Sheffield Homelessness At All-Time High

[redruby]

17 hours ago, peak4 said:

No the article doesn't say "only", but I thought the context made the point itself. 
You may not be blaming small boat asylum seekers for the national housing shortage, but many others do.

We have pretty much the highest level of homeless in Europe, with a below average number of asylum seekers, so compared to the rest of Europe, it's unlikely that the main reason for housing shortage (in Sheffield or the country as a whole) is asylum seekers, as some would have us believe.
So yes only 45% of a comparatively small number of people, can be contributing overall population increase in the UK,

The very high level of overall immigration to the UK is clearly an issue, which needs further exploration (arguably elsewhere) for a whole variety of reasons, but the queries on this thread were originally about homelessness in Sheffield, where the number of asylum seekers probably has little effect.

Sheffield population seems to be growing at about 0.7% per year, so clearly our infrastructure needs upgrading to suit.
The annual % change hasn't varied much since 2000, but homelessness in Sheffield has apparently recently risen.

Note that homelessness and rough sleeping are not synonymous, though I should have made that clearer in my previous post, much of which was about the latter.

Rough sleeping snapshot in England: autumn 2022     HMG

 

Something happened to the  Sheffield population  2001 ish in Sheffield;

The large increase in Chinese students didn't show until about 15 years ago from what I can tell, but most of them will be in specific student accommodation, so not competing in the private rental market.

Sheffield, UK Metro Area Population 1950-2024   

 

No I haven’t ‘blamed’ small boat asylum seekers for the housing crisis.  Neither for that matter have I ‘blamed’ any immigrants.  On an individual level they are not to blame. I only blame the government.  
The reason I picked up on the ‘only 45% of asylum seekers arrive in small boats’ is partly because, as I’ve stated twice before now, I was genuinely surprised it was that high.  
You finally accept that I’m not ‘blaming’ asylum seekers for homelessness but yet you have replied to several of my posts addressing this issue as though I had. If other people are blaming asylum seekers, then please reply to them, not me thank you!

It is very sad, that again and again we can’t have a sensible, grown up debate around unsustainable population growth (of which immigration is no small part) without getting replies trying to shut down the debate. 

Rough sleepers and the homeless Sheffield don’t exist in a bubble.  Wider issues do have a significant bearing.  You can provide additional support for rough sleepers with addiction problems but if poor, vulnerable people are struggling to pay ever increasing rents, more of them will end up in a downward spiral of poor mental health and often addiction which sadly can add to those homeless and on the street.

[peak4]

4 hours ago, redruby said:

No I haven’t ‘blamed’ small boat asylum seekers for the housing crisis.  Neither for that matter have I ‘blamed’ any immigrants.  On an individual level they are not to blame. I only blame the government.  
The reason I picked up on the ‘only 45% of asylum seekers arrive in small boats’ is partly because, as I’ve stated twice before now, I was genuinely surprised it was that high.  
You finally accept that I’m not ‘blaming’ asylum seekers for homelessness but yet you have replied to several of my posts addressing this issue as though I had. If other people are blaming asylum seekers, then please reply to them, not me thank you!

It is very sad, that again and again we can’t have a sensible, grown up debate around unsustainable population growth (of which immigration is no small part) without getting replies trying to shut down the debate. 

Rough sleepers and the homeless Sheffield don’t exist in a bubble.  Wider issues do have a significant bearing.  You can provide additional support for rough sleepers with addiction problems but if poor, vulnerable people are struggling to pay ever increasing rents, more of them will end up in a downward spiral of poor mental health and often addiction which sadly can add to those homeless and on the street.

I've no idea what you're talking about.
I've replied in a thread/topic, not addressing you personally, apart from when you took issue with me using the word "only"

[redruby]

14 minutes ago, peak4 said:

I've no idea what you're talking about.
I've replied in a thread/topic, not addressing you personally, apart from when you took issue with me using the word "only"

I was referring to this comment you made:

 

“You may not be blaming small boat asylum seekers for the national housing shortage, but many others do.”

 

And advised you to reply to people claiming this, rather than replying to my posts and bringing this into it.

[gamezone07]

On 09/04/2024 at 14:16, AndrewC said:

'No bearing'? It hasn't had 'no' bearing on it. The important bit of context here is that it has little bearing on it, compared to many other issues and policy failures. The important thing to take away from this is that focussing too strongly on that issue in isolation as so many people on this thread are, means focussing too little on the real issues at hand - failed house building policies, budget limitations of healthcare authorities dealing with addiction, cost of living crisis, etc...

 

A good test for this would be to stop all immigration (whilst deliberately resolving none of the other issues listed above), give it 10 years and see if the homelessness situation is any better. I guarantee you that if we still haven't been building houses, still underfund drug-addiction agencies, and still have extortionately high rents & utility bills, you can expect the homelessness situation to have remained largely the same. Only, we'll have now crashed the economy because of not adding to the workforce in a decade.

