Minister For Homelessness Has No Idea

Newly appointed Minister for Homelessness, Heather Wheeler, admits she doesn’t know why homelessness and rough sleeping has exploded since the Tories took over, but denies it has anything to do with welfare reforms and council cuts. On a visit to a housing project in Glasgow, Wheeler told The Guardian she remained “totally confident” she would […]

Rough Sleepers Evicted From Empty Building

Rough sleepers who have taken refuge in a disused building in central London face an uncertain future after a court approved their immediate eviction. Activists established the makeshift shelter in the four-storey Sofia House on Great Portland Street on March 1 as the so-called Beast from the East hit the UK. Dubbed the Sofia Solidarity Centre […]

New Start’s First For Talent Match

Our lovely friends over at New Start have announced that their Leyland Road Hostel will be taking part in the Merseyside Youth Association’s Talent Match Programme – one of the first hostels to take part in the project. Talent Match has a team of mentors throughout the Liverpool City Region who work closely with individuals […]

Arm The Homeless! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A candidate running for a place in the US Senate has come up with the brilliant idea of arming homeless people with pump-action shotguns in an effort to reduce crime. (No, we’re not making this up!) According to a report in the Guardian, Brian Ellison, from Michigan, says homeless people are “constantly victims of violent […]

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee!

The multibillion-pound coffee industry has the power to change lives all along the supply chain, from people sleeping rough in the UK to farmers in the tropics, says a report in The Independent. For the past two years, a not-for-profit company called Change Please has employed homeless people as baristas to sell fresh coffee across […]

“Comedian” Can’t Find Any Homeless Veterans

One-time ‘comedian’, Jim Davidson, has caused outrage after claiming he “couldn’t find any” homeless ex-soldiers in the UK while helping to close down a hostel set up for them. Mr Davidson – who is CEO of the charity Care after Combat – has insisted there are barely any veterans without a place to live in […]

Funding Slashed For Homeless Outreach

NHS bosses are being criticised for cutting the budget of a team of doctors and nurses who provide mental health care to one of Britain’s largest groups of homeless people. According to a report in The Guardian, Camden NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in north London is giving the Focus Homeless Outreach team £219,866 less […]

Corbyn Comments On Kingsway House

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has had his say on Signature Living’s controversial Kingsway House homeless shelter, according to a report in the Liverpool Echo. Speaking about the Kingsway House project, Mr Corbyn said: “Homelessness has increased every year under this Tory Government. As a society, we simply cannot carry on walking by on the other […]

Money For Housing Goes Unspent – Crisis, What Crisis?

Housing secretary, Sajid Javid, has admitted a total of £817m of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) budget is being sent back to the Treasury as his department had failed to spend the cash. In an ‘explanatory memo’, Javid, who had housing added to his communities and local government brief in January, said […]

Squatters Take Over Building To House The Homeless

A small group of activists has taken over a building in central London hoping to house, feed and support up to 200 homeless people who would otherwise be forced to sleep outside in freezing conditions. The handful of unpaid volunteers have dubbed the four-storey space the Sofia Solidarity Centre (SSC) and have appealed for donations […]