According to ‘Is Britain Fairer? (2018)’, a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, life is still unfair for many people in England.*
The report states, “Homelessness is also on the rise, putting more people in a precarious position and particularly affecting people from ethnic minorities, disabled people and other at-risk groups.”
That was 2018. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, England’s severe shortage of affordable homes has been exposed, despite the well-meaning Everybody In scheme.
The current situation
Today, 6th May 2021 is local election day across the UK meaning that more than 48 million people will be able to have their say about what happens at a local level.
Post lockdown, local authorities across the country expect to see an increase in newly unemployed people who have become homeless because of the pandemic.
Thankfully, times of crisis do also offer times of reflection and if our country is truly committed to ‘building back better’, we might finally start to see opportunities to tackle our systems and enable more collaborative working.
Our concern is that the government will return to austerity measures that will impact homeless services, because of debt accumulated throughout the pandemic.
However, we want to remain optimistic with the hope that positive change will emerge from this challenging time.
Closing thoughts
Our mantra is, ‘we want to end homelessness, not manage it, if we can move beyond short-term thinking and adopt a longer-term vision as we emerge from the pandemic, perhaps Britain will become fairer once and for all.
*https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-2018-executive-summary-pre-lay.pdf
