Sheffield Homelessness At All-Time High

[Longcol]

16 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%.
 

 

Less than half of the asylum seekers - 30,000 out of 67.000.

 

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/top-10-facts-about-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/?doing_wp_cron=1644521965.9435420036315917968750&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwq86wBhDiARIsAJhuphlT9t3biiV-p6XMDGmlBMcgj0BdRMjugRjPqMYgdDpvLaRGCUBeVW0aAuxZEALw_wcB

 

and way less than legal immigration, 1.2 million gross, 6.7 mollion net.

 

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06077/#:~:text=What are the UK's latest,net migration figure of 672%2C000.

[Longcol]

1 minute ago, Longcol said:

Less than half of the asylum seekers - 30,000 out of 67.000.

 

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/top-10-facts-about-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/?doing_wp_cron=1644521965.9435420036315917968750&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwq86wBhDiARIsAJhuphlT9t3biiV-p6XMDGmlBMcgj0BdRMjugRjPqMYgdDpvLaRGCUBeVW0aAuxZEALw_wcB

 

and way less than legal immigration, 1.2 million gross, 6.7 mollion net.

 

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06077/#:~:text=What are the UK's latest,net migration figure of 672%2C000.

Thanks to lack of edit facility that's 1.2 million gross. 0.67 million net.

 

[redruby]

20 hours ago, ads36 said:

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

 

6 hours ago, Longcol said:

Less than half of the asylum seekers - 30,000 out of 67.000.

 

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/top-10-facts-about-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum/?doing_wp_cron=1644521965.9435420036315917968750&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwq86wBhDiARIsAJhuphlT9t3biiV-p6XMDGmlBMcgj0BdRMjugRjPqMYgdDpvLaRGCUBeVW0aAuxZEALw_wcB

 

and way less than legal immigration, 1.2 million gross, 6.7 mollion net.

 

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06077/#:~:text=What are the UK's latest,net migration figure of 672%2C000.

And here we go again! Assuming I'm overplaying the numbers of small boat arrivals and turning this into a witch hunt against them.
Well no, not actually.  I was:

1. Picking up on the point that 45% is not an insignificant proportion.  It is nearly half.  Using the word ‘only’ implies otherwise and was not even used in the linked article.

2. I was actually genuinely surprised it was as high as that.  I’ve often read that the small boat arrivals only account for a small fraction of asylum seekers.

 

And so, we return to the points I made yesterday, which in summary are that:

1. Rapid population increase does have an impact the housing market and this has a knock on implications particularly for the most vulnerable in society.  
2. It does not matter where the additional people come from or what colour they are, they are people and need a roof over their head.  Therefore we need more housing for rapid increases in the population.

3.  Housing resources are not unlimited.  I’m not merely talking about financial resources here.  My greatest concern is the environmental impact.  For example flooding, water storage, food growing, off setting carbon emissions, green space for people is crucial for mental and physical health. We cannot constantly keep nibbling into green field sites.  We should use more brown field sites and should do more regarding empty houses and second homes but this can only do so much.

4. I do think people on the streets need more support.  And I don’t think a significant proportion of them are asylum seekers that arrived in small boats!!  But pretending that the wider issues in around housing shortages have no bearing on homelessness is ridiculous.  There are direct causes for homelessness such as addiction and mental health issues.  And indirect ones which put pressure on the resources available for the vulnerable.

[peak4]

On 08/04/2024 at 07:28, 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%.

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   

 

[AndrewC]

19 hours ago, gamezone07 said:

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.

'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.

[pfifes]

8 hours ago, 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.

So - do we just conveniently ignore this and pretend the 15% increase in immigration over the last 20 years has no impact on the housing market?

Net migration has been the main driver of population change since the 1990s. In 2022, it stood at 672,000. ONS currently projects that, based on current trends, net migration could account for 90% of population increase in the UK over the next decade.

I also refer to a point I made another thread re. Doctors.  Whilst it is all fine and dandy to have overseas doctors working here, should we not give some consideration to the medical services in their home countries if a significant proportion leave to work abroad?  And we doing this because, perchance, it’s cheaper than training our own doctors?

Immigration is neither all good nor all bad.  The sooner people realise that being a virtue signalling, blinkered ‘all immigration is wonderful’ type is as bad as being a xenophobic, rascist bigot the better.

[Grumpycatweasel]

we should all crowd fund a bus for the homeless to the south coast to live in  a warmer climate 

 

i'm in

[Tipstaff]

There were none on the streets during the COVID lockdown.  It's strange how the joint agencies found the resources to do this when the pandemic hit, but it's largely ignored again before and since!?

[peak4]

40 minutes ago, Tipstaff said:

There were none on the streets during the COVID lockdown.  It's strange how the joint agencies found the resources to do this when the pandemic hit, but it's largely ignored again before and since!?

Bear in mind there's a difference between those classed as homeless and those sleeping rough.
It's hard to find the exact numbers just reading the press etc, as the terms are often wrongly used interchangeably, (including by me when I've been careless)
There's also several different definitions of Homeless depending on where you look.
This BBC report suggests 4000 in Sheffield, but others vary from about 700 upwards.
These folk have a roof over their heads, but it might be in a hostel, refuge, or other temporary accommodation, or sofa surfing at a friends house; still classed as homeless though.
The rough sleepers, those with no roof at all, who were housed during Covid lockdowns, were smaller in number, but I'm not clear on how many exactly.
At one point I remember reading (from the Archer project maybe??) there were 14 in Sheffield, though inevitably that number will vary a bit as folk move around.

This report comes up with completely different numbers of Homeless, but suggests that last year, Doncaster had the highest number of rough sleepers in S Yorks with 20 in total, so 14 in Sheffield might be about right.
 

[redruby]

5 hours ago, Tipstaff said:

There were none on the streets during the COVID lockdown.  It's strange how the joint agencies found the resources to do this when the pandemic hit, but it's largely ignored again before and since!?

This point has been addressed before.  COVID was an emergency and the homeless were put in emergency accommodation, often hotels.  Due to there being a lockdown, hotels were not very busy and so there was far more capacity than normal.  It was never going to be a sustainable or long term solution.