In 2021, a famous international agency, UNICEF, stepped in to provide emergency food for students at a school in England. Why did this become necessary?
At the time, the UK government was providing emergency financial assistance to workers who were furloughed (laid off) during the pandemic. But it wasn’t enough to pay for housing AND to buy food to eat1. And so children were going hungry as the number of families needing food aid doubled.
Recently, another international agency, Amnesty International, has stepped in to evaluate conditions in the UK. Amnesty focusses on human rights. What’s at issue? Homelessness.
Amnesty investigated the programs and services that are offered to people who are homeless in the United Kingdom. It compared those programs and services with the nation’s commitments to international human rights, which were set down in 1948 in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights2. Amnesty International also talked with people who were homeless.
The findings of the investigation trace how the systems and services are making people homeless. Here’s one example. Children are taken in to state care because the parent does not have enough income to pay rent. The parent becomes homeless and seeks assistance. The parent is eligible for assistance only as a single person. As a single person, you can’t apply for housing for you AND your children.
Amnesty also notes that unless people have direct experience of homelessness, they aren’t aware of how system gaps contribute to and perpetuate homelessness.
Generally, people view homelessness as the result of personal choices or individual circumstances, for example using illegal substances or alcoholism. And yet, Amnesty reported that almost one in three adults are concerned that they will experience homelessness themselves in the next five years.
With help from professional footballers, UNICEF’s actions in 2021 pushed the UK government to extend school food programs3. Amnesty has no illusions that its report will push the government to adopt Housing First4 and the other program changes that are recommended. It did see the need to add its voice to people who are experiencing homelessness, who along with other organizations and groups, are faced with a system that simply isn’t ‘fit for purpose.’
You can read media coverage about the report in THE BIG ISSUE: Nearly 1 in 3 worried they could be homeless or sofa-surfing in the next 5 years and/or the Independent: Nearly one in three adults concerned about ending up homeless in next five years, says Amnesty
The full report is also available from Amnesty International: An Obstacle Course: Homelessness Assistance and the Right to Housing in England
Footnotes
- Read more in The Guardian: Jacob Rees-Mogg under fire for dismissing UNICEF’s UK grants as stunt
- The United Kingdom was one of the first nations to sign on.
- Try: UK Footballer Takes On Child Starvation: Could Affordable Housing Be Next?
- Housing First recognizes the fundamental significance of housing for individual health and well being. It is backed by a strong evidence base that the ability to move to permanent housing is fundamental to ending homelessness.
