confronting homelessness and of effecting changes to human lives.”

 

Our Project

MaPin, has thus been created in the hope of not only easing some of the existing difficulties linked to the access of relevant services but, also, to further open the dialogue on the issues surrounding homelessness. Numerous efforts and initiatives from governmental, non-governmental and activist groups have been put in place in order to tackle the difficulties surrounding rough sleeping in London, especially concerning the provision of food and healthcare, as well as emergency accommodation. However, according to MaPin’s research, two main issues arise when trying to access these services. First, while plenty of good quality resources are available online, they are often scattered throughout the internet and outdated, thus limiting their usefulness and ease of accessibility. Secondly, depending on their individual agendas, organisations often classify people facing homelessness through a reducing and degrading lens separating people into ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ groups through unusable categories, such as sobriety or level of neediness. We believe that every person, however they may be categorised, is entitled to the same fundamental right to access information, about specific service providers.

We believe that the visual representation which MaPin offers can ease the process of finding the information on the location, opening hours and the regulations of a variety of services, which will enable individuals to access the type of service fitting their specific needs.

 

A Focus on Westminster

Mapin currently pinpoints the locations of service providers within the borough of Westminster. Situated in the heart of London, the borough of Westminster has the highest cost of accommodation and saw one of the highest rates of rough sleeping in 2017 (Butler; 2018). In related news, the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has been scheduled to take place in the St George’s chapel at Windsor Castle, on the 19th of May. The Conservative Party’s proposal to clear the area of homelessness in preparation for the wedding has further exposed the Tory government’s disregard towards homeless people and their needs (Sherwood, 2018).

In his letter to Thames valley police, Simon Dudley, a Conservative leader of the Windsor council, has demanded a police use of legal power under the 1824 Vagrancy Act and the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour to be mobilised against “aggressive begging and intimidation” and “bags and detritus”. Dudley continues, by questioning the legitimacy of homeless needs,  stating that begging in Windsor is actually a voluntary act, as majority of people are not in fact homeless, but just choose to reject all available support services (Sherwood, 2018). These sentiments are representative of a wider discourse surrounding homelessness that ultimately criminalises rough sleeping and begging, and delegitimises the very acute needs of the ever-growing number of people facing homelessness. The Tory party’s efforts to hide the crude reality of homelessness by enacting vagrancy laws for the sake of a royal wedding’s prestige, further exposes the government’s unwillingness to do its part in addressing the real consequences of the austerity measures that they imposed.


References (Article).

Butler, P. (2018). Rough sleeper numbers in England rise for seventh year running. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/25/rough-sleeper-numbers-in-england-rise-for-seventh-year-running [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].

Campbell, D. (2018). NHS slashes funds for top homeless mental health team. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/10/nhs-slashes-funds-homeless-mental-health-unit-north-london-focus-camden [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].

Centrepoint.org. (2018). Centrepoint Youth Homelessness Databank. [online] Available at: https://www.yhdatabank.com/data/aggregate_record_list/?location=a3_327&year=2015 [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].

Marsh, S. (2017). Number of homeless in Britain expected to double by 2041, Crisis warns. [online] the Guardian. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/10/uk-homeless-expected-double-2041-charity-crisis-warns [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018

McCulloch, V. (2018). Britain’s history of criminalising homeless people in public spaces. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-s-dark-history-of-criminalising-homeless-people-in-public-spaces-a7626531.html [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].

Neale, J. (1997). Homelessness and theory reconsidered. Housing Studies, 12(1), pp.47-61.

Sadiq Khan (2016).Sadiq Khan on Twitter. [online] Available at: https://twitter.com/sadiqkhan/status/811582172381540352?lang=en [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].

Shelter (2018). Shelter responds to new government figures on rough sleeping - Shelter England. [online] England.shelter.org.uk. Available at: https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_releases/articles/shelter_responds_to_new_government_figures_on_rough_sleeping [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].

Sherwood, H. (2018). Windsor council leader calls for removal of homeless before royal wedding. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/03/windsor-council-calls-removal-homeless-people-before-royal-wedding [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].
Streetsoflondon.org.uk. (2018). Streets of London | About homelessness. [online] Available at: http://www.streetsoflondon.org.uk/about-homelessness [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].