Sheffield Homelessness At All-Time High

[rogets]

Before people say "what about my green field?"

 

I say, what about the next generation who are having to pay over £100,000 for a mere garden shed

 

when people 30 years ago could buy a house for peanuts

[SheffieldForum]

There’s another aspect to creating housing, and the council are doing it—

 

Get unused spaces and create housing. Like the Moorfoot building, like the unused areas above the shops on Fargate, etc.

 

You also don’t have to build outwards — you can build upwards, as in all the Heart of the City development, etc.

 

Theres loads of old ex-industrial space that is unused too — look at what Citu have done with Little Kelham and are proposing to do with an area near Attercliffe. The old Cannon brewery has just been announced for a new development. The old Hepworth site in Loxley Valley too.

 

Theres lots of solutions which don’t necessarily mean building outwards and taking green belt land.

[Longcol]

On 05/04/2024 at 13:55, redruby said:

Absolutely.  But to be clear and avoid upsetting people I want to say that my main concern is around rapid population increase.  I’m not anti immigration (there are many positives) but rapid population increase  (of which immigration is not insignificant) does mean we need more houses.  How could it not? And scarcity of housing will lead to more homelessness.  I think some people are confusing direct causes of homelessness (e.g. mental health issues/addiction problems) with indirect ones such as pressures on the housing market through lack of affordable housing. The most vulnerable in society suffer the most unfortunately due to this and numbers of people becoming vulnerable increase due to poverty and lack of housing.  So unfortunately more end up with poor mental health and addictions leading to homelessness.  The direct causes of homelessness do not exon isolation and you can’t separate these out from wider issues with housing shortages.  It really is absurd that we are apparently we not supposed to discuss the broader issues.  

In my experience, most homeless due to mental health, addiction etc had one or more failed tenancy behind them. often in social housing. It was maintaining a tenancy that was the major problem.

[peak4]

If there is a will to do so, the homeless population's lot can be improved hugely, as can be seen from Milton Keynes to Finland.

Like so many other things in our current politics, it depend on whether those in charge prefer to help or weaponize a problem.

Compassion, not cruelty, is the answer to rough sleeping – we have the proof in Milton Keynes   The Guardian
When the home secretary calls living in tents “a lifestyle choice” something has gone seriously wrong in her understanding of rough sleeping.

Five years ago, Milton Keynes, where I am a councillor, was labelled a “tent city”.

Today, no one needs to sleep rough on our streets. Suella Braverman could learn a lot from how we did that, and how it could be replicated elsewhere.

For a start, we didn’t make giving people tents a civil offence. Tents are a symptom, not the cause.

 

Finland finds it pays to house the homeless  Tortoise Media

In Finland, only about one in 1700 people is homeless. The equivalent figure for the UK is about one in 250. How have the Finns done it? By building homes for the homeless, making ending homelessness a national priority and looking after the homeless once housed.

Homelessness fell in Finland by 40 per cent between 2019 and 2022 and is down by 20,000 compared with the 1980s, in a country of 5.5 million. The government estimates it saves €32 million a year by housing those who would otherwise sleep rough, chiefly through reduced healthcare costs.

 

A Paradigm Shift in Social Policy
How Finland Conquered Homelessness Der Spiegel a long article, but well worth reading, for anyone with a genuine interest in homelessness.
For years, the number of homeless people has been rising in Europe. But not in Finland.

The country's Housing First program aims to eliminate the problem by 2027. But how?

 

There's an interesting list on Wiki; re-index it on homeless per 10,000 population, and see that we come 38th from highest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_homeless_population

Noticeably about the highest proportionally in Europe of homeless people.

Also note that the UK has below the average number asylum seekers per capita in Europe. Refugee Council, but slightly out of date
Small boat crossings only amount to about 45% of UK applications.    BBC

 

[redruby]

5 hours ago, peak4 said:

Small boat crossings only amount to about 45% of UK applications.    BBC

 

‘Only’ 45% of UK applications!!??!!  So almost half is ‘only’??!!  I was actually astonished it was as high as that and even the linked article doesn’t say ‘only’ 45%.
 

As for the other points, I’ve often said I’d happily pay more tax, within reason, to house and help homeless people with addictions and stay off the streets.  But this does not invalidate the points I made before regarding rapid population increase and its subsequent pressures on the housing market and the environmental concerns around land use, food supply, water storage, flooding, decimation of wildlife, pollution, lack of public green spaces and all the issues of poor physical and mental health this produces.
It is sad that it seems difficult to raise these issues without others interpreting this as somehow demonising homeless people and asylum seekers.  It is not.  

[spilldig]

On 05/04/2024 at 10:00, SheffieldForum said:

You’re having a different argument though.

 

Nobody in the sector is saying immigration is a significant factor in homelessness, especially in Sheffield.

 

That argument has come only in this one thread by people conflating the issues.

 

If you want to debate immigration, feel free… in another thread about immigration. This thread is (should have been) specifically about homelessness increases in Sheffield (where absolutely nobody in the know is saying immigration is a factor in that increase).

 

Sorry, I wasn't going to bother remarking on this but having just read the new Forum rules I have to ask why you are referring to posts as "arguments", it immediately comes across as confrontational?  I never come on here to argue, it should be a debate on a forum where you never know, you might even win people over to your opinion. 

[SheffieldForum]

12 minutes ago, spilldig said:

Sorry, I wasn't going to bother remarking on this but having just read the new Forum rules I have to ask why you are referring to posts as "arguments", it immediately comes across as confrontational?  I never come on here to argue, it should be a debate on a forum where you never know, you might even win people over to your opinion. 

It was just a turn of phrase. Apologies if it came across wrong.

[ads36]

2 hours ago, redruby said:

‘Only’ 45% of UK applications!!??!!  So almost half is ‘only’??!!  I was actually astonished it was as high as that and even the linked article doesn’t say ‘only’ 45%.

we've more or less closed down all of the ... conventional (?) routes/methods.

[peak4]

2 hours ago, spilldig said:

Sorry, I wasn't going to bother remarking on this but having just read the new Forum rules I have to ask why you are referring to posts as "arguments", it immediately comes across as confrontational?  I never come on here to argue, it should be a debate on a forum where you never know, you might even win people over to your opinion. 

 

2 hours ago, SheffieldForum said:

It was just a turn of phrase. Apologies if it came across wrong.

I've just added a post query on this elsewhere on the forum (changes & feedback)

[gamezone07]

I find it really hard to belive imigration has no bearing on the homelessness crisis, it certainly does in London, the South. I know someone in the sector, will ask them.