Does the UK Government Care About Homelessness?

Every citizen of the country they live in has great expectations that they set on their government. Those that live in the UK are no different. A looming and very serious problem is the homelessness. What adds to this concern is the approach the government is taking concerning it. At least that is what many people seem to think.

It is natural for people to be upset when they see people sleeping on the streets and there is an article here that shows that there doesn’t seem to be anything being done about it.

Rise in Homelessness

There have always been some people in the UK that have been homeless. Some have chosen this style of living. For whatever reasons they may have. Others were forced into the situation. But now the numbers of homelessness is growing rapidly. It is to the point that it is causing concerns among citizens who in the past didn’t pay much mind to it. Some of the statistics are showing that there may be as many as 4,100 individuals sleeping on the streets. Then added to this is the number of children in the homeless shelters that is estimated to be 120,000.

Contributing Factors

The consensus of some is that the UK government doesn’t seem to really be concerned about the homelessness. Some are saying that welfare reform implemented by the government is lending to the homeless problem. In fact, some say that the freeze on the benefits for housing is one of the major contributors to the increase in the number of homeless people.

Homelessness Reduction Act

The UK government appears to be aware of the growing unrest among the people. In regards to the way, they are handling the issues of homelessness. They bring to their defence the passing of the Homelessness Reduction Act. Part of this act involves putting more responsibility on counsel to deal with the problem. However, they were to be given money to help reduce the problem. The argument against this is there is no further input from the government. There is no monitoring the progress of the counsels. It doesn’t seem like the government is holding the counsels accountable. Therefore there is no follow up on how effective the Homelessness Reduction Act is or is going to be.

What is Labour Proposing

It is not unusual for the political group not in power to be critical of the sitting government. Labour is proposing that they take the homelessness issue in the UK seriously. They are indicating that they will tackle the rough sleeping issue to the point where they will eradicate it.

Overall there is no argument that the homelessness problem exists in the UK. The argument that arises is about who is going to do something about it.