Lizzie Beck
It might take a minute for this to sink in.
The latest statistics from a report carried out by homelessness charity Shelter reveal one in 64 are homeless in Hastings. Both shocking yet oddly unsurprising, these figures lay out in black and white the genuine crisis hitting our town.
The cause for the shortage in housing and the rise in need has been covered fairly extensively by our local press, but this time there is at least some good news.
In April Hastings is set to receive around £4.8m from a series of grants to tackle homelessness. Sounds sizeable. £2.23m will come from the largest funding pot, the Homelessness Prevention Grant, with a further £2.6m related to the Rough Sleeping Initiative.This breaks down as £1.87m in a Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, £332,120 for the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme, and £399,002 in a Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant.
A spokesperson from Hastings Borough Council said: “We welcome the additional funding for next year of around £800,000 for our Homelessness Prevention Grant, and extra funding to support the county-wide rough sleeping initiative that we lead on. It will be very helpful in contributing to the huge cost of private temporary accommodation and helping fund more preventative services.”
But head of housing, Chris Hancock told HOT that of the Homelessness Prevention Grant, no more than 51% can actually be spent on paying for temporary accommodation. The somewhat cryptically deemed ‘staffing costs and prevention activity’ will receive the remainder. It is unclear whether these cuts come under the county council guillotine of the grants entirety. It’s also worth emphasising that the rough sleeping grants are actually to benefit all the East Sussex local authorities, not just Hastings.
And to add further insult to our very injured parties, East Sussex County Council is to axe 88% of its countywide floating housing support contract and 100% of funding to two supported housing services within Hastings – Bal Edmund, in Upper Church Road, St Leonards, and Priory Avenue, both run by Sanctuary Supported Living.
The services set to miss out work closely with Hastings Borough Council to avoid homelessness. Last year they prevented 240 households in Hastings from becoming homeless, and the supported accommodation we are set to lose currently houses 31 Hastings residents.
Without these services, it could cost Hastings Borough Council £15m in additional temporary accommodation costs over four years.
The grant figures don’t look so appealing now.
Cllr Julia Hilton, leader of the council, said: “This decision is particularly shocking as it is contrary to over 80% of the 1425 consultation responses sent to ESCC and to the county council’s own Equality Impact Assessment (EIA). The people most affected by this decision will be those who are facing the most barriers to finding and securing housing and will lead to more evictions and more people being pushed into rough sleeping.
“Ultimately the added costs created will need to be paid for by East Sussex Council taxpayers and will lead to increased suffering by vulnerable people. Conversations around proposed Local Government Reorganisation means these future costs will be faced by one single council in the future with responsibilities for both housing and social care, which makes the proposals even more short-sighted. We understand and empathise with the financial plight the county council is facing, however the answer is not to seek short-term savings, which simply create far more cost in future years. We heard this morning that Brighton Housing Trust and the boroughs and districts have a mere 34 days before the contract is ended to come up with an alternative solution. This decision is not based on proper long-term decision making and makes no economic sense.”
Nothing is ever straightforward, is it?
Closer to home the figures aren’t clear either. According to The Seaview Project, there are only 30 people registered as homeless in the town. For me, just finding the homeless verification process online was a herculean task. Never mind having to complete it and jump all the necessary hurdles (usually involving providing documentation I/you/we/they simply don’t have) to complete the (often online) forms, all while living on the streets. It is only by being verified that the council has any obligation to provide accommodation, and to do so quickly. And verification itself involves more conditions than can be mentioned here.
So what happens to the nearly countless others? The Severe Weather Emergency Protocol ( SWEP), puts forward a humanitarian (rather than a legal) obligation to councils to provide overnight accommodation when the temperature drops to zero, there are high winds, or if any severe weather warnings are in place.
Currently Gizmos, the base for Warming Up the Homeless (WUTH) in Hastings, is providing that space. Only during SWEP will the council offer funding for this. And it’s set at £500. So regardless of the true cost of opening, heating, providing warmth, food, clothing, bedding, security and a truly impressive support system, Gizmos will be open during these times. For now, they can only offer sleeping space during SWEP, but tell me they have much wider plans for a larger, more permanent base, offering even more types of support.
