Speech Debelle on Britain's Hidden Homeless
Post categories: Britain's Hidden Homeless,ÌýSpeech Debelle
| 17:55 UK time, Monday, 28 May 2012
Britain's Hidden HomelessÌýaren't represented in any government statistics. These are people with no fixed abode, who are sofa surfing, squatting, who the council can't afford to help because they're not a priority, people who are long term 'visitors' at different friends' houses or go back and forth on night buses all night long. These are people who may be working alongside you.
Young people without family support and no way of scraping together a deposit are stuck because without somewhere to live, they are in constant deficit. The stress of finding somewhere to stay every night can cause depression and instability, and being a young single homeless person means you are not treated as a priority for council housing, so you're left with few options.
I felt passionately about making this documentary. I've had my own experiences with being homeless and have met many others in similar situations. The lack of stability, the anxiety of not knowing what would happen next, the impossibility of planning for the future is something that nobody should have to go through.
I wanted to highlight this growing problem; people just don't realise the scale of it. It is frustrating to see, particularly when the government are trying to cut legal aid for housing issues, reducing the little help that is available and hostels are closing.
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The situation has got much worse since the time I spent sofa surfing and in hostels. There's far less space in social housing. This year, housing benefit will not support 25 - 35 year old people claiming for a flat - they will have to get rooms in shared houses. Also, because people are now unable to buy their own homes there is now less space in the rental market. Unemployment is rising. People are downsizing. All of this creates a housing squeeze that is felt most by vulnerable young people.
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Steven
The programme shows the tip of the iceberg, and I'd like to thank the young people involved for allowing us to film them. Stephen's last scene is very powerful and inspiring. You have to remember that not having a stable home can have such a huge emotional effect that it becomes easy to get stuck in the same situation for too long when faced with many practical difficulties. And as for some people not featured here - their sense of worth is such that they have dropped out of society entirely. This is why places like hostels with careers advice and counselling are so important. And the cuts affect the survival of many such projects.
For me Sam's story was very poignant. She's a graduate but because her mother had to downsize and Sam hasn't been able to find work, she has found herself homeless. The economic downturn is creating a generation like Sam who, even with a university degree, is bearing the brunt of the cuts. Her story shows homelessness could happen to any of us.
With this economic crisis, many young graduates have to accept internships which only pay expenses. So only those with wealthier parents to support them are able to take this path. That means ambitious young people from less fortunate backgrounds are at a disadvantage straight away and more than you think are already homeless, sofa surfing and sleeping rough secretly.
Many won't even speak up about being homeless because it's such a shameful subject to speak about. However, this issue is not going away anytime soon, in fact it's likely to get worse. I hope that by seeing Britain's Hidden Homeless people will realise the importance of the issue and help me to keep drawing attention to a problem facing more and more young people every day.
Britain's Hidden Homeless is on tonight at 9pm
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Comment number 1.
At 28th May 2012, nat wrote:I am so deeply saddended that so many children are having to grow up in such mixed up family situations. It leaves so many of these young people unable to feel worthy of the help and support that these charities are desperate to give. From the bottom of heart
I wish all the young people in this documentary the life they deserve to have!
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Comment number 2.
At 28th May 2012, WayneJKC wrote:There are many thousands of homeless people in the UK. The Government smudge the figures by eliminating from the statistics certain details. For instance I live in Exeter, Devon and 12.5% of all residential property is private landlord owned according to the Valuation Office Agency literature. This means that private landlords control who lives in their properties and for how long. This means the tenant has no permanent address and thus technically is homeless though not without residence - often at a huge rent!! The ´óÏó´«Ã½ 3 program highlighted the middle ground i.e. people that are not in ' priority ' need, but are still homeless. It's a shame and a sham. This program should be shown many times at different hours and expanded upon. The Government is failing.
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Comment number 3.
At 29th May 2012, gemmalaya wrote:Im a 29yr old female care assistant from north wales, i am very interested in contacting and helping stephen in any way i can, he was shown on tonights programme of Hidden Homeless. [Personal details removed by Moderator]
Kind Regards.
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Comment number 4.
At 6th Jun 2012, mickey1956 wrote:HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT OBVIOUSLY ALL THESE FOUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE BORN AND BRED HERE. THE COUNTRY IS OVERCROWDED AND THE ANSWERS ARE SIMPLE, BUILD MORE HOUSING ( WHICH WILL CREATE WORK) AND HAVE A KNOCK ON EFFECT, THOSE WORKERS WAGES WILL GO INTO THE ECONOMY. ITS EITHER THAT OR STOP IMMIGRATION, YOU CAN BET ITS NOT SO EASY TO ENTER CERTAIN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND GET ACCOMADATION AND WORK AS IT IS FOR IMMIGRANTS HERE FROM POLAND UKRAINE , ROMANIA ETC. IF YOU GO TO GERMANY OR SCANIDNAVIA IT WILL BE HARDER. YOU WONT GET THE HOUSING PRIORITIES THESE IMMIGRANTS GET HERE OR THE WORK PRIORITY EITHER.
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Comment number 5.
At 7th Jun 2012, AmeliaLOVE wrote:I didn't watch the show but when I read the blogs and all of the other comments, i realised how easily we take our lives for granted. Living on the street is something people think about then 20 seconds later, lose interest on the matter. Whenever you watch shows about people living on the streets, you actually feel scared. The everyday things they face, we never come across in our lives. People simply fly over and take our houses so English people live on the streets. Fair?
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