Today, our local newspaper,
the Argus, has a middle-page spread on homelessness in the city. The article featured
several interviews, including comments from two gentlemen who I recognise. One,
a 49-year-old German national, had come to the UK looking for work two years
ago, then became homeless, ended up spending eight months living in a car, and landed
in Brighton. He commented that he has received so much help that he does not
think he is ever going to leave.
The other, a 57-year-old UK
citizen, split up from his wife six years ago, lost his job, developed a
problem with alcohol and now sleeps in various doorways in Brighton. He praises
the city for ready access to food, generous tourists and residents, helpful
charities (First Base and Anti-Freeze), and adds that Brighton is “top draw for
looking after us.”
Another homeless man
praises the city’s atmosphere, the ease of getting food from different soup
kitchens, and the housing help that is offered to qualified candidates.
If you thought that there
might be a theme developing, you’d be right. The Brighton and Hove City Council
defends itself against being a ‘soft touch’ for the homeless. It
makes some good points and adds that it ‘encourages’ people from outside the
city to return to their own local areas, where they will have a better chance
of escaping their homeless status.
A conference on the problem
of homelessness in Sussex was held in Brighton a couple of days ago for more
than 100 delegates. Government estimates mention a 40% increase in rough
sleepers in Sussex between 2010 and 2012, from 103 to 147 persons. One speaker
referred to a 45% increase in UK nationals rough sleeping in London and predicted
a similar effect for Sussex. Another spoke of destitute economic migrants from
Eastern Europe and an emerging group from Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria that
will add pressure to existing resources. Other considerations include the high
incidence of unresolved diagnosable personality disorders found in 60% of
people living in UK hostels.
What to do?
One recommendation that I
have heard before is to close soup kitchens, to focus only on the ‘deserving
poor’ and those with local connections. The call grows stronger as the warmer
weather underscores the numbers of ‘homeless tourists’ and the notion that the
city has become a ‘soft touch.’
On the other hand, the idea
of a quick fix solution is anathema to the many dedicated people in this city
who selflessly help the homeless, whatever their origin or condition, in summer
and in winter. People are not pigeons and ‘do not feed’ signs will not work. As
Christians, we are called to charity and to feed the poor. But we are also called
to address the causes of poverty, for example through more and better resources to
help those with personality or addiction problems, or tackling the causes of
economic imbalance, and ensuring that the UK is not a Pied Piper for immigrants,
attracting and then abandoning them.
In the meantime, we can be generous
without losing sight of the objective, which is to eradicate homelessness, not to
enable or sustain it.
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