Ending Homelessness

Article written by Nisha Rikhi, BA in Politics and International Relations from University of Sussex, GDL graduate, and current LPC student.

Homelessness is a chronic issue in the United Kingdom. It is an issue that affects a wide array of people from different backgrounds. With rough sleeping and the number of people stranded in temporary accommodation on the rise, it is clear that we as a country need to work to reduce homelessness as soon as possible. This article will look at steps we could take to eradicate homelessness in this country.

Building More Affordable Homes

Local councils need to build more affordable homes. Government should require every local council in the country to build a set number of council or housing association homes every year. The homelessness crisis is predominately being caused by the sheer lack of housing in populated areas of the country. People are struggling to find properties to rent or buy which are affordable because demand is outstripping supply. If we want properties to be more affordable then we need to increase the supply of homes available to buy or rent. The only long-term solution is for the government to build more homes to buy or rent.

By conservative estimates, we need to build three-hundred thousand homes each year in order to keep up with demand. The government should therefore start building new homes to rent or buy at pace. These new homes should be built on brownfield sites and on some greenfield sites running on either side of major railway lines. This is because there is land that is currently not being used which could be built on to provide housing. The government needs to force housebuilders to build new homes on old industrial sites or greenfield sites that are no longer used. The government also needs to force housebuilders to make a significant proportion of new housing developments affordable homes. Mandating that more homes be built on available land and that more of those homes are advertised at affordable prices should help to ease the housing crisis.

Building More Sheltered Accommodation

Local councils should also be building more sheltered accommodation or supported living properties. This is because there are people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness who are not able to manage their own affairs or look after themselves. These people really need to be in supported living or sheltered accommodation. Providing more sheltered accommodation places in local areas will make more properties available for rent to people who are able to manage monthly rent payments. Having more sheltered accommodation places will reduce evictions and therefore homelessness, as those people who are unable to manage their own affairs will be in more suitable accommodation provided by adult social services, who are best placed to look after them. This will also ensure that more housing is available at affordable prices as there will be more competition among landlords to secure tenants. Therefore, local councils should build significantly more sheltered accommodation properties for residents who are unable to look after themselves in order to ease demand on local housing.

Temporary Accommodation

Temporary accommodation should be made safer and more sustainable for people to live in while they wait for permanent housing to become available. People are often in temporary accommodation for a long time; therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the accommodation would be safe and suitable. This is because there are steps that can be taken to make temporary accommodation suitable for longer. The government should introduce national standards for temporary accommodation. Every temporary accommodation setting should be equipped with Wi-Fi, clean bedding, safe sleeping equipment, working cooking facilities, adequate space for children, and disability adaptions. Councils should be required to inspect the temporary accommodation in their area and enforce the national standards stringently. Furthermore, councils should be required to maintain a register of licenced temporary accommodation providers to ensure standards are maintained and councils should only be legally allowed to place people in licenced temporary accommodation placement settings. These measures would ensure that temporary accommodation is viable for the short to medium term and that it is of a sufficient standard to ensure that people can continue to live their lives while waiting for permanent housing to become available to them.

Decent Wages

Homelessness could be reduced by ensuring that everyone is earning a decent wage. By law, employers have to pay at least the national minimum wage to employees. This ensures that every employee is earning a very basic wage, designed to ensure that employees are able to maintain a basic standard of living. Earning at least the national minimum wage has allowed people to be able to afford their rent and has made it easier for people to avoid homelessness due to being unable to pay the rent.

However, given the current cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing housing crisis, many people are struggling to maintain their standard of living. People struggling to afford the essentials now extend beyond those on the minimum wage and include many middle-class families on wages that would not ordinarily be considered a low-income. This means that the current national minimum wage may no longer be enough to ensure that everyone can afford the basic essentials. This is because we have seen a rise in people struggling to afford their rent and other household expenses even though they are earning the national minimum wage or higher. The government will need to look at whether the national minimum wage can be increased further to provide employees with a greater basic income in order to support a basic standard of living.

In assessing whether the national minimum wage can be increased further, the government will need to look at whether employers would be able to absorb this. This is because it is no good increasing the national minimum wage further if it results in a significant number of employees being made redundant, which could lead to people being unable to pay their housing costs. This means that the government and campaigners will need to consult with business owners to agree on a national minimum wage increase that would be sustainable so all employees can benefit from a higher basic wage and a decent standard of living. Therefore, in order to avoid hardship for employees and to ensure that employees earn enough money in basic pay to afford the essentials, the government should explore increasing the national minimum wage.