Of course, its not main issue, the Tories or New Labour(who opend the borders) for that matter haven't built anywhere need enough housing, cut Housing benefit, or gentrication forcing people out, here its Hills, Crookes, Heely, But milllions of new arrivals have come here, it it must have a sizeable impact: once migrants are here, they have the right to social housing, as do refugees when they have they right to say. I have been on the left all my left, but i really abhor the  way liberals, the left won't acknowledge this(and milllions of voters are angry as well) Look at any social housing housing and see who lives there, and no, i don't mean 2/3rd generations, etc.

Edited April 10 by gamezone07

[gamezone07]

12 hours ago, redruby said:

No I haven’t ‘blamed’ small boat asylum seekers for the housing crisis.  Neither for that matter have I ‘blamed’ any immigrants.  On an individual level they are not to blame. I only blame the government.  
The reason I picked up on the ‘only 45% of asylum seekers arrive in small boats’ is partly because, as I’ve stated twice before now, I was genuinely surprised it was that high.  
You finally accept that I’m not ‘blaming’ asylum seekers for homelessness but yet you have replied to several of my posts addressing this issue as though I had. If other people are blaming asylum seekers, then please reply to them, not me thank you!

It is very sad, that again and again we can’t have a sensible, grown up debate around unsustainable population growth (of which immigration is no small part) without getting replies trying to shut down the debate. 

Rough sleepers and the homeless Sheffield don’t exist in a bubble.  Wider issues do have a significant bearing.  You can provide additional support for rough sleepers with addiction problems but if poor, vulnerable people are struggling to pay ever increasing rents, more of them will end up in a downward spiral of poor mental health and often addiction which sadly can add to those homeless and on the street.

Aren't new migrants entitled to social housing? , there are very few 'sons and daughters  policies in Uk, though I think Manchester has a policy

[Anna B]

Rents are too high, mortgages are unaffordable / unattainable; that is why we have a housing crisis and a homelessness epidemic.

 

A family house is now getting on for £1,000 a month rent. If you're on minimum wage (and many are) how do you afford that? Even a single room in a shared house is beyond many people's means. Add to that the cost of food and transport and you have a perfect storm. 

 

More and more jobs are insecure and poorly paid. We don't hear about it because they are also bound up in draconian rules about non-disclosure which is disgraceful. Blaming immigrants is a red herring, the fault lies with the government who have failed to control the private sector and allowed this to happen.

 

There are many houses standing empty, (in England alone there are 676,300 according to Office for National Statistics,) but the free market isn't working. Instead of prices falling, Landlords have bought up homes and forced the prices ever upwards. 

 

 

[peak4]

To add to Anna B's comments, When I bought my first house in the 80's, and lived in until 2016, it was cheaper to rent than buy.
Mortgages were in the order of 15% , but 95% loans available, so it was practical to save for a deposit whilst renting (privately or in social housing).
My personal cash flow was tight, but manageable by renting out one room.
Fast forward, we have zero hours contracts and rents dearer than mortgage repayments; I've no idea how a single person can save enough for a deposit these days.
A rise in Buy-to-Let for private investors, coupled to a decrease in social housing stock,  with the number of available properties diminished previously by Thatcher's right to buy initiative.
For my parents generation, and mine to a certain extent, one breadwinner with an average  paid job, could support a family; overtime and maybe part time work for a partner, helped with luxuries.
Times have changed and wealth inequality, even within generations, has increased to the detriment of those at the bottom of the pile.

None of this though explains the specific rise in Sheffield homelessness raised in the original post, if it is higher than a national trend.
The original post of course  is about registered homeless, rather than rough sleepers, though one can lead to the other.
 

[peak4]

Jonathan Portes on Twitter, quoting John Burn-Murdoch.

The FT article is here, via archive.is

Forget boomers vs millennials, the next conflict is millennials vs each other  
Growing wealth inequality between thirtysomethings could soon displace tensions between young and old

 

 

[Anna B]

Inequality is rife and the root of so many of today's problems. It is getting more and more extreme at both ends of the spectrum and ultimately affects us all. Britain is a perfect example of how it's creeping up the social scale into the middle classes.

[redruby]

9 hours ago, Anna B said:

Rents are too high, mortgages are unaffordable / unattainable; that is why we have a housing crisis and a homelessness epidemic.

 

A family house is now getting on for £1,000 a month rent. If you're on minimum wage (and many are) how do you afford that? Even a single room in a shared house is beyond many people's means. Add to that the cost of food and transport and you have a perfect storm. 

 

More and more jobs are insecure and poorly paid. We don't hear about it because they are also bound up in draconian rules about non-disclosure which is disgraceful. Blaming immigrants is a red herring, the fault lies with the government who have failed to control the private sector and allowed this to happen.

 

There are many houses standing empty, (in England alone there are 676,300 according to Office for National Statistics,) but the free market isn't working. Instead of prices falling, Landlords have bought up homes and forced the prices ever upwards. 

 

 

I agree with most of your points but there’s that phrase about ‘blaming’ immigrants again.  It’s quite possible to have genuine concerns about rapid population increase without ‘blaming’ immigrants.  It’s not about ‘blaming’ them it’s about concern over immigration policy which is not the same thing.  Of course if the population increases 15% in 20 years and is rising it will affect housing!!  Pretending otherwise doesn’t make it not so.  Of course there are other factors but you shouldn’t ignore ones you don’t want to hear about.