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100 FACTS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS

  1. The most important fact about homelessness is that it can happen to anyone – it is a common misconception that people ‘choose’ to become homeless; usually a combination of factors push people onto the street.
  2. Under the Housing Act (1996), local authorities are only obliged to provide homeless families with temporary accommodation for a maximum of two years.
  3. Homelessness doesn’t just mean sleeping in a shop doorway. Thousands of people are squatting, sleeping in cars or on a friend’s floor, hostels, B&Bs, or living in vulnerable and/or poor and unsuitable accommodation.
  4. Rough sleepers are four times more likely to be murdered than the general public.
  5. Poverty and homelessness are inextricably linked. According to the Family Expenditure Survey, household incomes in Wales are 19 per cent below the UK average.
  6. The very label ‘homeless’ has become a political minefield. There are four classifications:
  • Rooflessness (sleeping rough)
  • Houslessness (living in hostels or ‘guest’ houses)
  • Insecure accommodation
  • Inferior accommodation
  1. Seven per cent of homeless people ended up that way because of rent arrears.
  2. More women than ever currently sleep rough; 36,000 women approached Shelter for help and advice last year.
  3. Last year, local authorities agreed that 126,730 families were homeless. (360,000 individuals)
  4. Ten per cent of homeless women have been sexually assaulted on the streets and many more have been approached for sex. They are not ‘grateful’ for such offers, as some men seem to believe.
  5. Eleven per cent of Big Issue vendors are ex-services.
  1. During the Fred and Rosemary West case the National Missing Persons Helpline reunited 120 families with missing female relatives.
  2. 13.4 per cent (151,200) of houses in Wales were officially classified as unfit for human habitation in 1993.
  3. Of the 22 local authorities in Wales, only 14 have undertaken assessments of rough sleeping in their area.
  4. Shelter believes that at least 15,000 affordable homes to rent are needed over the next ten years in order to satisfy housing need.
  5. Care leavers constitute between 20 and 50 per cent of the homeless population. Two thirds of care leavers are thrown out of children’s homes at the age of 16, with nowhere to go.
  6. Last Christmas the Sunday Times sent out actors posing as the destitute to homes of 17 British bishops. Less than half (seven) offered food, accommodation or money. The rest were less Christian in response.
  7. Things that most people take for granted – like bank accounts, passports and a place on the electoral register – are virtually impossible to obtain if you haven’t got a fixed address.
  8. Two rough sleepers were taken off the electoral register earlier this year because officials couldn’t contact them at the address they gave – the doorway of the Covent Garden Hotel.
  9. It is estimated that in 1995 at least 246,000 young people experienced homelessness in the UK.
  10. A survey by Shelter found that four out of five young people are more worried about becoming homeless than being unemployed.
  11. In the UK over a million people live in slum-like conditions.
  12. When HRH the Prince of Wales visited the Big Issue offices he met a vendor who had been to the same school as him.
  13. Alcohol and homelessness are inextricably linked. Twenty-four per cent of homeless people admit to having alcohol problems.
  14. Around a quarter of all single homeless people have served in the armed forces.
  1. Unemployed homeless people find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle. Firms are reluctant to employ someone with no fixed abode and without a regular wage it is virtually impossible to afford a place to live.
  2. For many homeless people, getting a roof over their head is just the start of a whole new set of problems. “Moving house is one of the most stressful experiences we can go through. But imagine if you’ve been homeless and/or if you’ve got a mental health, drug or alcohol problem on top of that.”
  3. Behind the bright lights, glitz and glamour of Hollywood there is a massive homelessness problem. Between 4,000 – 10,000 children sleep rough in Los Angeles.
  4. People who don’t want homelessness on their doorstep have a nasty habit of putting caustic soda down to keep rough sleepers away.
  5. Over 30 homes were repossessed every week in Wales in 1995.
  6. In 1996, 31 per cent of people who registered as homeless with Welsh local authorities had become so as a result of disputes with parents, relatives or friends – five per cent more than those who registered due to eviction.
  7. The latest surveys reveal five new rough sleepers arrive in London every night.
  8. In Japan, homeless people dread having to ask Government officials for assistance. One man who went for help was told that he ‘smelled’.
