Make room for homeless people in society

Charles Fraser is chief executive of St Mungo’s.

Is society big enough for homeless people?  That’s the question we’re asking as the focus for this year’s St Mungo’s Action Week.

Our homeless clients at St Mungo’s very much embrace the idea of volunteering, giving something back.

In a new report we’ve published ‘Enough Room: is society big enough for homeless people?’, 70% of clients surveyed wanted to volunteer to “give something back to their local community” or to “help other people.”

I know of one of our residents, for example, who walks a dog for a local neighbour. Other St Mungo’s homeless clients give up their time to help create and maintain community gardens. Another has helped 46 of his peers complete a course to start using the internet.

But they are very sceptical about the Government’s ‘Big Society’. We interviewed 20 clients as part of peer research for the report and all of those interviewed thought the Big Society would have a negative effect on them inextricably linked with cuts.

They, like ourselves and other sector leaders interviewed for the report, are concerned about the tension between the small society of localism and the Government’s Big Society approach

Take funding, for example. Over the years, homelessness charities have been pretty successful at making the case that services for homelessness people should be funded by the state rather than only from charitable sources, and consequently many homelessness services are now heavily reliant on the state for funding.

Yet our report suggests that private philanthropy will not pick up the slack if the state withdraws from its key funding role.

Equally, how will local authorities balance their duty of care to homeless people with other priorities? Crucially, how will local leaders ensure that what is strengthened in neighbourhoods is tolerance, not intolerance?

What’s needed is not a vaccum but a determined lead from Government and a commitment with some muscle to prioritise deeply disadvantaged people, and for that to follow through at local level. If people felt their input would make a critical difference, then I believe we would see communities taking a compassionate responsibility for everyone in their midst.

As the Government’s cross ministerial working group on tackling homelessness publishes its priorities, let’s hope for some really determined follow through. If not, there is a risk that homeless people will be even further excluded and, with homelessness rising, the consequences could take decades to repair.

Pledge your commitment to including homeless people in society.