Homeless People

[SSD]

I'm creating a radio documentary for my college course on investigating homelessness in Manchester and what is being done to tackle the increase in young people on the streets. Just wondering what people's thoughts were on the issue, has it got worse in your area? I know when I've come back to Derby the problem seems to be increasing and it's not just the stereotypical old homeless man who smells of his own urine.

 

Cheers all   

[LesterRam]

We have more homeless people for sure, I would say ex forces (PTSD) and drug related conditions causing them to drop off the radar, good news though because all Syrian refugees are safely in accommodation and according to internal emails we have budgeted £25k per person, per year until 70/65 years old, no work worries for them sweeties.

[McRainy]

You’re never more than two pay cheques away from the street; it could happen to anyone, and the demographic is certainly expanding beyond the traditional homeless with mental health or addiction problems. 

The figures have increased drastically under Tory austerity; needless to say, that is the cause, not immigration. 

[Stive Pesley]

Manchester was noticeably much worse for the amount of homeless the last time I went. Derby had had well publicised (the DET seem to love it for some reason) problems with Mamba/Spice addicts on the streets. But when you speak to friends from other cities  -everywhere is the same. Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry, Leeds. It's becoming endemic in city centres

It's easy to judge, but I have to agree with Lambchop that these are the people being most badly let down by the austerity agenda

The problem is that once you fall into the trap, be it through poverty, mental health issues, addiction, eviction, family breakdown whatever - there is no longer the same level of support out there to help you escape your situation, and it spirals very quickly

[bcnram]

1 hour ago, LesterRam said:

We have more homeless people for sure, I would say ex forces (PTSD) and drug related conditions causing them to drop off the radar, good news though because all Syrian refugees are safely in accommodation and according to internal emails we have budgeted £25k per person, per year until 70/65 years old, no work worries for them sweeties.

You are all heart :-) is the alternative to keep them in Syria while Bashar al-Assad, Russia, IS, USA, UK and any number of others bomb the crap out of them? Non of that is self inflicted, whereas the junkies, drunks and idle have plenty of choice. RE: your Russian brain surgeon tale, if he can't find a better job than processing my 5 new t-shirts order, I don't think I would want him dabbling in my grey matter.

[bcnram]

4 minutes ago, Lambchop said:

And yet some will say these people have come to steal our jobs!

Eight years of cuts have brought the country to breaking point. It’s got to stop. 

They certainly don't steal jobs, they are in the main happy to get stuck in and work. I agree that it is time for austerity measures to be curtailed, but we cannot go back to the ridiculous over-spending that we had before.

[LesterRam]

46 minutes ago, StivePesley said:

How do they get away with paying below minimum wage?

https://www.gov.uk/apprenticeships-guide/pay-and-conditions

[McRainy]

40 minutes ago, bcnram said:

we cannot go back to the ridiculous over-spending that we had before.

Even George Osborn knows that’s ********. 

[alexxxxx]

ah, somehow the working immigrants and refugees get blamed for there being homeless 

manchester city centre is particularly bad. they used to have a camp by the macdonald hotel near Piccadilly station. big drug problem too. i imagine some of them have been homeless for years so would be interesting to know what help/support theyve been ffered over the years.

[Cisse]

On my visits there I have talked with many homeless people and what strikes me so odd is the way they have become homeless.

Here in Finland it's mostly due to alcohol, drugs and mental illness that makes you homeless. Although it has started to change so that other people are in danger too.

However I have been surprised that in Britain there are kids that are thrown out from their homes by their parents at 15-16. I find that unbelievable. Several people have just lost their jobs, some of them due to an injury.

It's strange how easily you can become homeless there.

[Coneheadjohn]

7 hours ago, SouthStandDan said:

I'm creating a radio documentary for my college course on investigating homelessness in Manchester and what is being done to tackle the increase in young people on the streets. Just wondering what people's thoughts were on the issue, has it got worse in your area? I know when I've come back to Derby the problem seems to be increasing and it's not just the stereotypical old homeless man who smells of his own urine.

 

Cheers all   

We went out in Manchester in January,first time I had been their in 25 years and I was shocked,small groups of tents everywhere.

Made us really sad,someone’s doing something wrong.

Sheffield has problems but is a million miles from that.

[Phoenix]

I'm struggling to find the correlation between Tory austerity and mental illness, drug, and alcohol addiction.

[GboroRam]

2 hours ago, Phoenix said:

I'm struggling to find the correlation between Tory austerity and mental illness, drug, and alcohol addiction.

Support services. Cuts in public spending. 

[Gritstone Ram]

8 hours ago, Cisse said:

On my visits there I have talked with many homeless people and what strikes me so odd is the way they have become homeless.