  9. Pets are vital companions for homeless people, but many hostels will not accept animals. You can’t take your pet for treatment to the PDSA if you are not getting any benefits.
  10. Rough sleepers are 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
  11. Homeless single men between the ages of 26 and 44 are most likely to take their own lives. Young people leaving care, women fleeing domestic violence and regular hostel users are also at high risk.
  12. Age concern estimates 75 per cent of those living in unfit conditions are elderly people on low incomes.
  13. If you are evicted a council can classify you as ‘intentionally homeless’, and refuse to find you alternative accommodation.
  1. Homelessness is a world-wide problem, and some countries offer solutions that are better than others. In France recently 39 mayors were accused of undermining the French Constitution by banning homelessness in their towns. In the Romanian town of Timisoara, homeless people are charged £10 for a permit to beg and town hall bosses take 40 per cent of their earnings.
  2. Forty per cent of young homeless women were sexually abused in childhood.
  3. According to ‘conservative’ reports, over 1,000 people sleep rough in the UK on any one given night.
  4. The average life expectancy of a rough sleeper recently dropped from 47 to 42.
  5. Every year 250,000 people are reported as missing in the UK. Half of them are under the age of 18.
  6. Four out of five households accepted as homeless include children or a woman who is pregnant.
  7. On any one day around 500-600 households find themselves living in temporary accommodation as a result of homelessness.
  8. The average age of death from natural causes for rough sleepers is 46.
  9. The National Missing Persons Helpline says that twice as many girls as boys are reported to them as missing.
  10. Shelter Cymru estimate that for every household accepted as homeless by Welsh local authorities, another two slip through the net.
  11. Following removal of benefits for 16-17 year olds in 1998, night shelter users aged between 16-17 increased from 10 to 50 per cent.
  12. Shelter Cymru believe 50,000 people experienced homelessness in Wales last year.
  13. Poor housing and homelessness have been liked to a rise in the incidence of tuberculosis. Homeless people are 25 per cent more likely to get TB.
  14. Being homeless makes it extremely difficult to gain access to health care.
  15. Problems with personal hygiene, lack of regular sleep and meals can cause both physical and mental health problems.
  16. Seventy per cent of homeless people are not registered with a doctor, compared with just three per cent of the general population.
  17. Since April 1997, food retailer Iceland has pictured missing people on its milk cartons.
  18. The idea of people drifting towards cities and becoming homeless is a myth according to the YMCA who have found the majority of young homeless people in any one area are local. For example, 80 per cent of young homeless people in Cardiff are actually from the capital.
  19. Research has shown the education of children in families who have experienced homelessness suffers as a result.
  20. A National Housing forum Report concluded every £100 million spent on investment in housing would create more than 3,000 jobs over three years.
  21. Many people on community care schemes are unable to gain access to suitable housing, and end up spending prolonged periods in temporary accommodation, staying with family, friends or sleeping rough.
  22. Care in the community had a drastic effect on the streets. It is estimated that 60 per cent of homeless people have mental health problems.
  23. Homelessness charities say changes in unemployment culture exacerbate the problem. Across the UK over 10 million households are dependent on a low wage earner or someone in insecure employment. This increase in job insecurity contrasts with an increasing emphasis on home ownership.
  24. Around 41,800 families in Britain are living in temporary accommodation.
  25. Eleven per cent of Big Issue vendors have never had a job before.
  26. There are 790,000 empty homes in Britain yet 53,680 families have nowhere to live.
  27. In Wales (at any one time) over 2,000 people are living in hostels or other temporary accommodation.
  28. In a recent Welsh Office survey, Swansea and Bridgend had the highest levels of homelessness at over 3.6 per 1,000 population.
  29. Five homeless people have died in Swansea since Christmas.
  30. Asylum seekers are denied benefits and homelessness assistance.
  31. Staying in some hostels costs as much as it would at a B&B.
  32. Seventy per cent of Big Issue vendors have slept rough in the last year.
  33. 9,149 households were accepted as homeless in 1996 – this represented a 54 per cent increase in the last decade.
