Sixth form students at the Life Sciences University Technical College, based in the Baltic-Triangle, have set their minds to work on tackling homelessness and helping Liverpool homeless people in the City Centre.

Life Sciences UTC is a city-centre school for 14-19 year olds specialises in Science and Healthcare, but also offers a full-range of GCSEs and A-Levels to complete in a mature, hands-on college environment. It is not only the first UK school to do this, it also has links to local universities and workplaces to ensure students have access to some of the world’s most cutting edge technology.

This initiative, focused on homelessness in Liverpool, is part of their weekly project-based learning sessions and is designed to supplement a student’s learning experience with real-life experience. Beginning as a simple fundraising commitment, the students took dedication to the next level by hitting Liverpool’s streets last Christmas and making a difference directly to the lives of the people who need it most this time of year.

Working through their lunch breaks, the students began a campaign internally within their college and raised over £120 in just one afternoon. Wanting to gain momentum after such a flying start, the students, as promised, didn’t stop there. With Winter well underway, the group decided to take their involvement even further and, teaming up with local charity The Paper Cup Project, they painstakingly assembled over 40 care packages designed to help rough sleepers get through the cold and miserable Christmas period.

In the run-up to Christmas, the students got to work hand-delivering the packages individually to the homeless in the City Centre, under the supervision of The Paper Cup Project. The rough-sleepers were pleased to receive new clothing, fresh toiletries and snacks; all of which are vital to the comfort and ease of a person in a difficult circumstance hoping to get back on their feet. There was even a Christmas card bought and signed by the students for each person!

One student said: “We were surprised and happy with the amount we initially raised and how well the campaign was going. […] Hopefully we can look at making this project a regular occurrence, as it’s such a worthy cause and we’ve all loved getting involved.”

Life Sciences UTC Health teacher, Miss Graham, said: “Our cohort of year 13s are a credit to the UTC and to their city with the way they have embraced the spirit of this project and given so much of their own free time to do it. Not only this, but they’ve managed to inspire younger students in the process, encouraging them to get involved and raising awareness of the social issue of homelessness. They don’t want to stop here and so we’re definitely looking to work with the charity again.”

With rates of homelessness rising, as well as the often unreported yearly rise in homelessness every Christmas – and reports that 1 in 5 families are just two missed pay-checks away from becoming homeless – the work carried out by the students and The Paper Cup Project is vital to the mental and physical well-being to those on the street. Steadfast in their dedication to alleviating the toll daily life takes on a homeless person, leftovers from the care packages were also handed out on Christmas Eve.

If you would like to support for The Paper Cup Project, click here.

At least 13,000 former armed services personnel are homeless after leaving the military – and many are also suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to an investigation by the Sunday People, military charities said the shameful figure is a record high and the Government is failing those who risk their lives for their country. They also issued a stark warning that the crisis deepens every month.

Cait Smith, 45, runs the Bolton Armed Forces Centre for Veterans, where she helps homeless ex-service personnel. She said: “Homelessness among the veterans community is getting worse by the month. The youngest we have dealt with is an 18-year-old and the oldest is 97. And we helped people of every age in between.”

Cait was diagnosed with PTSD 20 years after her entire command was wiped out in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre helicopter disaster. She added: “When I left the Army in 1997 I was a single mum. I had nowhere to live and a child to look after. I felt as though I had somehow failed. I was eventually given help and got my life back together. But I received no help from the armed forces. It was from charities and friends.”

Northern Ireland veteran Tony Hayes, 58, is now the chief ­executive of Veteran Assistance UK, a charity helping homeless ex-­servicemen and women and those who are ­struggling with PTSD. He said: “Nearly all the homeless veterans we come across have PTSD or some form of mental health ­problem. Once they leave the Army, they lose their support structure. Those suffering from PTSD will often turn to drink and that can have an impact on the marriage and in a short period of time a veteran can find himself homeless.”

“We estimate 13,000 but we ­believe it’s an ­accurate figure from what our outreach teams are seeing. From our ­experience, the problem of homeless veterans has never been greater. I’d say 13,000 is a minimum – it could be far higher.” Charity bosses say the problem has been made worse by cuts to the armed forces, which has led to almost 30,000 troops losing their jobs since 2010.

Homeless numbers have soared, despite the Government outlining its duty to serving and former personnel by enshrining the Armed Forces Covenant in law in 2011. The covenant says veterans “should have priority status in applying for Government-sponsored affordable housing schemes, and service leavers should retain this status for a period of discharge”. And it adds: “Support should be available for all service personnel in order to assist their transition from ­service to ­civilian life.”

The Ministry of Defence responded: “We provide extensive help to veterans and their families, including funding the Veterans’ Gateway. The Government is spending more than £1billion to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.”

Our lovely colleagues at Excel Housing Solutions have recently opened two services ​​for veterans with support needs in Sefton. All properties are shared and fully furnished to a very high standard. They have also established working partnerships with Liverpool Veterans HQ, who do a fabulous job in supporting all veterans in the community. For more information, please click here.

If you are a veteran, or know of a veteran who needs accommodation with support, please contact Kristy at Excel on 0151 329 2772, option 1​​​​.

The Tory politician demanding police take homeless people off the streets ahead of the Royal Wedding is a paid director of a government agency that’s supposed to be tackling rough sleeping.

