Homelessness Sunday this year is on 31st January. Bill Risebero, Chair of CARIS Camden, reports on the work of the Community of Camden Churches Cold Weather Shelter (C4WS) and suggests how you might help them.
The What and Why of Homelessness
It is a sad reflection on one of the world`s richest societies that it cannot house all its people. Some 70,000 families in Britain are classed as homeless. They may have a roof over their heads, but no proper home. They are living in overcrowded or unfit dwellings, or sharing with another family, or trying to live their lives in hostels, or bed-and-breakfast hotels. The problem is a political one � not enough new housing, in the right place, at the right level of rent, is being built. Waiting lists for public sector housing are full, and diminish only very slowly.
Street Homelessness
But bad as this is, the people at the bottom of the scale of priority fare even worse. These are the `street homeless` – people, according to the definition, who have nowhere to go during the day, sitting in park shelters, or public libraries, or riding around on buses. There are many such people in London, the result of family breakdown, of bankruptcy, of mental illness when `care in the community` has failed, of recent release from the forces or prison, of failed asylum applications. There are not enough hostel spaces available, and those who cannot find a place end up as `rough sleepers`. Government statistics consistently underestimate their numbers, but the housing charities agree that most nights there may be as many as 1500 sleeping rough in London. This is where London`s church-based shelters can help.
How can we help?
C4WS is now in its sixth year. The scheme is bigger than before, and now covers December as well as January, February and March. Every night, one of a team of churches (there are currently ten Camden churches in the scheme) offers hospitality and fellowship, an evening meal, a warm bed for the night, and a hot breakfast, to as many as 14 street-homeless guests, both men and women. The guests may stay up to 28 days, and during that time, they are given help to move on to the next stage of their lives. This might involve getting identity papers, finding a job, or being placed in more permanent accommodation. As I write, in mid-December, we have sheltered 22 people since the beginning of the month and managed so far to re-settle seven of them.
Cutting back and cleaning up
The task for the homeless charities � not to say the homeless themselves – becomes more difficult all the time. The economic downturn has greatly reduced charitable giving, so we are having to look more widely (and competitively) for funds. Cuts in public spending are reducing the numbers of hostel bed-spaces. We are seeing more women and more young people among the street homeless, raising more complex questions of care. And we are seeing more people from the `A8` countries � the EU`s recent accession states � whose rights to benefit are very limited. The drive to `clean up` London`s streets by 2012 is not completely helpful either. As landlords anticipate the Olympics, property prices go up and more people become unhoused. Some local government policies become more draconian. In the City`s `Operation Poncho` shop doorways are hosed down to prevent rough sleeping. In the Lambeth `dispersal zones`, rough sleepers are moved out of a local area, only to reappear elsewhere. In Westminster, dispersal appears to be carried out in the few days immediately before an official street count, with the effect of minimizing the figures. And many local authorities now practice `gatekeeping`, which makes it more difficult for the homeless even to be defined as homeless in the first place.
Responding to change
C4WS tries to respond to these changes. We must be more than a shelter � it is important also to work with our guests to help them make practical plans for their lives, and this must e done despite the cost. But we have had to reduce our staff team � and though it has not altogether been a bad thing to spread some of their tasks among the volunteers, it nevertheless indicates an increasing trend towards relying on volunteers to do what the local state once did. So we are looking more widely for funds, approaching the commercial sector and individual donors as well as our more usual charitable trusts.
C4WS and the Church
And of course, as a church-based organization, we have a special relationship with local congregations. The churches involved in the shelter freely give their time and talents, and the project would not exist without them. Others, which cannot necessarily provide accommodation, including Hampstead Parish Church, and Christians Together in Hampstead, have been generous with funds. The Hampstead Wells Trust has generously taken over the supply of starter packs for newly housed guests. Local schools, including Hampstead Parochial and Camden School for Girls, have given much support. This is something we need to build on � if we are to survive.
There are some key ways in which you might be able to help.
Giving Money
On Homelessness Sunday, 31st January, you can give through our `Giving Tree` in the church. Any gift of money, at this or any time, can be gift-aided, raising an extra 28% in tax relief. Direct debits of even a small amount a month, similarly gift-aided, can give us a more stable income. C4WS can be made a beneficiary when wills and legacies are being drawn up.
You can contact our Treasurer, Tony Rouse, at 1 Nassington Road NW3 2TX, or at [email protected] about any of these.
Volunteering
If you would like to help the Shelter directly, you can be a Volunteer, say one night a week, for the evening or the breakfast shifts. Offering fellowship and practical help is integral to what we do, and you would receive support and training.
You can contact the Project Manager, Jamie Hall, at [email protected]
Being a friend of CARIS Camden
For �10 a year (preferably gift-aided) you can become a friend of CARIS Camden. You will receive a quarterly newsletter telling you about the shelter and other CARIS projects, and will be able to help to guide CARIS policy to the homeless, to young women and children, and to other needy beneficiaries in Camden.
You can contact Bill Risebero at [email protected]
Helping the Homeless
Bill Risebero