Why Homelessness Is Rising Across The UK — Transcript

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1. 0:01For Malcolm Leonard, the path to
2. 0:02homelessness was gradual.
3. 0:05>> And what made me homeless in the first
4. 0:07place was gambling. I probably gambling
5. 0:10can I lost everything basically.
6. 0:12>> And what followed were years of living
7. 0:14in a tent outdoors all year round.
8. 0:17>> The biggest challenges was when I was
9. 0:19going back to me tent on a night.
10. 0:22Found it somebody's pinched it all
11. 0:25or slashed it all or burnt it the ground
12. 0:28which happened
13. 0:30about eight times when I was in South
14. 0:31Bank.
15. 0:33>> But aid groups say getting people into
16. 0:35stable housing in the English town of
17. 0:37Middlesbrough requires far more than
18. 0:40simply putting a roof over their head.
19. 0:42>> So the current safety net of the welfare
20. 0:45state and social care has some quite big
21. 0:47holes in it and so what we need is a
22. 0:48very fine weave safety net to stop
23. 0:50people falling through those holes and
24. 0:53then good quality affordable housing
25. 0:55that they can stay in.
26. 0:57>> Middlesbrough is just one example of a
27. 1:00place that's facing these kinds of
28. 1:02challenges here in England and that's in
29. 1:05part due to the deeply
30. 1:06disproportionately high levels of issues
31. 1:09such as
32. 1:11complex health conditions, addiction and
33. 1:14domestic abuse that make people here
34. 1:16vulnerable to homelessness.
35. 1:18>> At least 134,000
36. 1:20households are living in temporary
37. 1:22accommodation while more than 7 and a
38. 1:24half thousand people are sleeping rough
39. 1:27each month. But rough sleeping,
40. 1:29homelessness without accommodation is
41. 1:32just the most visible part. Behind the
42. 1:34figures lie housing shortages, rising
43. 1:37rents
44. 1:38and the cost of living. These pressures
45. 1:41can leave thousands of people at risk of
46. 1:43losing their homes
47. 1:45and the stability that comes with it.
48. 1:47Former Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston
49. 1:49says the answer lies in changing how
50. 1:51public money in England is spent.
51. 1:54>> Right now we We over 4 billion quid a
52. 1:57year on emergency hostels, beat crummy
53. 2:00B&B's, and dreadful flats above shops.
54. 2:04These are terrible. They bring people
55. 2:05down. They don't solve the problem. They
56. 2:07just manage it temporarily. And what we
57. 2:09need to do is use that money every year
58. 2:11to build
59. 2:13simple but very decent modular
60. 2:16accommodation that can be erected
61. 2:18quickly across every borough. We can do
62. 2:20that.
63. 2:21>> Ending rough sleeping was one of Andy
64. 2:23Burnham's first pledges as Prime
65. 2:25Minister.
66. 2:27But as places like Middlesbrough show,
67. 2:30that will mean confronting the causes
68. 2:32that lead people there in the first
69. 2:34place. Soledad Gallego, Al Jazeera,
70. 2:37Middlesbrough, UK.