The Housing Costs Element of Universal Credit

Homelessness could also be radically reduced by making the housing costs element of Universal Credit more generous. This is because at the moment the housing costs element only subsidises the rental liability for most private tenants. This means that it is still possible that some claimants will find themselves in rent arrears due to being unable to afford the portion of rent they have to pay. The result of this can sadly be evictions as landlords seek to remove tenants who cannot pay so they can replace them with tenants who are able to meet the rental liabilities in full. Therefore, there is an argument that the housing costs element of Universal Credit should be made more generous. This is because if there was less of a shortfall in rents then landlords may not feel the need to evict tenants on the basis of them not meeting their rental liability. This would then mean that there would be less pressure on the local councils to find housing for people as there would be fewer people being made homeless. This means that making the housing costs element of Universal Credit more generous would be a good idea across the board.

Keeping Young People in Education

Homelessness could also be reduced by ensuring that young people remain in education until the age of 21. Remaining in education for longer leads to young people developing a greater range of skills which increases their earning potential. Young people are more likely to have greater earning power if they remain in education for longer as their skillset will be more attractive to employers, who may be prepared to pay more to recruit a young person with more transferrable skills. This is because employers look for a baseline education when they recruit employees. It is a legal requirement for young people to have a GCSE in maths, English and science, which means that employers will look to see if young people have passed those compulsory GCSE exams.

Employers will also look for education and qualifications that are relevant to the job role being advertised so it is advantageous for young people to remain in education for longer so they can obtain further qualifications that will make them more employable. This is because they will have significantly increased their earning potential and reduced their risk of being unemployed. Requiring young people to stay in education for longer and take up further education opportunities should reduce their risk of homelessness.

Having further qualifications will make it less likely that a young person will be unemployed, thereby reducing their risk of being evicted by landlords for being unable to pay the rent. Keeping young people in education for longer also reduces the opportunities available for them to engage in anti-social behaviour which in turn makes it less likely that they will be arrested or face eviction by landlords. Therefore, the government should mandate that all young people remain in education until the age of 21 as it is clear that engaging in further education reduces young people’s risk of being unemployed, and therefore reduces their risk of homelessness.

Intergenerational Living

Homelessness could be further reduced by encouraging intergenerational living. Intergenerational living is common practice in the Indian and Middle-Eastern cultures and it is where several generations of one family live in the same house. This is a practice that should be encouraged in Britain. This is because it can help to alleviate the housing crisis because if more members of the same family are living together, it means there will be fewer people looking to rent or own their own home. Taking up this practice more widely could also result in properties becoming more affordable. This is because as fewer people look to buy properties, prices will fall in order to attract buyers. The result of this would be that more young people and lower-income people would be able to purchase their own home and get on the housing ladder.

Intergenerational living can also have a benefit on the local environment. This is because if more people live with their wider families there will be less demand for housing so fewer houses will need to be built. The result is that local councils will not need to make as much greenbelt land available to build on so the natural environment will not be depleted so much as a result. Furthermore, local councils would be able to focus their housing development plans on ensuring that as many affordable homes as possible are built in the area. This would support young people to get on the housing ladder and ensure that the land that is available is put to the best use possible to ease the housing crisis, without sacrificing the natural environment in the process.

Substance Misuse and Addiction

Homelessness could also be reduced by making substance misuse treatment more readily available. This is because there is a proportion of homeless people who have struggled with substance misuse. Alcoholism and drug addiction are two reasons why some people end up homeless. This means that tackling addiction, in all its forms, is vital to reducing homelessness in the UK. The government needs to make addiction treatment more widely available to those struggling with addiction. At the moment, the easiest way to get addiction treatment is through the criminal justice system. This is because people who are convicted of crimes can take part in substance misuse treatment as a term of their probation on release from prison or as part of a community sentence. The fact that it is extremely difficult to access addiction rehabilitation treatment outside the criminal justice system is absurd. The government should be taking action to make addiction treatment more readily available across the country as it is one of the leading drivers of homelessness. The government could do this by making it easier for people to access NHS addiction support and they could offer funding to charities that support addiction recovery in the community. The more accessible we make addiction treatment to those suffering from addiction, the less likely they are to endure homelessness.

Therefore, it is clear that it is possible to end homelessness. This will need to be done through a combination of measures. Building more affordable homes and encouraging intergenerational living would both work to reduce the demand. Making the housing costs element of Universal Credit more generous and making substance misuse treatment more available would help reduce homelessness. Overall, ending homelessness is a goal society should be striving to achieve.