Thursday 2 October 2014

Nation to Celebrate over 65s with Silver Sunday

On this week’s Thrift Urban Housing blog I will be discussing the over 65s event that will be taking place across the country by hosting activities for elderly people. Silver Sunday gives the elderly the chance to meet new people as well as revive a traditional sense of community by bringing people together through a variety of activities.

Thrift Urban Housing is a housing charity that supports less privileged people who are in need; people who are capable of taking care of themselves but need solid support in doing so.

Loneliness a Serious Problem for the Elderly

The Silver Sunday event was launched in 2012 by The Sir Simon Milton Foundation with the key incentive being loneliness among elderly people. A report into this issue revealed that over a third of people over the age of 75 felt they were lonely. Silver Sunday gives them the opportunity to leave their homes and brings back a sense of purpose that makes them feel like equal members of society again.

Actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley backs the event and has recently spoken out against the image of elderly people in Western society. “The Far East has a different attitude to old age entirely where the older you get, the more you’re respected and your opinions are sought. That doesn’t happen in this country.

This subject is something that is particularly close to home for Thrift Urban Housing. Their Befriending Scheme was set up specifically to deal with the issue of loneliness and perhaps more importantly, the vulnerability resulting from loneliness. One of their key initiatives is to help elderly people stay in their homes for as long as possible through the Stay Put scheme, but as a result loneliness can occur and so have an obligation to counter that through the Befriending Scheme.

Celebrities Back the Event       

As well as Joanna Lumley, other high profile figures like London Mayor Boris Johnson, Terry Wogan and Gloria Hunniford also lend their support. Furthermore, the Daily Express has the long running Respect for the Elderly campaign which strives for better treatment of the elderly people in society.


The Health and Social Care Information Centre has released data that shows a quarter of people who receive care still experience loneliness and lack social contact and acquaintances. Six per cent described feeling isolated from society. 22 per cent of elderly people receiving care and 27 per cent who were reliant on help said they lacked significant social interaction.        

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Pressure Increases on UK Homeless Charities as Demand Grows

On this week’s Thrift Urban Housing blogspot, I will be discussing the unprecedented rise in homelessness that has lead leading youth homeless charity Depaul UK to suggest a 300% increase in services would be required to meet the growing demand.

Thrift Urban Housing is a housing charity that supports less privileged people who are in need; people who are capable of taking care of themselves but need solid support in doing so.

Nightstop

On a previous Thrift Urban blog post I brought you the news that Cumbria County Council had approach Depaul to set up their innovative ‘Nightstop’ scheme in Cumbria. This scheme is an emergency accommodation service that enlisted volunteers to open their doors to homeless people for the night.

This perhaps emphasised the pressure and demand that Depaul were already under to stretch their services to other parts of the country where homelessness was not given as much attention as large cities or more urban areas.

Since the beginning of this scheme, Depaul have seen a significant increase in homeless people seeking their help. The demand for beds has soared by 300% in 12 months, meaning that the charity has been forced to turn away twice as many homeless people.

Demand Stretches Depaul

Depaul currently operates in just 25% of the country and over the past three month Nightstop North East found that it had to turn away 40 young homeless people just to lack of beds. Depaul has 46 volunteers in that region, but would need at least 65 to meet the current demand. In London, Depaul requires 5 hosts in every borough with a 100 minimum in the city overall. Currently, there are only 56 in the city.

With this in mind, Depaul may appeal to its hosts to accommodate young homeless people for more than the one night that is expected. Commenting on their predicament, Chief Executive of Depaul Martin Houghton-Brown said:

“Recent times have been tough on young people, with an estimated 80,000 becoming homeless or sleeping rough last year in the UK and demand for our services rising so fast we are having to turn young people away. This is forcing more and more to sleep in unsafe places, vulnerable to exploitation and harm.”


Wednesday 24 September 2014

Homeless Children in Alabama Public Schools Hits Record High

On this week’s Thrift Urban Housing Blog I will be discussing the news that record numbers of homeless children and youth were reported in Alabama public schools in 2012 – 13. Although Thrift Urban Housing is limited to the London area, I like to show a wider interest in news that relates to what Thrift Urban deal with.

68% Increase on Previous Year

The US Department of Education released data that shows a 68 per cent increase of homeless students enrolling for Alabama preschools and K-12 schools, the figure stands at 29,749. These figures highlight a growing problem with homeless students in US schools. 

The bigger pictures shows a staggering 1,258,182 students in 34 states are homeless. These states as well as Washington D.C. showed a yearly increase in the numbers of homeless students. Such was the increase in homelessness in Alabama that it actually overtook the rate of increase for the nation.

Children Not Recognised as Homeless

Perhaps one of the more concerning aspects that we have learned from this data is the fact that the US Department of Housing & Urban Development do not recognise 85 per cent of the Alabama children included in the data as being homeless. Instead it prioritises homeless single adults, which may go some distance to explain who the numbers have risen to such heights.