Windsor and Maidenhead council chief Simon Dudley hit the headlines after asking Thames Valley police to use the 1824 Vagrancy Act to remove homeless people from the streets before the ceremony at Windsor Castle on May 19. He wrote: “A large number of adults that are begging in Windsor are not in fact homeless, and if they are homeless they are choosing to reject all support services to beg on the streets of Windsor. In the case of homelessness amongst this group, it is therefore a voluntary choice.”

So it’s a surprise to find that Dudley sits on the board of a public body – the Homes and Communities Agency – with responsibility for helping homeless people! The leader of Theresa May’s local authority said he expected to be paid between £10,000 and £20,000 upon taking-up the taxpayer-funded role in February. One of the Agency’s major programmes is the Homelessness Change fund, which is designed to: “Provide tailored hostel accommodation and improved facilities for the provision of healthcare, training or education for rough sleepers with the aim of helping them off the streets and transforming their lives.” 

However, Prime Minster Theresa May has publicly challenged the call by saying: “I don’t agree with the comments that the leader of the council has made. I think it is important that councils work hard to ensure that they are providing accommodation for those people who are homeless, and where there are issues of people who are aggressively begging on the streets then it’s important that councils work with the police to deal with that aggressive begging.”

Charities that work with the homeless said recourse to the law is not the answer. “Stigmatising or punishing [rough sleepers] is totally counterproductive,” said Greg Beales of Shelter. People sleeping on the street were “often at their lowest point, struggling with a range of complex problems and needs and they are extremely vulnerable, at risk from cold weather, illness and even violence”.

He added: “They desperately need our help, support and advice to move off the streets into safety and, eventually, into a home.”

In a blog for Huffington Post, Joe Anderson wrote: “This is the net result of eight years’ of austerity: A toxic mix of public service cuts, housing shortages, high rents, welfare changes, low wages, benefit sanctions and rising drug use.

Earlier this week, the Public Accounts Committee reported what all of us working on the frontline knew already: the government’s response to dealing with homelessness and rough sleeping across England has been woeful.

‘Unacceptably complacent’ was the term used. That’s one way of saying that leaving 9,100 human beings to sleep on our streets is a shaming, infuriating disgrace. Councils are struggling to cope with unprecedented demand for services – with less and less money to pay for them.

I am proud that we spend £11million every year tackling homelessness – intervening early to help families and individuals avoid falling between the cracks – even though our central government funding has been slashed by two-thirds (£470million) since 2010. While our Citizen Support Scheme includes help for people facing benefit sanctions – ensuring they don’t get evicted.

Last month, 133 people presented to our team as homeless and at imminent risk of rough sleeping, of which 92% (122) were supported and successfully prevented from spending a first night out on the street. I am now determined that Liverpool will be the first major city in the country to end rough sleeping.

This has put me at odds with the Government because we are ignoring their ‘no recourse to public funds’ rule. Any rough sleeper in my city will get help. No exceptions. No bureaucracy. We are simply ignoring this heartless and unworkable diktat.

Ministers can go and whistle. As far as I am concerned, it is utterly immoral not to do everything I possibly can to provide my fellow human beings with some basic dignity and protection. Especially at Christmas.

If ministers have a problem with that, then they know where I am.”

You can read the full blog here.

It is unbelievable that, a time of record homelessness, over 11,000 homes have stood empty for over ten years.

The data, collected by the Liberal Democrats through freedom of information requests to about 275 councils, showed 60,000 properties had been empty for two years or more, 23,000 for five years or more, and over 11,000 have stood empty for at least 10 years. The areas that responded with the largest number of homes empty for six months or more were Durham with 6,500, Leeds with 5,724, Bradford with 4,144, Cornwall with 3,273 and Liverpool with 3,093.

Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, told the Guardian: “At a time when the homelessness crisis is worsening and more and more people are sleeping out in the cold on our streets, it is a national scandal that thousands of homes across the country are sitting empty.”

The research also showed that just one in 13 councils are making use of empty dwelling management orders (EDMO) – the powers that can be used by local authorities to take over properties that have been empty for at least six months. Only 19 of the 247 councils in England and Wales that responded had used an EDMO in the past five years. Of these, only six had used one in the past year. In total, councils returned about 23,000 empty homes back into use, including through direct action and the work of empty home teams.

The government announced at the budget that it would try to encourage owners of empty homes to bring their properties back into use by allowing local authorities to increase the council tax premium from 50% to 100%. However, the charity Empty Homes said at the time that the council tax increase would do little to deter those buying properties as investment as “for a very wealthy buyer spending millions, 100% council tax is not really enough of a disincentive”. The charity said it would be more helpful if the government carried out a review into why overseas buyers kept their properties empty.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “We’ve given councils a range of powers to bring empty homes back into use and the number of empty homes is down a third since 2010 to its lowest since records began. At the same time, we’re implementing the major changes to law and investing over £1bn to 2020 to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.”

After the Grenfell fire, data accidentally released by Kensington & Chelsea council revealed a string of oligarchs, foreign royalty and multimillionaire businesspeople as the owners of vacant properties in the borough where the deadly disaster left scores of people homeless. Owners of the 1,652 properties listed as unoccupied by Kensington and Chelsea council included a Ukrainian billionaire fighting extradition to the US, a former mayor of New York, a high-profile luxury property developer and a senior television executive.