It’s not surprising that the building has now run out of space. Other than the basics of food and warmth, the level of knowledge and expertise at Gizmos is unrivalled. “The staff are all trauma-trained”, a staff member told me. “We have mental health support, addiction support, support for those who’ve been abused, help to begin to find work or training as well as a home”. In other words, they work truly holistically; the only way to treat anyone, and the only way to tackle this epidemic.
And talking of epidemics. During COVID every homeless person was whisked off the streets and as if by magic, accommodation was found for each and every one. I’ve never bought into the tired idea that there’s only a limited pot of government cash, often spouted by politicians and certain members of the public – interestingly only when it is suggested it is used on the most vulnerable groups in society. This pot becomes bottomless once we talk military, bonuses, high speed railways anyone? One in 64 is a national emergency and I wonder just how far this grant money can stretch.
Looking at why homelessness so quickly resumed or worsened post-covid, a witness to a 2024 government inquiry on homelessness suggested the problem comes from systemic challenges, including a shortage of affordable housing supply and economic pressures such as cost of living rises and ‘significant’ increases in private sector rents. Are any of our ruling parties capable of resolving those “challenges”?
Having no home is a long-term crisis, certainly not one just for Christmas, or Covid. Under SWEP, a temperature of zero gets you a bed. A temperature of one then there’s no room at the inn. And if the sun shows its face for a second, it’s a lifestyle choice.
In other towns at least seven churches open their doors, one night each, every week, to offer sanctuary and I’ve been surprised to discover it doesn’t happen here. Though it can’t be expected that volunteers opening these churches have the level of training found in Hastings and St Leonards’ charitable organisations (like WUTH or Seaview), and nor is it a permanent solution, it is something we can do to help right now.
Southend-on-Sea do it, the whole system run by church volunteers. All that is being offered is warmth and somewhere to sleep while it’s zero degrees. And here’s a radical thought: how about we raise it to one degree? Two anyone? Lady at the back? No?
I discussed the idea of year-round accommodation with someone unconnected with Gizmos or Seaview (or reality when I think about it). They answered with, “but then there’s no incentive for ‘them’ to get off the streets”. One of the rare occasions I was genuinely speechless. From experience, trust me – no incentive needed. There is nothing good about being homeless. Yet I fear this attitude may be widespread, sitting alongside, “don’t give ‘them’ any money, they’ll only spend it on drugs.” I ponder if it has ever occurred to this judgemental, ‘just say no’ brigade that sleeping in a concrete alley may, just may have something to do with that?
Filling your day when you are street homeless is an insanely demoralising task. You don’t go any lower, it’s the final rung, and people further up the ladder don’t need to judge and justify why they don’t help. Don’t worry, we already feel like shit and chances are agree with you.
Amid the chaos of homelessness some certainty is needed. Knowing you have a guaranteed four weeks, months etc of accommodation allows you to seek appropriate help, be more productive and not spend your day watching the thermometer. The stress of this uncertainty is inhumane.
The Seaview Project in St Leonards offers weekday food, support, and activities, and Surviving the Streets, the Rough Sleepers Initiative and Dom’s Food Mission to name a few, all do honourable and vital work. They shouldn’t have to. Finding food, making appointments on time, using a phone, getting a wash, are rights – not privileges – and are all near impossible when you’re cold, exhausted and skint.
In the 2019 Tory manifesto, we were promised homelessness would be ended by now. It seems worse than ever. That wasn’t a genuine goal, it was a slogan. It’s about time we were told when this crisis will truly end. Is the grant really enough? Where was it before? Why are the stats showing a rise in numbers and not a drop? And I wonder if the cash could have been better spent preventatively, and not on a country-wide Band-Aid.
Of course we know the answers. But homelessness is an emergency as COVID was. Help was available then, but never since. No-one would expect or want to be in a B&B all their life but while it’s cold, or perhaps on any day with a ‘Y’ in it, you’d rather be inside.
The cynic must ask why this unexpected pot that has busked a few pennies appears after the previous government’s commitment to ‘put an end to homelessness by 2024’ has spectacularly failed. No cash in December, cash injection April. Labour has been vocal about the homeless crisis they have inherited, proven it was impossible to meet the Tory deadline, then swooped in with a pot of cash to great applause.
But undeniably the news of funding offers a little hope. I’ll be watching. One person on our streets will always be too many. Having to turn people away on a freezing night is soul-destroying, and life-destroying for some.
So bring on April. Until then, let’s look at what can be done now, today – and tonight.
Links:
The full Shelter report.