Even the bald numbers are horrifying. This week, the Office for National Statistics recorded that 726 homeless people died in England and Wales in 2018, a rise of 22% on 2017 and the biggest year-on-year rise since it began collecting data. And they died shockingly early. On the streets, a man can expect to die at about 45 years old, even while the average man will live until 76. For a woman sleeping rough, life expectancy is lower still at 43, while her counterpart in the wider population can expect to live until 81. In one of the richest societies in human history, we still allow people to die decades too soon for want of a secure roof over their heads.
A statistic, a tent on the street, a man holding up a scrap of cardboard: homeless people often die as they live, in anonymity amid general indifference. Even our data on the number of people living without a secure home are worryingly sketchy. The housing charity Shelter estimates that at least 320,000 people in Britain sleep rough or in temporary accommodation but warns that figure is likely to be an underestimate as it misses out sofa-surfers and those bedding down in sheds or cars. In an attempt to reveal the humanity behind those numbers, to interrogate the stories buried amid the statistics, the Guardian has launched a series, The Empty Doorway, recounting some of the lives of those who died homeless. Only a few weeks in, it has already uncovered some shocking themes, which demand to be tackled if we are to bring down the homeless death toll. There was the story of talented rapper Jake Humm, living in supported accommodation provided by a local YMCA. Staff there knew he was a suicide risk yet left him alone for at least two days before he killed himself. He was just 22. The YMCA’s internal review of the case, it told our reporters, concluded “there were no errors or omissions in the service we provided”. While mindful of the constraints on staff, financial and otherwise, the goals for the service need to be improved and self-regulation must be supplemented by an independent watchdog.
There are other broader avenues to be looked down. A number of housing charities have been warning for years that the UK is in breach of its UN human rights commitments to provide people with adequate housing. One obvious solution to this is to allow local councils to borrow to build more social housing. Not so-called “affordable” housing (often a misnomer), but at council rents.
It may also be time to adopt an approach successful in Germany and the US – and house rough sleepers first before addressing their complex needs, whether that be drink, drugs or mental illness. Called Housing First, this approach has wiped out street homelessness in Finland. Again, it requires more homes – and demands that those going through the programme get intensive social care. That requires budgets, and the rebuilding of a tattered welfare state. With homelessness, as with many other things wrong in the UK, much depends on rolling back austerity.
