{"id":16495,"date":"2018-10-10T18:15:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T17:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16495"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:10","slug":"homeless-deaths-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16495","title":{"rendered":"‘National emergency’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least 450 homeless people in the UK have died on the streets or in temporary housing over the past 12 months, according to an investigation that exposes the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnational emergency\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of homelessness.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), which conducted the research, said the true numbers are likely to much higher because no official figures are kept for homelessness deaths.<\/p>\n

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\nCommenting on the investigation, the publication of which coincides with World Homeless Day today (October 10), Unite blamed austerity and the erosion of the social safety net for exploding rates of homelessness.<\/p>\n

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\nThe BIJ found that at least 449 homeless people died over the past year for various reasons including drug overdoses, violence and illness.<\/p>\n

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\nThe average age of the deceased was 53 for women and 49 women, nearly 40 per cent lower than the average UK life expectancy of 82.<\/p>\n

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\nChief executive of the homeless charity Crisis, Jon Sparkes, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo learn of the sheer scale of those who have lost their lives in the past year is nothing short of horrifying. This is a wake-up call to see homelessness as a national emergency.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\nHead of Unite Community Liane Groves said rocketing homelessness was directly connected to the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 austerity policies.<\/p>\n

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\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe massive surge in rough sleeping did not arrive by accident \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s increased in lockstep with specific government policies such as changes to the benefits system and changes to Universal Credit,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Groves said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe lack of provision at shelters mean that at some hostels \u00e2\u20ac\u201c where violence and drugs are prevalent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c many who are homeless feel unsafe and would rather risk it on the streets.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile we welcome the great work that charities do, the gaps in the system cannot be funded by charities alone. State-backed provision \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a properly funded social safety net \u00e2\u20ac\u201c needs to be in place to stop people falling through the cracks and sleeping rough.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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At least 450 homeless people in the UK have died on the streets or in temporary housing over the past 12 months, according to an investigation that exposes the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnational emergency\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of homelessness.     The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), which conducted the research, said the true numbers are likely to much higher because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[179],"wps_subtitle":"At least 450 people in the UK died homeless last year","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25795,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495\/revisions\/25795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}