Homelessness is a lifestyle choice according to Suella!

I agree a massive pre-fab building programme would help. I lived in one with my parents in the 1950s and it was excellent. They could be manufactured in bulk in factories.

A man froze to death overnight. He was sleeping in his car

This has just prompted me to send my donation to Crisis at Christmas in lieu of sending cards to friends. If anyone else is looking for a charity to support this Christmas, please would you consider this one.

I suppose becoming Home Secretary is a lifestyle choice - that's probably how Braverman arrived at the idea.

Thanks for the link DaisyAnne. Container homes of that quality and innovation do seem a win-win solution to the appalling scandal of homelessness especially if built on brownfield sites.

I remember loving my great aunt's bright, cosy post war "pre-fab" in the 50's, it even came with a fridge, a rare luxury in those days. What some of the terrified families facing no fault evictions wouldn't give to have such a lovely secure place to call their own.

The viciousness, the hopelessness of being homeless, could be eradicated so swiftly for so many if the self serving blockheads we pay to be in charge began to use a bit of imagination, a bit of compassion and a bit of financial nous.

www.container-housing.co.uk/

More about shipping container housing.

Yes, MayBee, it’s true that prisoners released with no address of hostel get a tent

MayBee, that is shocking 🤯.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but I’ve just watched the second series of Time in which a woman prisoner is released but there is no room in any hostels for her so she is given a tent. Thinking that this was something that was just added for dramatic effect I googled it and found that prisoners are, in fact, given tents to sleep in. So surely, as Home Secretary, Braverman would have known this when she made that comment?

The Bibby Stockholm is a completely different environment from a modified shipping container.

Shipping containers have been used for ages in the UK for the homeless, for example:

www.tempohousing.com/projects/homeless-shelter-brighton-uk/

They do count!

Dickens

A good observation Terribull.

And you're right. the problem of homelessness is not specific to Britain.

When I lived in affluent Norway - it was evident they also had a problem similarly. Obviously, not on the same scale, nevertheless, the reasons for it were much the same as ours, insecure housing, poverty (in spite of a comprehensive welfare system) and addiction coupled with mental health problems.

I don't think removing the tents will do much to solve the problems. No-one wants 'tent cities' within their boundaries, but without the tents, won't there just be homeless people sprawled on the pavements etc on various bits of bedding, blankets and cardboard? The homeless won't just disappear, they have to 'live' somewhere and will simply go back to what they did before the tents became an option... shop doorways, alleyways, pavements, etc, etc.

Hostels won't take in addicts - and do the addicts even want to be in hostels anyway, so I appreciate it's a heck of a problem for any government to solve. But I don't think SB has chosen a particularly helpful way of beginning to deal with it.

It's a problem all over Europe so it might be a good idea to see what other countries are doing to deal with it. I know in Denmark they are using steel shipping containers as temporary housing modules, with outside 'community' areas. Which is probably one working solution... but what do you do if the homeless individuals are disruptive addicts? Such encampments would soon become problem areas.

I see Denmark, a much more prosperous country than ours,are using steel shipping containers for homeless people. In this country there was uproar when the Bibby Stockholme was to be used for the boat people. Not our own homeless, they don't count .

google is good at answering questions, nanna8.

duckduckgo.com/?q=tents+left+at+festivals&t=ipad&ia=web

For some reason all those tents dumped after pop festivals over there keeps flashing up in my mind. Never seen or heard of this before- what happens to them, do they just get chucked away? Maybe they could be put to good use.

Giving

Given people tents is not the answer to what is a very complex question.

Oldbat1

Thatcher selling council houses has a lot to answer for.

There’s another policy that affected council housing and that is the requirement to house the unemployed and otherwise homeless. . At one time council houses were for low paid workers and people stayed there for many years creating a community. That changed before right to buy was brought in. I agree it turned out to be a bad policy but as is often the case it started off as a good idea. Those who had lived in a house for many years would be able to buy it and stay there for the rest of their lives. Trouble was the discounts were so big and the eligibility criterion so generous that people bought their houses to make money and move somewhere else. Maybe this should have been foreseen but I can see why it wasn’t.

Mortgage interest is deductible to me at my marginal tax rate. In addition to the claim that it is impossible to tell what is going on inside and whether the tenant requires medical assistance, there are some locations where a tent would be downright harmful.
twitter.com/emily4MK/status/1721149388582531093/
snake-io.io

MayBee70
We've treated the Afghan refugees dreadfully, at times I feel ashamed to be British we seem to have lost our ability to think creatively and show empathy. SB is using her position to appeal to the far right of the Conservatives once Sunak is gone. TRIP is always worth listening to.
Stormystar
Homeless people are not all drug addicts and not all drug addicts live on the streets. Having nowhere to live is a much more complex picture than that but helping any addict to get better is easier if they are not living on the streets.

I was with you Stormystar until you got to the bit about the tents.

Prove to us that all the homeless living in tents are drug addicts.

Because, at the moment this assumption that tent = drug addicted occupant seems to me to be entirely distorting the issue.

Lifestyle Choice is a controversial phrase in this context because we project on to others the lifestyle choices we make for ourselves and imagine it’s what everyone would want. Maslows ‘hierarchy of needs comes to mind.’ But if your a drug addict and all you can think about is injecting your next shot of heroin in your veins then living on the street and having immediate access to your drug, which has become necessary for your survival, becomes the best option the best choice. Men and women boys and girls selling their body for their fix this becomes their best option.
The plasticity of our brains means our neuro pathways very quickly alter, and the addiction takes precedence over every other need. Of course absolutely the addicts need to be supported with compassion, how that is best practiced is what’s in question, and the tents in my mind are only giving more licence for abuse and exploitation to take place. Until an addict wants to stop using we are powerless to stop them. This is highlighted by the many famous people, who have all the financial and emotional support but are still unable to get clean and stay clean and often die as a result of their addictions

foxie48

Deedaa SB is preparing us for the asylum seekers who will be turned out of hotels and end up living on the street because there is nowhere else for them to go. She's vile and unfit for public office.

A local lad who’s just been granted settled status is looking for somewhere to rent a room. He has to leave his accommodation immediately but only has £450 a month to pay for a room. He’s from Afghanistan so, imo we are responsible for him. TRIP’s also touches on the fact that Braverman gets away with racist comments because people think that someone can’t be racist towards people of their own colour. They also comment on what an enigma she is: a Buddhist ex Erasmus student who has, in the past, worked with Cherie Blair and is very pleasant to those who work with her.

Deedaa SB is preparing us for the asylum seekers who will be turned out of hotels and end up living on the street because there is nowhere else for them to go. She's vile and unfit for public office.

Your post Deedaa made me wonder whether it is because Suella Braverman is herself a brown person that she thinks she has a licence to be far more racist than any white person would ever dare to br.

30 years ago when I was living in Cornwall we had two homeless men who used to come into our cafe. We were one of the few places that would take them in because, if no one had rounded them up and got them showered and into clean clothes recently, they really did smell. They both had mental problems and were adamant that they were happy on the streets and didn't want helping. But that was two men. Even then there were many others desperate for food and shelter.

I'm surprised that more people haven't picked up on her casual racism. Foreigners who choose tents as a lifestyle? It sounds as if she's talking about brown people who come from lands so primitive that they don't know what houses are. Nobody would choose a lifestyle that includes living on the streets in a tent in an English winter. I wonder what temperature Suella's central heating is running at.