Crisis are right: criminalising homelessness creates more hardship for those already facing tough times. It doesn’t address reasons people face homelessness, or help positive change. It only traps people further into the system. We’ve seen this happen for people we support. The reasons people experience homelessness are complex, and usually follow a series of difficulties – which will just be made harder to resolve. A more compassionate and effective approach would be to properly fund homelessness services that offer immediate, and ongoing, support . We can’t have a society with so many cracks in it, and then stigmatise and punish people when they fall in. It’s approaching the issue from the wrong direction. In the longer term we must create and protect funding streams ringfenced for opportunities and the futures of communities. This year, funding for homelessness services was increased in Wales. Before that, we wrote of the importance of doing this, and of the stories, hard work and differences made that we’ve seen within our own homelessness and crisis projects. You can read more about that here: https://lnkd.in/eP9A8tCv
The UK Government is under pressure to drop new laws that would criminalise homelessness in England and Wales. The Criminal Justice Bill could be debated in parliament in the next couple of weeks. We can win this - now is the time to apply the final pressure to make them scrap these cruel proposals. Email your MP ▶️ https://lnkd.in/eRAwp-qa
