This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/25/shelter-fifty-years-charity-homelessness-government
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Happy birthday, Shelter – sadly you are needed more than ever | Happy birthday, Shelter – sadly you are needed more than ever |
| (6 months later) | |
| Fifty years ago Shelter was founded, just weeks after the screening of Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home. That film shocked the nation to the core. Shelter’s haunting early photographs of slum conditions ensured that the housing crisis stayed at the forefront of national politics, with famous images of families exploited by racketeering landlords living in freezing squalor. | Fifty years ago Shelter was founded, just weeks after the screening of Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home. That film shocked the nation to the core. Shelter’s haunting early photographs of slum conditions ensured that the housing crisis stayed at the forefront of national politics, with famous images of families exploited by racketeering landlords living in freezing squalor. |
| The 1960s are celebrated for swinging, but in that decade there was a sudden burst of new campaigns and charities that re-shaped social consciousness, such as the Child Poverty Action Group. Many succeeded – on capital punishment, abortion, gay law reform. Shelter’s key legal victory was Labour’s 1977 Housing Act, which forced councils to accept responsibility for the homeless. The charity’s long-standing success has been in shining a light on the homelessness crisis going on behind closed doors, beyond visible bodies sleeping in the streets. Shelter’s arrival immediately sprouted over a hundred local groups, raising money for legal advice, supporting the desperate and confronting local councils. | The 1960s are celebrated for swinging, but in that decade there was a sudden burst of new campaigns and charities that re-shaped social consciousness, such as the Child Poverty Action Group. Many succeeded – on capital punishment, abortion, gay law reform. Shelter’s key legal victory was Labour’s 1977 Housing Act, which forced councils to accept responsibility for the homeless. The charity’s long-standing success has been in shining a light on the homelessness crisis going on behind closed doors, beyond visible bodies sleeping in the streets. Shelter’s arrival immediately sprouted over a hundred local groups, raising money for legal advice, supporting the desperate and confronting local councils. |
| This is not a happy birthday. This is the most wretched time to celebrate a 50-year housing campaign | This is not a happy birthday. This is the most wretched time to celebrate a 50-year housing campaign |
| The timeline Shelter publishes today, with many of those early photographs, is well worth looking at as a social history of the rise and fall of good and bad housing policy: good under Labour, terrible in the 1980s and 90s, weak under New Labour and catastrophically destructive under David Cameron and George Osborne. The last Conservative to do good was Harold Macmillan, who built up to 350,000 homes a year – most of which were council homes. In his early days, Cameron pretended to admire Macmillan with his photo on his desk – but what a contrast. | The timeline Shelter publishes today, with many of those early photographs, is well worth looking at as a social history of the rise and fall of good and bad housing policy: good under Labour, terrible in the 1980s and 90s, weak under New Labour and catastrophically destructive under David Cameron and George Osborne. The last Conservative to do good was Harold Macmillan, who built up to 350,000 homes a year – most of which were council homes. In his early days, Cameron pretended to admire Macmillan with his photo on his desk – but what a contrast. |
| This is not a happy birthday. This is the most wretched time to celebrate a 50-year housing campaign, though a good time to remember how much we need Shelter’s voice, its sharp research and practical support for the homeless. Today, new figures show that the number of people sleeping rough in England on any night has increased by 30% in the past year. You might have expected an austerity Conservative government to do little, but few predicted this government would set out deliberately to destroy social housing. In its demolition of the welfare state, cutting benefits, reducing the NHS to its lowest ever GDP share, squeezing social care and stripping out most council services, the Conservatives’ attack on housing has been the most tangible evidence of a policy to abolish prime functions of the state. | This is not a happy birthday. This is the most wretched time to celebrate a 50-year housing campaign, though a good time to remember how much we need Shelter’s voice, its sharp research and practical support for the homeless. Today, new figures show that the number of people sleeping rough in England on any night has increased by 30% in the past year. You might have expected an austerity Conservative government to do little, but few predicted this government would set out deliberately to destroy social housing. In its demolition of the welfare state, cutting benefits, reducing the NHS to its lowest ever GDP share, squeezing social care and stripping out most council services, the Conservatives’ attack on housing has been the most tangible evidence of a policy to abolish prime functions of the state. |
| What Margaret Thatcher started with the right to buy council homes has been accelerated. Some 40% of council homes sold are now in private landlords’ hands, rented out at multiples of council rent, a bill often picked up by housing benefit. The soaring housing benefit bill is held up as a sign that welfare is out of control – when the reason is lack of affordable social housing in an uncontrolled property boom. Forcing housing associations to sell off their homes comes with an obligation on councils to sell off their highest value properties to pay for it – a double whammy. | What Margaret Thatcher started with the right to buy council homes has been accelerated. Some 40% of council homes sold are now in private landlords’ hands, rented out at multiples of council rent, a bill often picked up by housing benefit. The soaring housing benefit bill is held up as a sign that welfare is out of control – when the reason is lack of affordable social housing in an uncontrolled property boom. Forcing housing associations to sell off their homes comes with an obligation on councils to sell off their highest value properties to pay for it – a double whammy. |
