Thousands to spend Xmas on the street

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Thousands to spend Xmas on the street

(Tuesday 23 December 2008)

by PAUL HASTE




BLEAK OUTLOOK: One in 10 people are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage.

HOUSING campaigners demanded a "huge expansion" of council home-building on Tuesday to stop Christmas after Christmas being blighted by homelessness.

They warned that soaring repossessions and evictions could send the number of homeless families spiralling in the new year.
As housing charity Crisis opened emergency shelters across London to provide hot meals and shelter to people facing the festive season on the streets, it found in a survey that many workers faced with mass unemployment also feared losing their home next year.
Almost one in 10 people are struggling to keep up with their mortgage or rent payments, with nearly a third of workers afraid that their home could be repossessed within three months of losing their job, Crisis revealed.
A stunning 61 per cent of people renting from private landlords also expected to be thrown out of their home soon after receiving a P45, figures which Crisis chief executive Leslie Morphy called a "stark warning for 2009.
"The economic downturn is hitting the poorest the hardest. Many are struggling to keep their homes and the situation will only be made worse as unemployment reaches two million at Christmas," she stressed.
UCATT leader Alan Ritchie slammed the government's "failed housing policies" for leaving 63,000 families homeless this Christmas.
He demanded widespread investment in building new council houses, adding: "Families are crying out for good-quality, low-density properties for rent at affordable prices."
Mr Ritchie pointed out that councils had built just 350 new homes last year, adding: "It remains crazy that local authorities, which have successfully built affordable homes, remain largely barred from building."
Labour MP Harry Cohen pointed out that, while the number of homeless remains high, "there are simply not enough houses being built.
"There needs to be a huge expansion in council housing, otherwise we will have this chronic problem of homelessness Christmas after Christmas," he argued.
Fellow Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn explained that most of the colossal £4 billion spent on housing benefit "goes straight to private landlords," adding: "The average cost of private rented accommodation is between two and four times that of social rented accommodation."
Mr Corbyn declared: "The amount of public money being poured into the private landlord system is ludicrous. Instead, it should be invested in rented housing for those in desperate housing need."
A Department of Communities and Local Government spokesman claimed that the government was "determined to give families real help in the current economic climate and do everything possible to help ensure repossession is always a last resort.
"We are buying up thousands of unsold homes off the open market to use as affordable housing," he said.
But UCATT countered that thousands of laid-off construction workers are sitting idle while the homeless line up for soup at charity shelters.
"These skilled building workers should be given work building council homes for rent," a spokesman said.

Contact Us
Copyright Morning Star, all rights reserved
published by the Peoples Press Printing Societ

This is all Engineered.

Its the NWO adgender, that is why people sit on the dole while others sit on the street.