Academic Master

English

How’s Homelessness Perceived in England?

Introduction

England is counted in the top most developed countries. There are many ways it could be idealized but on the other side developed countries are facing a number of factors which are creating great darkness and that’s not yet understood nor resolved. One of the main issue in America, England and many developed countries is homelessness of the natives as well as immigrants and they are facing the issue very severely. The top reasons which are causing homelessness are unemployment, lack of government support, relocations, and debits. There are a number of international NGOs which are working for England to reduce the maximum possible homelessness. The government as well as private house builders are making better approaches for the homeless citizens by giving loans, employment opportunities, and many other welfare schemes. There are many other factors which are included further for the understanding of why the homelessness is increased in England and how it’s perceived. The results of homelessness are crime, uncomfortable situations for the normal living people and concerned image of the country. The main aim of the paper is to discuss the overall perception of the homelessness in all over the England.

Discussion

Causes perceived of homelessness

There are a number of survey making and research conducting associations working on the social issues. They have kept the homelessness second after the crime issues. Due to highly expensive accommodation charges, the private associations are unable to help the homeless people. Therefore, their main aim was to cause an awareness by the impacts of homelessness on economy, community and social structure of all over the Great Britain. There are a number of perceived leading causes of homelessness in Britain. One of the leading accommodation and the homelessness charity service providers, Shelter have explained a number of facts about the homelessness and perceived it in a deeper way. The most effective causes provided by shelter are personnel, structural and some other specified issues explained by the homeless people themselves (England.shelter.org.uk, 2018).

Among a number other factors there are some personal and social factors which are highly contributing in the increase of homelessness of the people in United Kingdom. While discussing about the individual factors it includes the lack of social support and qualification, poor physical as well as mental health, rents and mortgage, relationship breakdowns and involvement in crime at very early ages. The family background is also one of the main issue in homelessness in which the sexual and physical abuse in childhood and adolescence, parents involved in drugs, and some previous family homelessness experiences. Another most raised personal problem that is causing the homelessness increase are individual experience in care, military, and prison. With respect to the structural causes which are responsible for the increase in the homelessness among the Britain citizens are also highly considered. These issues are normally economic and social in nature and out of the control of an individual and the families. The main social and economic issues are poverty, unemployment, unaffordable accommodation, housing policies, housing benefit administration, and the policy development of care like unable to stay longer in mental institutes.

Alcohol or drug addiction is perceived as a primary cause of homelessness. According to the Salvation Army, 27% of the homeless group lost their accommodation due to their addiction habits. There is no alcohol or drug complete ban in United States and that’s why a huge number of people are consuming them. Addiction causes problem to the behavior of an individual and the families got disturb because of the aggressiveness in the drug addict’s behavior.

There are some reasons given by the homeless people in all over the Great Britain. These reasons are collected by a number of NGOs as well as government statistical analytical teams in which the most prominent are unwillingness of parents, friends and families to accommodate, relationship breakdown and domestic violence as well as loss of the assured short hold tenancy. Mostly these reasons are considered as the catalysts that help the people I succeeding for getting assistance but the real issues are mostly kept hidden which caused them to live homeless at the first place (England.shelter.org.uk, 2018). According to the official statistics it is considered that almost 33% of the people explained that they are unable to secure the employment because they lack an address. 51% of the people claimed that the employers are less likely to give a job to the person who have been previously homeless for sometime even. 23% of the people discussed that they or someone close to them would never experience homelessness.

A study was conducted specifically about the homelessness in London city. It was explained that the homeless people are from approximately from every field, country, culture and race. Almost 8000 people sleep rough on streets. Most of them need work but they are unable to find because of a number of factors including reputation, trust and employer’s preferences. There is a claim discussed on a blog that homelessness begins when something wrong, unhealthy or unnatural happens. It could be from legal, social, economic or personal side and the person who faces homelessness don’t have friends and family to support or help at all. Sometimes people have a number of major or minor crises which end up on homelessness and people don’t have any place to stay (Streetsoflondon.org.uk, 2018).

Official Causes Perceived

It should not be forgot that only the individual or social factors are not responsible for the homelessness but the government is also blamed for this social problem. It is perceived that in the last five years homelessness is increased very rapidly and the speed of homelessness is increased by the private sector rents and cuts increase in the housing benefit.

Another factor which is causing the government to act very late is the lack of understanding of the ministers of this problem and being ignored for a long period of time. Although it is known that the ministers don’t have any grip on the causes and costs of the rising of homelessness as well as they didn’t showed any actions for handling the issue.

The government spokesperson have admitted that there is a lot much to do for this problem and to make sure that all the citizens must have a permanent residence so that they would not be removed from there. The government representors have explained further that there are a number of plans which are under the review and would be announced very soon.

Another official reason of increase in the homelessness is the non-comparative increase of the rents. In the start of the decade the private rents are increased up to 25% of the total but the total wages increased is only 3% which made the people unable to live in the rented homes and apartments and it caused them to get out of their accommodations.

Effects on Local Communities

When the social structure of a community disturbs, it drops the effects on both groups including the one effected and the one visualizes or in safe zone. The increasing homeless people seen lying on the streets and under the bridges which caused a situation of unpleasant and fearful sight for the people living in their homes. 54% of the teenagers and young adults have explained to their life gets disturbed as they see someone lying in the street in front of their home or in the way from collage. They are unable to do anything and controversial thoughts occupy their brains completely.

