Entries by Jamie Leeming

New Legislation To Combat Homelessness Passes The First Stage

The Homelessness Reduction Bill has passed through the House of Commons last week. It will now move to the House of Lords for its first reading on the 24 February 2017. As we reported last month, the new Bill places a duty on local authorities to help prevent the homelessness of all families and single people, […]

Rough Sleeping On The Increase

The number of people forced to sleep rough on the streets has risen by 16 per in a single year, the latest Government figures show. On any given night in 2016, over four thousand people were sleeping rough across England. This figure is up from 3,569 in 2015, according to the Department for Communities and […]

Domestic Abuse Is A Major Cause Of Homelessness In Liverpool

A quarter of the homeless people in Liverpool have nowhere to live because they are victims of domestic abuse, according to a local charity. Jacqui Nasuh, founder of the Merseyside Domestic Violence Service, told the Liverpool Echo: “On average a women will be abused 38 times before they report domestic violence. The biggest problem with […]

More Cuts Will Increase Homelessness Say Charities

Services to help the homelessness are gearing up for more cuts to local authority budgets and predict a surge in the number of rough sleepers and more pressure on overstretched NHS and social care services. According to a report in The Guardian, councils across the UK are preparing to close housing support services, refuges and […]

Local Photography Student Brings Rough Sleepers Into Sharp Focus

Wirral student Elizabeth Pennington, 20, has photographed homeless people across the country for her project Hear My Voice, which she hopes will raise awareness of the issue. Elizabeth, who studies at Sheffield Hallam University, said the project had ‘opened her eyes’. She told the Liverpool Echo, “When I first started approaching people, I felt quite […]

A Little Kindness Goes A Long Way

A young couple who were helped out by a homeless man praised his kindness and repaid him with hope for a new life. Charlotte Ellis says she and boyfriend Taylor Walden were stranded at Covent Garden Tube station when ‘Joey’ offered her his coat and duvet. In return, the pair took him back to her […]

Two Families In London Are Made Homeless Every Hour

The housing charity Shelter predicted that 1,260 families in the capital will lose their home in the next month and 7,370 over the next six months – the equivalent of a household every 34 and 35 minutes respectively. Shelter based its predictions on government homeless statistics and said more affordable homes must be built. Latest figures for […]

Venus Launch New Support Programme

Step Together is a new programme to be delivered by Venus to support women and young women who have had one or more children permanently removed into care. The programme will run initially for 5 years and will provide support to 150 women over this time to address their needs to avoid what is – […]

An Act Of Kindness Helps Reunite A Family

A local man built a mobile homeless shelter for people sleeping rough on the streets of Cardiff at Xmas – but also helped to reunite a family. Mark Burgess spent £350 making a temporary home for people living on the street. The shelter is on wheels so it can be moved around and contains a […]