Meet Stacey

I agree MOnica, and it cannot be solved by offering everyone on the streets a warm room, those with addictions will need rehab which means not only staff with knowledge of addiction but psychiatrists and nurses .

It often takes many more than one visit to persuade a rough sleeper to accept help. The idea that a charity can simply sends its staff to offer sleepers alternative and positive options. and, bingo, the problem is solved is naive in the extreme. Yes, some people are on the streets because of rent arrears, unemployment, wife/husband/parents/friends chucking them out and they will jump at a chance to get a roof over their head and get back into normal life, but as I said before many homeless people are mentally ill or have deep psychological problems or because of these problems have addictions and they have behavioural and other challenging behaviours that make helping them and getting them off the streets very slow and difficult process.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/31/arresting-beggars-last-resort-prosecutions-fall-40-per-cent/

It is a decent discussion, it was the female in the shelter who brought politics into it , all I have said is needs all parties to work together

Oh gosh, and I thought we could have a decent exchange without dragging in Corbyn, on any pretext.

I must admit to being reluctant to giving any help directly, as a friend of mine befriended a homeless person and it didn't end well, so I am probably a bit biased

I'm not sure they can be prosecuted an they? Not sure begging is illegal.
Councils do discourage giving money to beggars, which seems to me the best plan.
If begging doesn't work there would be no point in continuing, then the help could go to those who need it through the LA and charities.

And stop using these people as political footballs , like that female who tweeted Corbyn had visited the shelter where she worked and then tweeted a man had died in the shelter , people have been dying on the streets for years , this is a serious problem which needs all parties to work on together

BANES Council has issued notices too, apparently:
www.bathchronicle.co.uk/news/bath-homeless-rough-sleeper-policy-1018395

^ a dramatic rise in the number of rough sleepers in Bath^
A Council spokesman said: “We try to speak to the person face to face and if they are not there, we then leave a letter saying we’d like them to leave the site in two days

At the same time we contact [Bath homeless charity] Julian House which sends its staff to offer sleepers alternative and positive options.

There does seem to be a sudden and dramatic rise in many places.

No, but stop seeing all as victims , take care of the vunerable and prosecute the beggers who have housing and are on benefits . I said earlier , we have gone from the - they are all a waste of space to they are all victims

Where is all this money coming from?

Do you mean accept it is out of control and so do nothing about it?

Why not accept it is out of control now , where is the money for are all these hostels, drug rehabs, alcohol rehabs and staff

Maybe he spoke out before finding out what his own council was actually doing, if so the people behind this project must be pretty annoyed with him

.lemon, yes Mansions are rather pricey ?

I don't know who came up with this idea but find it puzzling when I found an earlier account (November 2017) of how Bristol CC has ear-marked £5.3 million per year for the next 5 years to help the homeless in the city.

For the first time the entire support network is to be properly co-ordinated.

A major new project has been launched which will mean hundreds of homeless people will be put onto one of four ‘pathways’ to get them back on their feet

And it will also mean the different charities and organisations that get money from the city council to help the homeless will no longer overlap, and at times compete with each other for the financial support.

Bristol City Council will spend a total of £5.3 million a year – some from council taxpayer funds and some from a series of multi-million pound grants from central government – for the next five years.

There doesn't seem to be any co-ordination aparent in these two reports.

fact is many are addicts. if they were housed many would not pay their rent. many would cause problems to their neighbours. many have been housed but have been evicted for causing trouble. most are beggars.They cant be allowed to turn shopping centres into shanty towns. their next step would be building structures.

Fact is that many of these people are on the streets because they have mental health issues or have had such traumatic experiences with medical and local authorities or in their childhood homes, that they they live disorganised and chaotic lives because they have no experience of any other life and these problems cannot be cured by just putting a roof over their heads or removing their belongings.

It takes time and concentrated effort and rehabilitation to get people off the streets, into a home and capable of managing it and earning the money to do so.

I suggest the local bigwig who came up with this idea should spend a month or two (not just 24 hours or overnight) with a charity like St Mungo's, who deal with those homeless with the most intractable problems so that nest time he pontificates on this subject it will be from his head and not his *rse.

The truth is, that all councils do what they can, no matter what they are,Conservative or Labour etc.
It’s a knotty problem that can’t just be resolved with housing, but it can be in some circumstances.
For drug users though, and those with serious mental health problems, it can’t and other measures have to be used where possible.People can’t be held against their will somewhere so no wonder, with drug using on the up, this is a problem almost everywhere.

Annie re GP’s and housing .......he and his wife had five sons! I expect he bought a mansion.?

I would like to know where the drug and alcohol dependant will be moved to, there is a waiting list for rehab centres so where will these people be housed whilst waiting?

Like many good ideas it sounds positive but when put into practice not so sure.

So many people do seem to be on their own these days, far more than when we were young. We tended to live at home, then flat-share or digs, then got married, so costs were always shared. There must have been people living alone but not many that I remember.
Rents were more affordable but even so, we tended to share.

Living independently is hard, especially if you live alone.
Budgeting, paying the rent or filling in benefit claim forms is difficult for some people to manage, especially those who have been brought up in care, as they have not picked up these skills from living in a family home.

Ex service people who have had their accommodation and meals provided for them, have to start again from scratch, and find it difficult.

Even deciding what and when to eat, how to shop etc. can be too much for some people to manage on their own.

As we have seen, some people find it less stressful and less lonely to revert to living on the streets.

This doesn't help the towns and cities that they live in or migrate to, so somehow we have to help to get them off the streets.

Just providing a room or a flat and leaving them to get on with life does not always work.

I don't have the answers but below is a quote from Manchester City Councils website, showing one thing that they are trying out, and it sounds like a good idea.

"The proposed new centre will be for single men and women over 18 and couples without children who have low to medium support needs. This means we'll help people get back to living a place of their own and get into work, training, or education.

We’ll help with things like mediation, debt or health problems and training. We’ll get other organisations to come to the centre and provide activities like gardening, arts or cooking.

We’ll provide hot meals, but there will also be kitchens for people to cook their own food.

All the people who live there will have a licence agreement – like a tenancy agreement – setting out the rules for living at the centre.

We will allow well behaved dogs, but only under guidance from The Dogs Trust.

People will only stay at the centre if our homelessness team refer them. The staff at the centre will also give everyone an assessment, so only we only house appropriate people.

People with high needs like drug or alcohol problems will not be housed at the Longford Centre. We’ll offer them different accommodation that is better suited to them. If someone develops problems later we’ll get support for them and move them to accommodation with the help they need.

Generally people will stay for up to eight weeks, but we decide on a case by case basis. For instance if someone has nowhere to go or are waiting for a new tenancy to start we’ll let them stay longer."

Sounds positive to me.

Deciding who is deserving and who is not, who are the saints and who are the sinners, does not solve the problem for the homeless or the traders and residents.

Low house prices do not sway doctors Lemon , we have nine doctors here and they all live in the most expensive properties. We did barn conversions for two of them , no loft ladders ? But both have minstrel galleries

However, you would think that the low housing prices and the beauty of the countryside would make up for it.
When I lived in the West Country my doctor said those were the factors that drew his family there.

Wales has always had problems getting doctors to work here, they don't want the South Wales valleys because of poverty and still the illnesses caused by mining and they don't want to work in rural Wales because they have to drive miles to reach homes and hospitals .

Exactly what I was thinking too Ninny......I think it only counts with some if a Tory Council is in charge!
That’s why we see so very little about NHS Wales, doing badly.