When Is A Local Connection Not A Local Connection?
A man has called for all those who are homeless in Wales to receive speedy help even if they do not fit into a priority group, reports the BBC.
John Williams, 52, became homeless in Weston-super-Mare, where he had been volunteering to help homeless people. It prompted him to return home to Swansea, where he thought he would be helped. But it took months to prove his “local connection” – a condition on getting help if you are homeless in the city.
As part of a series looking at the issues people in Wales would like to see tackled by politicians after the Senedd election, BBC News spoke to Mr Williams about the campaign: “My mum lived here in a nursing home, she’s lived here all her life, but it still took months and all that time I was living in shelters,” Mr Williams said. “It was hard, I didn’t know what to do, I was expecting to come back to where I was born, where my mum lives, and be put on the council list. I didn’t know which way to turn, it gave me a feeling of not belonging, like I was coming back as a newcomer and starting again.”
Mr Williams was then placed in a homeless hostel, before he finally had his connection confirmed with the help of charities and moved into a one-bed flat just before lockdown. He is now working as a Big Issue seller. Mr Williams said while he was supporting homeless people, he saw many struggle with the same “local connection” rule. “You just could not win,” he said.
Mr Williams is now supporting a campaign with the charity Crisis to pull people out of a “cycle of homelessness”. They want to see barriers removed so everyone can access support without having to meet sets of demands first. The charity says since 2015 one in eight people in Wales (9,261) who went to their local council for help to end their homelessness were unable to access further support, adding that the average age of death for people experiencing homelessness is 46 for men, and 43 for women.
The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 placed a legal duty on councils to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place and to help people out of it when it does and Crisis says the legislation has made a huge difference. But when efforts fail, it says, homelessness can be prolonged because a person must meet certain criteria before they are given support. People who fall into the priority category for help include those with dependants, a connection to a local area and whether they can prove they have not become homeless intentionally.
But there is renewed hope as a result of the emergency response to the pandemic that ending homelessness is possible across Wales, Crisis says, due to a Welsh Government directive which saw more than 7,000 rough sleepers provided with temporary accommodation and support. Campaigners want this to be built on further, leading to a law change to remove barriers so anyone facing homelessness in Wales can access support.