| The bedroom tax, and worse still the benefit cap, and pay-to-stay raised rents are shifting large numbers of families out their homes into insecure private renting, destined to move time and again as local prices rise, uprooting children from schools to faraway places. The new universal credit no longer pays housing benefit direct to landlords. As a result private landlords refuse to take in the low-paid who depend on the benefit. Housing associations report horrendous rent arrears among the first tranches of people put on to universal credit. The hit to their funds from forced sales and rent arrears means new social building is cancelled. | The bedroom tax, and worse still the benefit cap, and pay-to-stay raised rents are shifting large numbers of families out their homes into insecure private renting, destined to move time and again as local prices rise, uprooting children from schools to faraway places. The new universal credit no longer pays housing benefit direct to landlords. As a result private landlords refuse to take in the low-paid who depend on the benefit. Housing associations report horrendous rent arrears among the first tranches of people put on to universal credit. The hit to their funds from forced sales and rent arrears means new social building is cancelled. |
| Meanwhile all building is at its lowest – see the Shelter site for all the graphs – so the housing crisis reaches right up the scale, no longer a poor slum-dwellers issue but affecting middle-income families, unable to find anywhere to live. At the end of the 1970s, 30% of people lived in secure social housing: this has fallen to 19% and is dropping fast, while private renting has soared to the same number. The number of those owning their own homes has fallen – yes, under a Tory government, from over 70% to just 63% and dropping. Subsidies to first-time buyers appear not to help, sending prices higher instead. | Meanwhile all building is at its lowest – see the Shelter site for all the graphs – so the housing crisis reaches right up the scale, no longer a poor slum-dwellers issue but affecting middle-income families, unable to find anywhere to live. At the end of the 1970s, 30% of people lived in secure social housing: this has fallen to 19% and is dropping fast, while private renting has soared to the same number. The number of those owning their own homes has fallen – yes, under a Tory government, from over 70% to just 63% and dropping. Subsidies to first-time buyers appear not to help, sending prices higher instead. |
| Where does this government expect people to live? Housing is now near the top of public concerns, but with no remedies in sight. The word “affordable” has been purloined to mean homes and rents that only high earners can afford, at 80% of market of prices. Recently I spent time in a court hearing eviction cases, with a Shelter lawyer the only last-minute help available. It was shocking to see so many prudent parents in work knocked down by benefit cuts and zero-hours income uncertainty facing the loss of their homes. As Shelter’s director, Campbell Robb, says: “With the double blow of soaring housing costs and cuts to welfare support, it can take just one thing, like an illness or cut in hours, to leave a family hurtling towards homelessness.” | Where does this government expect people to live? Housing is now near the top of public concerns, but with no remedies in sight. The word “affordable” has been purloined to mean homes and rents that only high earners can afford, at 80% of market of prices. Recently I spent time in a court hearing eviction cases, with a Shelter lawyer the only last-minute help available. It was shocking to see so many prudent parents in work knocked down by benefit cuts and zero-hours income uncertainty facing the loss of their homes. As Shelter’s director, Campbell Robb, says: “With the double blow of soaring housing costs and cuts to welfare support, it can take just one thing, like an illness or cut in hours, to leave a family hurtling towards homelessness.” |
| This is the great cause Labour should devote itself to. Less of Trident, and Venezuela, and instead shine a bright light on the ideological destruction of this crucial pillar of the welfare state. When William Beveridge created social security, he always said housing would not fit the system, because some third of the people would never be able to afford market rents. Unless millions were to be left in festering slums or on the streets, the state must subsidise housing, either through building social homes, or by housing benefit that amply covers the cost of private rent – a far more wasteful option. This government is destroying both – no social housing and benefits no longer covering private rents. | This is the great cause Labour should devote itself to. Less of Trident, and Venezuela, and instead shine a bright light on the ideological destruction of this crucial pillar of the welfare state. When William Beveridge created social security, he always said housing would not fit the system, because some third of the people would never be able to afford market rents. Unless millions were to be left in festering slums or on the streets, the state must subsidise housing, either through building social homes, or by housing benefit that amply covers the cost of private rent – a far more wasteful option. This government is destroying both – no social housing and benefits no longer covering private rents. |
| Happy birthday Shelter – sadly, you are needed more than ever. At a time when the government has little to fear from political opposition, only charities can check its unfettered power. They hold public trust and goodwill towards causes such as this. No wonder the government is trying to curb the power of charities to speak up. | Happy birthday Shelter – sadly, you are needed more than ever. At a time when the government has little to fear from political opposition, only charities can check its unfettered power. They hold public trust and goodwill towards causes such as this. No wonder the government is trying to curb the power of charities to speak up. |