‘Despicable’: Homeless people being ‘dumped’ in North East from London

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/24565195.vulnerable-people-moved-london-county-durham/

Posted by LOTDT

17 Comments

  1. As someone who is unfamiliar with England, how bad is it to be moved from the South East to the North East?

  2. Special-Ad-9415 on

    They’re putting a load of homeless people from london here in our town in the south too. I guess london services are overloaded, but our town has no homeless services.

  3. Mysterious-Fortune-6 on

    It’s harsh.

    But it’s also the dependent discovering how the independent live their lives. There are plenty of people in England who might like to live in London but have decided they can’t afford it.

  4. Critical-Engineer81 on

    This is happening up and down the country. “Oh so you had a family member in this place once, here is a train ticket now you aren’t our problem”.

  5. >Mr Easterlow said: “For some time we have been supporting people in East Durham who have been moved here from the South East of England.

    >“These ‘households’ are often single people moved up here with no local links and no support networks.

    >“Some are simply placed on a train with a key and an address. It is a deplorable act.

    >“Moving vulnerable people into already embattled communities who facing high levels of deprivation and generational poverty is a contemptible act.

    >“How can someone simply pop a human being on a train, send them on their way and then think ‘not my problem anymore’.”

    >He explained that the lack of information about these resettlements and the lack of support for those being moved made it a “damaging practice”.

    >He said: “Especially when they have vulnerabilities such as mental ill health and homelessness. These are unmanaged resettlements.

    >“We are not informed as a local support charity. This places huge pressure on already stretched council and voluntary sector resources.

    >“We need to shine a light on this poor policy and damaging practice.”

  6. EconomySwordfish5 on

    If they’re basing sent to be homeless elsewhere, that’s despicable. If they’re being given a small flat to live in there where is the problem?

  7. They’re being a bit dishonest with their statistics here. The north east on average in certainly poorer than the rest of the country but that doesn’t mean there aren’t wealthier areas.

    Durham is famously full of white middle and upper middle class people and wealthy students who go to the university.

  8. Terrible_Dish_4268 on

    Someone in the local councils of where these people are going needs to get onto this and seize the opportunity to do something worthwhile. Beg, borrow steal a bit of funding, put some stupid thing on hold and use the money from that, whatever.

    A London homeless person being given a house key and an address is a good start.

    Someone from social services being there at the other end to basically oriehteer them with the area and help them find some sort of purpose, find work, better yet get them.on a course etc and all of a sudden you’ve got an actual good thing. Got to be worth a little bit of money throwing at it, surely?

  9. AnimatorCommercial53 on

    I find it a bit suspicious they wouldn’t name any of the London councils doing it, isn’t that the point of the article to make people aware of an issue or is it just to stoke anti-London sentiment in the north more?

  10. Barnet council have done this to Peterborough a few times.Buyting up a load of cheap houses and then sending their unwanted up the A1. They even managed to buy up a job lot with tenants in them. Who they promptly evicted and filled with their own.

  11. Remarkable-World-129 on

    The failure of joined up thinking strikes again!

    From a housing viewpoint it makes sense to house the homeless is cheaper areas, from the viewpoints of ongoing support, employment and wider community networks this is clearly flawed!