This means that only 13,979 of the 29,749 are eligible for educational assistance through their local schools, but that does not include HUD services such as shelter, temporary housing or assistance. It would seem then, that there is a significant problem with classification and definition of homelessness.

This is perhaps what drew my attention to this article. A homeless child is a homeless child regardless of a criteria or definition and that applies to any age group in fact. It is hard to believe that a developed Western nation as large as the US or the UK could have these problems. Where the privilege of education is lost on children whose emotional health and safety is damaged by homelessness.

Furthermore, the data only accounts for homeless children who have actually enrolled for schools, it does not account for those who haven’t or children who are younger than the age for enrolment, so the figures will likely be much higher than the data suggests.

Thrift Urban Housing

Thrift Urban Housing is a housing charity that supports less privileged people who are in need; people who are capable of taking care of themselves but need solid support in doing so.
These are the kind of situations that a charity like Thrift Urban Housing could really help with. 

If anything it outlines Thrift Urban’s mantra; to help people who can help themselves but need a push in the right direction. We can only assume that many of these homeless children have been let down by the people who should be protecting them, but they are not helpless.


Friday 19 September 2014

A Review of Thrift Urban Housing’s Proposed Fraud Scheme

In this week’s Thrift Urban Housing blog I will be taking a closer look at a new scheme that has been proposed by Thrift Urban Housing. This scheme aim to tackle the problem of fraud against elderly, vulnerable and disabled people who are scammed or tricked into giving up large sums of money to dodgy builders and contractors.

People who are familiar with Thrift Urban Housing may already know that they have several programmes in place already that aim to help people in need. The Building Handyman scheme is significant because it helps people find the right builder for their situation before any kind of fraud can occur.

However, it is not always plain sailing, some people fall victim to fraudsters because they do not have the knowledge of building and maintenance and are therefore taken advantage of. This is where the new Thrift Urban Housing fraud scheme comes into play. For those occasions where people overlook the Building Handyman programme, they may be able to limit the damage done through the proposed fraud scheme.

Not Enough Information Out There

As outlined on the Thrift Urban Housing blog post, there just isn’t enough information out there to help people who have been victims of fraud. It is believed that up to 99% of fraud victims do not know where to turn after becoming the target of fraudsters with many turning to the BBC consumer affairs programmes and other TV shows.

Perhaps the main hurdle Thrift Urban will face with this new scheme is promotion, that is to say, simply making people aware of its existence. The very reason that fraudsters target people in this situation is firstly, because they know the person lacks knowledge of the industry and will not question the price or quality of the job and second, they know that the target cannot do much to retaliate once the fraud is done.

What Thrift Urban Housing Can Do

Thrift Urban aim to provide the retaliatory option that has been desperately missed for too long by pursuing the offending party and retrieving the client’s money. This would be achieved through investigative work and civil claims through the courts that will be fought on behalf of the client. In many cases, fraudsters will have assets or savings that can be targeted for the client   


Thrift Urban acknowledge that the scheme is still in its early stages, but know that spreading the message to fraud victims in the London area that there is an option now available will hopefully provide peace of mind.       

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Is Homelessness Unfortunately Becoming Acceptable?

In light of recent claims on the perceptions of homelessness by an Irish housing charity, Thrift Urban Housing asks whether homelessness is becoming acceptable.

The Public Perception of Homelessness

As a housing charity, which seeks to help people who have the capability to help themselves with their housing needs, Thrift Urban Housing understands the public perception of homelessness. It’s not good.

Too often, the homeless are characterised as lazy, and this is why we need charities such as Thrift Urban Housing, to ensure that the homeless, who have usually just fallen on hard times, which can happen to anyone, get the help they need to get back on their feet.

The Normalisation of Homelessness

However, this perception shouldn't lead to the normalisation of homelessness, as was recently argued by Tony Geoghegan. He is the head of Ireland’s largest voluntary homeless and drug charity, Merchants Quay Ireland.

At the launch of Merchants Quay’s annual review of its services for 2013, Geoghegan suggested that homelessness has become an acceptable aspect of life in Ireland. Specifically, he said that "it has become or it seems to have become acceptable."

Homelessness in Dublin

Looking at the statistics, it seems that the Charity head has a point. Merchants Quay’s recent survey suggested that 150 people sleep rough in Dublin every night.

Furthermore, Merchants Quay revealed that last year, it provided 85,170 day and evening meals out to the homeless – this is an 11% rise.  Meanwhile, they recorded 4,467 instances where people living on the streets sought the help of a GP, nurse, dentist or counsellor through a charity. This is a 35% rise.

The Acceptance of Homelessness is Unacceptable


So is Geoghegan right, is homelessness becoming acceptable in Ireland and throughout the UK? That’s hard to measure. The numbers though, suggest that it is, and that, in Thrift Urban Housing’s opinion is distinctly unacceptable.