  34. Poor housing equals poor health. People housed in poor accommodation are estimated to cost the NHS an extra £2 billion a year.
  35. This year (1997-98) almost £220,000 has been spent on roofless projects in Wales.
  36. Around 800 British families lose their homes through repossession every week.
  37. While homelessness is seen as a big-city problem, rural homelessness is on the increase. People cannot see cardboard cities and so tend to think it does not exist. In one survey, 70 per cent of rough sleepers interviewed said they slept in isolated places like cellars, sheds and woods.
  38. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, a total of 42,650 properties were repossessed in the UK in 1996.
  39. The Rough Sleepers Initiative has released £250 million for projects in England since it was set up in 1990. Wales is not covered by the RSI.
  40. Changes to Housing Benefit – such as single room rent where 16-25 year olds are only given the average for a bedsit in a shared house – are believed to have caused an increase in youth homelessness.
  41. The number of applications to the DSS for emergency sever hardship payments from jobless 16-17 year olds in Wales has risen by 1,360 per cent in three years – the most dramatic rise ever in Britain.
  42. Over 3,000 people have been ‘badged up’ to sell the Big Issue Cymru since its launch in 1994.
  43. Approximately £500,000 has been spent on rooflessness funding in Wales since 1996.
  44. It has been estimated that between 7,500 and 10,000 young people in Wales experience homelessness in some form or other every year.
  45. Official figures often don’t always give the full picture. The 1991 census found 29 rough sleepers on 6 sites in Wales; Shelter Cymru found 89 rough sleepers at 15 Welsh sites.
  46. Last year around 60 people were forced to sleep rough in the Rhondda Taff area.
  47. ‘Direct Access’ hostels provide immediate accommodation for people who find themselves on the streets. Over half a million people live in the North Wales districts of Gwynedd, Conwy, Anglesey, Denbighshire and Flintshire, but there are only 14 direct access beds available.
  48. Eighty-six per cent of young homeless people are forced to leave home as a direct result of either violence or family breakdown.
  49. Recent figures show that 7,820 people were accepted as homeless because of domestic violence in 1996.
  50. Homeless people face routine harassment and violence from the general public. In a Big Issue survey of 150 people, 60 per cent had been attacked while homeless – 40 per cent with a weapon and 72 per cent by a member of the public.
  51. Christmas is traditionally the worst time of year to be homeless. In a recent Crisis survey of 150 agencies, 21 per cent reported suicide attempts and 66 per cent cases of depression.
  52. The South Wales Evening Post and the Western Mail have both recently equated selling the Big Issue with begging. This is not the case. Big Issue vendors are self-employed, and are no more beggars than other people who sell newspapers at street level.
  53. While many rough sleepers find it necessary to drink to help them drift off, alcohol causes dehydration and lowers body temperature, leading to hypothermia – which is often fatal.
  54. Many private landlords will refuse to take someone on benefits as a tenant. Most homeless people are unemployed.
  55. Cold kills both rough sleepers and people in unfit accommodation. It has been estimated that each one degree drop in temperature can cause an extra 8,000 deaths.
  56. Over a three month period, as many as 130 people experience homelessness in Swansea.
  57. Most single homeless people do not qualify from their local council, as they are not considered to be in priority need. Often they end up living in hostels or with relatives and friends, or on the streets. (see fact 96)
  58. The 1996 Housing Act removed the right of permanent housing for homeless people. People with no home were only accepted as having a '‘priority need'’ for housing in July 1997.
  59. There is only one day centre for homeless people in Wales, and it is in Cardiff.
  60. There is a backlog of around 26,000 Welsh households who need a home because of the shortage of suitable and affordable accommodation.
  61. People who sleep rough often have little or no access to washing machines or showers, reinforcing the unjustified stereotype of homeless people being unkempt ‘tramps’.
  62. The various editions of the Big Issue are read by more than one million a week across the UK.

THIS INFO WAS TAKEN FROM A COPY OF THE BIG ISSUE CYMRU DURING 1998. WHILST MANY OF THE SAD FACTS WILL STILL BE TRUE, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOME OF THE STATISTICS HAVE CHANGED. FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE? TRYAND FIND OUT.