Migrants from new EU states increase London homeless tally

• UK capital's homeless now 4,000, from 2,500 three years ago
• Growth in new rough sleepers attributed to economic tailspin

 

Rough sleeping in central London. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

Almost a quarter of London's rough sleepers are from new EU states, a trend exacerbated by rising unemployment that is reversing a decline in homelessness in the capital, a report says .

Most of those sleeping on the streets come for a better life but many find limited opportunities, and, in some cases, become destitute. While the number of homeless British nationals in the capital has stabilised at about 2,500, citizens of the 10 central and eastern European states account for hundreds more added to the most authoritative tally of rough sleepers. The database Chain, or Combined Homeless and Information Network, which is maintained by Broadway, a homeless charity, tomorrow publishes figures showing that London ‑ the location of more than half of the country's rough sleepers ‑ has almost 4,000 homeless people, a figure up from the 2,500 listed three years ago.

The biggest single factor contributing to growth in the newly homeless is the tiny fraction of 1.5 million migrants who came in search of work from the EU's new border regions but who ended up on the streets as the economy went into a tailspin.

These people are often left to fend for themselves; unless they have worked full-time for a year, migrants from former eastern bloc countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have no right to public funds and only limited access to services. The outcome is often isolation and homelessness.

British charities say that while the tide of largescale migration from eastern Europe has largely reversed, many people are staying on thinking there is a only a limited safety net in their own country.

This assertion has been denied by Krzysztof Lisek, a Polish MEP who has helped homeless Poles in the UK. He said that if it were a question of social security then "the migrants would probably choose the Nordic countries".

Last week during a series of interviews in London where homeless people queued for breakfast provided by charities, many of those on the streets shrugged off the hardships. Most sleep outside, often on church steps. They scavenge at markets because "so much good food is thrown away", and their days are spent traipsing between shelters or begging; an hour seems to yield a less than a pound.

"You can buy a baguette after a few hours of begging," said Roman Maciejewski, a 39-year-old former hospital porter from Poznan, west Poland, who arrived this year looking for work but ended up sleeping under a tarpaulin. "It is a open air apartment by the Thames. The weather is much harder in Poland than here."
Broadway's chief executive, Howard Sinclair, said: "Clients live on bendy buses, scrounge for scraps, have to endure snow and rain. The life expectancy of a homeless person on London streets is 42. That is not something that should be happening in 21st century London."

Sinclair said that if the problem were not tackled, Boris Johnson, London's mayor, would find it "very difficult" to make good his promise that by 2013 that no one would be living on the city's streets. Unlike the government figures, which count the number on the streets on one night of the year, and which have been criticised by some homeless charities for providing only a partial snapshot of the problem, Chain tallies the homeless throughout the year.

The spurt in rough sleeping has led to some radical measures. Since June 2007 more than 1,000 eastern and central Europeans have been flown home, at taxpayer expense. Many flock to the capital's most prosperous parts; the City of London "reconnected" 130 people with their families last year.

Ewa Sadowska, chief executive of Barka UK, a project that aims to help European migrants, said that those arriving here did not realise that their own governments now helped homeless people. She said that in Poland homeless people were paid cash benefits and got free access to services in "social integration centres".

She added: "Many of the homeless come from a generation that went through communism, they are scarred and don't trust authority. They drink and find a group that behaves like them. It becomes a lifestyle, and not an easy one to get out off." 

• Randeep Ramesh, social affairs editor
• The Guardian, Monday 5 July 2010

Newscribe : get free news in real time