Austerity Street: on the frontline fighting homelessnesses
“Recovery is possible.”
Sometimes, in our darkest hours, when a twist of fate has knocked-us into a world of perdition, its hard to believe. But here in Midland Heart’s base, The Snowhill, a stone’s throw from St Chads Cathedral, there’s plenty of good folk who’ve found a port in the storm, a new home, a sense of family and a new foundation on which to rebuild a life.
Midland Heart is one of the largest housing associations in the midlands and here in the centre of Britain’s second city, its tall building rises over a welcoming foyer, full of light and space, comfy leather sofas and friendly faces. I know it well. This is the headquarters for the rough sleeper count I help with every year.
I’m here to meet John Edwards, Chair of their Board of Directors, and Joe Reeves, Executive Director of Strategy and Growth who sit down with me to explain some of the issues they are facing.
The looming scale of housing need is vast. John and Joe can both describe the plight of people stuck in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation, rather than real homes where they have stability, privacy, and the basic appliances to cook and clean. Without those basic necessities, families are often unable to move on to private housing.
Yet we know how to make change happen. I’m shown around the mixed community they operate. People can stay in one of their two buildings here. One building is 16 to 21-year-olds. The other is 21+. The people who come through come from all walks of life. The units are simple: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, but much better than the cramped bed and breakfast rooms many families are stuck in before coming here.
Once soon a time, the land around here was last of the Colmore family’s giant estate, which began to carve up its fields in the 18th century. Next door was once Mayer Glassworks — the first in Birmingham, and cheek by jowl was the old Snow Hill station, once the Great Western Railway’s mighty terminus which opened in 1852.
Founded almost a hundred years ago, Midland Heart helps people at all stages of need, from fleeing extreme circumstances to gearing up to living fully independently. Their mission is to blend housing, care, and health to support individuals to live with dignity and independence in their own home.
But because demand so drastically outstrips availability, Midland Heart want a purpose-built facility. They feel we need to do more to provide a pathway for people to move out of homelessness.
“Most stuff is built for single people. But what’s there for families?”
People would be there between six months and a year before moving into general accommodation.
We need to recognise homelessness is not just about individuals. Families require two- or three-bedroom homes, which are self-contained, with their own bathroom and utilities. There are hundreds of families in dire conditions: children crowded into rooms with their parents, unable to do homework. That is something affecting adults too — it’s difficult enough to get an education as an adult, but these conditions severely limit their ability to study, which hinders them from moving on to general accommodation outside of this sector.
This is critical too for women fleeing domestic violence. There are situations when abused families can be put in temporary accommodation — with their abusers. If it isn’t that, it’s all victims all being placed in the same housing block, meaning if you know where one victim is, you know where they all will be, and abusers can easily track victims down. Continuing to live in a constant state of anxiety is clearly not acceptable.
To address this, we need dispersed properties so no one can know exactly where a victim may have fled to. Midland Heart can do this, but they will need money. Funding from the council is now 54% of what it was four years ago, as a result of central government cuts to its budget.
Nonetheless, they are still able to provide a vital life-saving service. Midland Heart has 33,000 homes and 70,000 customers across 55 local authority areas. They also deliver care and support services to 7,000 customers helping people to lead happy and independent lives. They charge tenants a low rate for those on benefits, and then means-test those in work, which provides a pathway that can save even those in the most extreme circumstances. They speak of people here who have fled torture in a previous country, who Midland Heart rehoused for six months, and now they’re living independently.
Before I leave, one of the workers says to me, “It’s about a firm foundation. Recovery is possible.”
