Four Dead In 12 Hours In Sub-Zero Britain

[fender62]

disgraceful in this day an age, £14 billion foreign aid budget..but nothing for the uk's homeless.
yet a migrant family and there raft of migrant help groups and solicitors, in like flynn...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7700779/Rush-hour-chaos-train-delays-hit-thousands-commuters.html#comments

[ummmm]

Jackdaw...how much rent/mortgage do you pay?

[david small]

Tis true jackdaw. There are legion of terrible injustices and deliberately selfish decisions, and stupidity runs riot.
But, we must endure, or go crazy. Look for the good in life and in people, you’ll live longer, that is if you want to live longer.

[Jackdaw33]

Not that it's any of your business, Ummmm, but I pay £530.83 per month, allout of my own pocket, no benefits, and I'm a pensioner.

[pastafreak]

You can throw all the money in the world at the homeless situation, but first you have to deal with rampant alcoholism, drugs that most people have never heard of, mental health issues, anti social issues. Support workers can work their asses off to get someone into housing, only for that person to get booted out onto the street just days later because they trashed the place or stayed with a mate. Kids get kicked out by their families...out on the street without the necessary skills to function...and there's always someone willing to "help" them.
Sorry for my rant...

[ummmm]

It's not my business, jack, sorry for asking.

It's just how much it costs for housing, our mortgage is £140 a month...my daughter pays £400 for a room

[anneasquith]

Good post pasta. It’s always best to get information from someone like pasta who works with * homeless people *

[hc4361]

Homelessness is not straightforward. I have known several (more than 10) homeless people who have been helped by charities and government agencies in to their own accommodation only to become homeless again within a year or two for a variety of reasons. Some were evicted because they couldn't or wouldn't manage their money and were in rent arrears. Others were evicted because of anti-social behaviour or vandalism. One lost her home when she was sent to prison. A few just couldn't hack it and walked out.
I know of one man who has gone through this cycle at least three times, homeless - given help in to accommodation - homeless again - rehoused again. Each time leaving a landlord out of pocket and stressed out neighbours.

I really don't know the answer for people like that. I hate that people are homeless and living on the streets or in shelters and hostels (they are not fun places) but sometimes it is nigh on impossible to help them.

People shouldn't be dying from hypothermia because they are living on the streets. They shouldn't be dying in their own homes because they are drug addicts, or have committed suicide, or neglected themselves - but they do. And this will always be happening, it is a sad fact of life.

[dannyk13]

Jack,//Nobody in Britain should be homeless in this day and age, excdpt through choice.//
Agreed, but there are many who sleep out through choice.It would be useful to have this number quoted when they give the statistics of homeless people.I think many people would be surprised at how many are there by choice.

[hereIam]

We should be helping our own first, be it the homeless on the streets, the elderly who can't afford to heat their homes properly or afford care and children stuck in poverty, but this will never happen because our politicians will NEVER stop giving aid abroad. Pees me off. Time letting immigrants in was stopped now, we have enough ...

[zebo]

I think that money management is something that needs tackling, how one family can manage on their income and another can't. It's not a job for schools, at school youngsters think they're invincible, someone once said Education is wasted on the young.
Despite all the political soundbites throwing money at the problem will never solve it, you could give everyone a million pounds and within a year there would be vastly different outcomes, that's human nature.

[hc4361]

Homelessness is a strange state of existence that does appeal to some. The only responsibility is to find enough food for that day (very easy to do in towns and cities) and find a safe place to doss down at night. No work stress, no living by the clock, no money worries - if you ain't got it, you can't lose it. Every town and city has facilities for the homeless to wash and get a clean set of clothes. Homeless people are entitled to claim benefits and don't need a bank account or an address. They don't get much but they do get something. Many don't bother claiming because they can't cope with 'hassle'.

[emmie]

hc what a bleak way of looking at it.

[TheDevil]

I don't understand how this issue has any relation to our foreign aid budget. It seems like an uneducated shot at the charity we as a country are able to provide for others.

[emmie]

we pay huge sums of money in overseas aid, much of it not going where it's intended, but into the pockets of those who run dictatorships.

[TheDevil]

You're implying that the money we send to foreign aid would be used to support the homelessness crisis in the UK if we stopped providing foreign aid. It wouldn't.

[emmie]

it's not a trivial matter or sum, personally there are countries who are wealthier than we are we shoudn't be giving money too.

https://fullfact.org/economy/uk-spending-foreign-aid/

[emmie]

some of it might, it's worth a shot don't you think.
get some of the 5,000 who live on London's street alone
a safe place to stay, some won't want it, but many do.
from experience of friends who have lived on the streets
they are, were only too happy when they were found accommodation.

[TheDevil]

Emmie - "some of it might, it's worth a shot don't you think."

No. I am more than happy for a small % of my tax money to pay for foreign aid. To help countries that have faced crisis or natural disaster. If you're not, then tough. I personally don't want to provide for those in my own country who are simply scroungers who have had the same opportunities as everyone else in this country. I would rather provide for those in critical need through no fault of their own.

[TheDevil]

0.7% of the UK’s Gross National Income goes on overseas development aid each year. If you really think that will go to homelessness in the UK if we stopped overseas aid, you're mistaken.

[emmie]

as i said there are thousands who don't get help in these shores, why on earth not. so give foreign aid, line the pockets of despots, thank heavens Mugabe is dead, but i bet we give a shed load more to others who have taken his place, it's a bottomless pit