Britain’s most vulnerable people are sleeping rough. This is a grave injustice The supreme court has the power and the opportunity to right the wrong of homelessness. No one should be turned away As you read this piece, judges, lawyers and barristers in the supreme court are wrestling with a longstanding injustice that few people even know exists. Yet it is an injustice that condemns people with mental and physical health problems, women fleeing domestic abuse and people with learning disabilities to a devastating life on the streets. As the law is currently interpreted, people facing these kinds of difficulties are being turned away from help by local authorities, and some are being left with no option but to sleep rough. How could this happen in 21st-century England? An important part of the answer lies in a court of appeal judgment from 1998, which says single homeless people are not given priority for housing assistance when homeless, unless they are “less able to fend for himself than an ordinary homeless person so that injury or detriment to him will result when a less vulnerable person would be able to cope without harmful effects”. This means that a local authority assesses a homelessness case in comparison with what is considered an “ordinary” homeless person. But what is an ordinary homeless person? The average age of death for a homeless person is 47 – 30 years lower than the general population. Rates of mental and physical health problems are much higher than average. Homeless people are over nine times more likely to commit suicide. Deaths as a result of infections are twice as likely. They are 13 times more likely to be a victim of violence. It is clear that there is nothing ordinary about what homelessness does to a person. Which brings us back to the supreme court, which is right now considering the cases of three people turned away from help by local authorities: Lindsay Johnson, Sifatullah Hotak and Patrick Kanu. These cases involve people who might otherwise have been considered “vulnerable” and eligible for real help, but have not been because they have family who could support them. Hotak and his brother asked Southwark council for help when they were asked to leave their flat. Even though the council accepted that he suffered from depression, PTSD, a learning disability and had self-harmed, because his brother would help him wash and dress, and organise health appointments, meals and finances, he was eventually found not to be vulnerable. We know such cases are not uncommon. As part of recent research Crisis engaged as “mystery shoppers” people with experiences of homelessness to test the services of councils across England. In 50 out of 87 council visits, people received little or no help. This means homeless people are being turned away with nothing across the country. One of our mystery shoppers was a young woman who went up to a local council desk, told them she was homeless and fleeing domestic violence. She was given no help. Although she was acting, it was still a harrowing experience for her. “They had no empathy whatsoever,” she said. The supreme court has the opportunity and the power to make a real difference to people across England asking for help, often at a desperate time in their life. It is a change that can’t come soon enough. Apart from the clear moral case against turning some of our most vulnerable people away to sleep rough, it makes little sense. If you stop someone from becoming homeless in the first place, you can prevent them entering a downward spiral that will cost them and society dearly. That is why, regardless of the outcome of this case, we will continue to draw attention to this injustice. We are running a campaign, No One Turned Away, where 20,000 people have called for politicians to review the help single homeless people in England get under the law, so no one is forced to sleep rough. Because although this may be a little-known and technical injustice, it is a matter of life and death for the people we support. theguardian/commentisfree/2014/dec/17/sleeping-rough-councils-injustice-homelessness-supreme-court
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:43:39 +0000
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