Salvation Army have finalized their studies and research that homelessness can effect anyone. Even professors and the people with the jobs which require higher skills and experiences, experienced the homelessness. There are a number of churches and Lifehouses working deeply for the homeless people. Salvation Army have used a personal approach with considering the tailoring of the procedure while providing the assistance to anyone and they have claimed that families complained about streets covered with crowds sleeping in and need to find a solution, accommodation or something easier rather than pushing the crowd from one side to another (Salvationarmy.org.uk, 2015).

Hidden Homelessness in Britain

There are an outnumbered people who are not seen to be homeless as they preferred not sleeping in streets. The hidden homelessness is mostly unseen by the authorities. More than 400,000 people are affected by this hidden homelessness. The common people don’t perceive these people as homeless people because they are not seen lying on the streets. There are outnumbered people living out of the sight of anyone in hostels, temporary accommodations, sofa-surfing, living in conditions of severe overcrowding as well as in their own vehicles.

They don’t have any home and neither any other option to stay. These conditions are causing problems to many families. The problem of homelessness was initially ignored but now it is seriously considered and there are an outnumbered communities which are helping the homeless families.

Impacts of Homelessness Perceived

Society is highly disturbed because of homelessness. Being in a home is highly beneficial to an individual overall. A person who is in the home have more chances to get an employment rather than the person who is without a home. It is a rough guess that that only 6% homeless and 70% with homes population is securing good employment.

With respect to the mental issues it can be considered that only 30 of the people who have comfortable accommodation have mental health issues which include stress, mental illness and unhealthy brain working. In contrast, the people who are homeless, 72% of them are facing mental stress and they even don’t have any comfortable sleeping where they would be able to drain out their stress and mental pains. In a discussion to the long term physical health issues, less than 30% people living in the homes are facing while more than 50%, who are not able to secure a comfortable accommodation.

Home is the cause to get rid of the criminal activities and the families and home environment is the biggest support for keeping away from the mental stress. There is barely small and resolvable cases rise in which teenagers are involved in drugs and alcohol use. Sometimes adults also feel mental stress and found drunk but the figures never rose in all over the Britain to 9% or more. The homelessness caused an increase of the drug and alcohol abuse up to 26% which were also explanatory figures.

In the Great Britain, the homelessness also increased the individual’s involvement in prostitution which is considered as one of the worst activity for the spread of HIV-AIDS and other STDs.

These negative impacts are affecting homeless as well as other people. There are thousands of tourists on the daily basis visit the United Kingdom and find homelessness at such a larger scale which is heart breaking. The teenagers as discussed above are unable to regularly do their work efficiently.

Solution

For the citizens of the Great Britain, there is a law about to pass, the homelessness Reduction Act. According to this act, the people in all over the England will be provided as much loans as possible so that they would not be homeless at the first place. The councils are working hard to overcome this issue and is estimated that almost 550 billion pounds are about to be spent on this single issue (the Guardian, 2017).

It is also mentioned by the government that this issue is perceived seriously and will sooner the actions will be taken as per required. The main focus of the government is to stop the increase of the homeless population and to help out the families which are currently securing a residence and are unable to sustain it for longer. It will help the government to look easily for the homeless people (Butler, 2017).

Conclusion

As per the discussion above a number of causes are of homelessness in which the top most are employment and other personal, economic and social problems. The government is also blamed for the increase of the homelessness and the responsibility of the increase in the population. There are some serious effects on the overall nation because of the homelessness issue. Most of the homeless people are not able to secure the employment for their financial survival. The young adult’s daily lives are highly affected by the homelessness and they are not able to do their regular activities. The people every race, ethnicity and community are effected by homelessness. The government have noticed very late about this issue but now seems active for completely ending this issue forever till the year 2022. A large amounts of funds are already arranged for the expenditures of reducing homelessness in England and the Great Britain.

References

Butler, P. (2017). Ministers have lost their grip on rising homelessness, says damning report. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/13/government-rebuked-for-failing-to-address-homelessness-crisis [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].

Cornes, M., Mathie, H., Whiteford, M., Manthorpe, J. and Clark, M., 2015. The care act, personalisation and the new eligibility regulations: a discussion paper about the future of care and support services for homeless people in England.

England.shelter.org.uk. (2018). What causes homelessness? – Shelter England. [online] Available at: http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/tackling_homelessness/What_causes_homelessness#structural_causes_of_homelessness [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].

Griffith, J.L., 2017. Perceptions of Homeless Shelter Staff Workers on Chronic Homeless Individuals (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).

Killaspy, H., Priebe, S., Bremner, S., McCrone, P., Dowling, S., Harrison, I., Krotofil, J., McPherson, P., Sandhu, S., Arbuthnott, M. and Curtis, S., 2016. Quality of life, autonomy, satisfaction, and costs associated with mental health supported accommodation services in England: a national survey. The Lancet Psychiatry3(12), pp.1129-1137.

Mackie, P.K., 2015. Homelessness prevention and the Welsh legal duty: Lessons for international policies. Housing Studies30(1), pp.40-59.

Rae, B.E. and Rees, S., 2015. The perceptions of homeless people regarding their healthcare needs and experiences of receiving health care. Journal of advanced nursing71(9), pp.2096-2107.

Salvationarmy.org.uk. (2015). Research reveals startling gap between perception and reality of homelessness | The Salvation Army. [online] Available at: https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/research-reveals-startling-gap-between-perception-and-reality-homelessness [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].

Streetsoflondon.org.uk. (2018). Streets of London | About homelessness. [online] Available at: http://www.streetsoflondon.org.uk/about-homelessness [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].

the Guardian. (2017). Homelessness is not inevitable. It’s a political choice | Melanie Onn. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2017/sep/13/homelessness-not-inevitable-political-choice-uk-government [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].

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