Here in Finland it's mostly due to alcohol, drugs and mental illness that makes you homeless. Although it has started to change so that other people are in danger too.

However I have been surprised that in Britain there are kids that are thrown out from their homes by their parents at 15-16. I find that unbelievable. Several people have just lost their jobs, some of them due to an injury.

It's strange how easily you can become homeless there.

You make it sound like the kids have turned 15 - 16 and the parents have said right pack your bags. I suspect in most cases that is not the case. A lot of 15 - 16 year olds seem to think that when they get to that age the house rules don't count anymore and they get this adolescent attitude that they think they know best and have been there and done it. They also get into trouble with the police and get in with the wrong crowd. Some get involved with petty crime and drugs. 

All this while treating the house like a doss hole or hotel.  Most parents are at there whits end and don't know what to do until the day come where they give the child the ultimatum that they change their ways or go. That is how a lot end up out of home.

[Boycie]

53 minutes ago, Gritters said:

You make it sound like the kids have turned 15 - 16 and the parents have said right pack your bags. I suspect in most cases that is not the case. A lot of 15 - 16 year olds seem to think that when they get to that age the house rules don't count anymore and they get this adolescent attitude that they think they know best and have been there and done it. They also get into trouble with the police and get in with the wrong crowd. Some get involved with petty crime and drugs. 

All this while treating the house like a doss hole or hotel.  Most parents are at there whits end and don't know what to do until the day come where they give the child the ultimatum that they change their ways or go. That is how a lot end up out of home.

Oh man, I can relate to this at the moment.

[Ghost of Clough]

2 hours ago, Boycie said:

Oh man, I can relate to this at the moment.

Your parents have given you an ultimatum?

[Anag Ram]

Here in Bristol the situation has become noticeably worse since Christmas. 

We did a lot of work with a homeless charity last year and many of the homeless were living lives like you or I then events (chiefly  relationship breakdowns) led to a downward spiral. 

There are also too many mental health cases on the streets who should be receiving help elsewhere. 

[Cisse]

I'm aware of the kids having a fault of their own but I talked with a couple of kids that were thrown out because their parents were not quite what you would expect. I asked them about social services helping them out but they thought that social services were so swamped that there was no help for  them.

That's just sad.

[LesterRam]

I can now show you the misuse of the £3.70 (previously £3.50) apprenticeship wage I was referring to:

Firstly I would like to apologise to @StivePesley for having the post removed from the thread, under the guidance of my missus and she also asked me to remove it because of fear for her job (hope you understand).

Fast food giants, coffee shops and retailers are relabelling low-skilled jobs as apprenticeships and gaining subsidies for training, a report says.

The study by centre-right think tank Reform says many firms have rebranded existing roles after being obliged to contribute cash to on-the-job training.

It adds that 40% of government-approved apprenticeship standards do not meet a traditional definition of them.

The government says "quality" is at the heart of its apprenticeship reforms.

As part of the changes, it introduced an apprenticeship levy on organisations paying more than £3m in salaries a year.

They have to pay 0.5% of their wages total into a "digital account" held by HMRC.

They then "spend" these contributions on apprenticeship training delivered by registered providers. They can also get back up to 90% of the cost of training.

Thank you the beeb and especially Hannah 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43739963

[Stive Pesley]

1 hour ago, LesterRam said:

I can now show you the misuse of the £3.70 (previously £3.50) apprenticeship wage I was referring to:

Firstly I would like to apologise to @StivePesley for having the post removed from the thread, under the guidance of my missus and she also asked me to remove it because of fear for her job (hope you understand).

Fast food giants, coffee shops and retailers are relabelling low-skilled jobs as apprenticeships and gaining subsidies for training, a report says.

The study by centre-right think tank Reform says many firms have rebranded existing roles after being obliged to contribute cash to on-the-job training.

It adds that 40% of government-approved apprenticeship standards do not meet a traditional definition of them.

The government says "quality" is at the heart of its apprenticeship reforms.

As part of the changes, it introduced an apprenticeship levy on organisations paying more than £3m in salaries a year.

They have to pay 0.5% of their wages total into a "digital account" held by HMRC.

They then "spend" these contributions on apprenticeship training delivered by registered providers. They can also get back up to 90% of the cost of training.

Thank you the beeb and especially Hannah 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43739963

Cheers - I did suspect that might have been why it disappeared

None of this surprises me in the least - 20 years ago I was working in the agency that administered Adult & Youth Training schemes on behalf of the government. We were throwing money at companies to partake in training schemes, but really all a lot of the companies saw was a chance to subsidise employment costs. We had govt targets to hit so we weren't about to turn down any company that wanted to partake (and the audits were always done against the "good" companies)

I suppose what confused me in your original post was that you seemed to be blaming immigrants for it?