IS IT TIME FOR the UK to follow the example of the authorities in Brussels and open emergency shelters for the homeless during periods of extreme cold?
The press has recently been warning of the coming spell of extreme cold weather – but it’s not airing much about the human consequences of the Siberian winds sweeping the UK. For the homeless, those human consequences could easily be death.
The city authorities in Brussels have responded to extreme cold with extreme measures. The city is due to see temperatures plummeting to -10C over the next week. Not only are they opening emergency shelters, they are using the police to move the homeless into them.
There is no choice for the homeless in Brussels: if they do not move voluntarily into the shelters, they will be arrested. There are human rights in Belgium – but that does not include the right to die on the streets from hypothermia.
Homelessness became a live political issue in the UK in 1966, after a documentary film was shown on TV. Cathy Come Home, directed by Ken Loach, told the story of a young woman who lost her home and spiralled down into destitution.
The film had a tremendous, instant impact on the public – not least because, in the film, the authorities took Cathy’s children away rather than offer support to keep the family together. The state would fund a children’s home for the children, but not a family home for them all – which would have been much cheaper.
The public reaction to the film led directly to the formation of Crisis at Christmas, a charity which tried to offer help, not contempt, to the homeless. It began its work raising money in the East End and in 1971, five years after Cathy Come Home was broadcast, it came up with a great innovation: opening shelters for those homeless over Christmas.
The homeless could sleep in the seasonal shelters, usually for a fortnight, and would be offered food, showers, clothing and access to healthcare. It was a great charitable gesture to make over the Christmas period – but what would happen to the homeless the other 50 weeks of the year?
Incredibly it took until 1987 for Crisis to begin opening shelters all year round. Since then, Crisis has been highlighting issues to do with homelessness – particularly the single homeless – and sheltering those who fall through the state security net and trying to get them on their feet again.
To date, Crisis – and other homeless charities and campaigners – have concentrated on offering entitlement and support on a voluntary basis. Should we now be copying the Brussels model and, as the Siberian weather sweeps in, be taking people off the streets?
The UK has a long (almost uninterrupted) tradition of refusing to detain people without charging them and putting them on trial – so how can we “arrest” the homeless? On the other hand, how can we defend the right to die from hypothermia?
It is probably the case that those who work for the police would rather be taking live homeless people off to the shelter – or even to the cells – than picking up bodies and taking them to the hospital mortuary. Even more important, just as homeless people welcomed the Christmas shelters when they were first opened, many might welcome the opening of Cold Weather Shelters.
Enforcement is a difficult question. An even harder one is why countries like the UK and Brussels have homeless people living on the city streets in the first place.
•Read more about it: Corbyn pledges to house the homeless New year but same issues for London’s homeless
[Adverts]