Wishing to avoid an unsightly mess in time for the 2012 Olympics (please don't sue me), Ministers have unveiled plans to end homelessness in London. By the way: great to see Hartlepool's MP Iain Wright continuing his election-winning policy of being local, isn't it?
One such plan entails a 24-hour helpline to report concerns about homeless people
. Euh! Look, Terence—a homeless person! Quick! Call the helpline! …or hit her with our copy of the Daily Mail, or something…!
Also planned is assisting single people with deposits on rented property
. And, as I understand it, the government requires cohabitation before it recognises a relationship, so logically they will view all homeless people as single.
Last time I was unemployed, I claimed Jobseekers' Allowance and Housing Benefit. These totalled to around £85 per week, which was sufficient to pay for my rent, food, water and power bills, and even a few luxuries.
Are homeless people not eligible for these benefits?
If they are, deposit assistance should solve the immediate problem. Unless, of course, by “assistance” they mean:
Here! Have half!
But I can't afford the other hundred pounds—I have barely enough income from selling The Big Issue to eat.
Well, we tried! <cheesy shrug-to-camera, canned laughter>
Maybe make it illegal to discriminate against a job candidate on the basis of addresslessness too.
If homeless people aren't eligible for Jobseekers' and Housing Benefit—why the hell not? It seems to me that homelessness and joblessness are essentially the same issue, and that it should be well within the Job Centre's remit to address homelessness too.
But then, of course, I'm an ill-informed imbecile. Fixing the immediate problem of “being able to get a house” won't help everyone.