The Homeless in London

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Among the many problems which our society faces today, that of the homeless is surely one of the most tragic. Today we have with us in the studio Mrs. Mary Graham, director of a private charity here in London, who can explain some of the problems involved and what can be done about them. Mrs. Graham, what sort of people are the homeless?

Erm, all kinds really. People usually think of the homeless as scruffy and dirty, but that’s not the case at all. Some people have no home because they couldn’t afford to repay the bank loan and their home was taken away from them. Others can’t find a place to live because they haven’t got a job and can’t find a job because they haven’t got a permanent address. Then there are those who simply can’t face the responsibility of running a home, paying the bills, keeping it clean.

Are there more homeless men than women? Erm, generally yes. Men don’t... they don’t seem to be able to cope as well as women in certain situations. You know, if their marriages break up or if they’ve lived with an aged parent who dies, they can’t adapt to the newly acquired loneliness.

They often sell their homes and wander around the country from place to place. Sometimes they find friendship and comfort within the homeless community. They do tend to support each other. And are there more homeless in the town or in the country? There are some homeless in the country, but the majority are in towns, mainly big cities.

Here you can be more anonymous than in the country. And of course, the high cost of accommodation in cities forces people onto the streets. You know, even some young people who have jobs can’t afford the high rents and so they live on the streets. Really? But how can they hold down jobs if they sleep on the streets?

Difficult to believe, isn’t it? But they live on cheap fast food and go to public toilets to wash before going to work. At weekends, they spend their time in public places, like libraries. And they’ll be the last to leave the office at night. They appear to be keen to work, but really, they want to stay in a comfortable place for as long as possible.

Very sad. Is there any such thing as homeless children? Unfortunately, yes. You see, many landlords object to renting accommodation to families with children. To them, children are just noisy little people who can cause a lot of damage.

If the parents can’t afford a hotel or guest house, the children end up with them on the streets. A lot of people say that the answer is for the government to construct more accommodation, that is, cheap housing. Is it as simple as that? Well, certainly some form of government action is needed, but, well, the government seems to prefer private ownership to state-controlled housing. It’s true that a lack of available property causes higher rents and poor conditions.

And I think the government should act to limit rents and enforce higher standards in the rental sector. Hmm. Finally, may I ask what your charity does to help the homeless? Not as much as we’d like to, but, of course, our funds are limited by the contributions we receive, and not everyone can afford to be generous. We have some shelters where we, at the end of every day, we hand out a bite to eat, something warm and filling.

At least that’s one thing we can do for them on a daily basis.