25 August, 2009

Not saying much

These days are rather quiet and peaceful for me but I have just spent a few days sleeping rough like I did in the old days but this time it had a purpose. I wanted to see how hard it has become to survive here in London now street services have been dramatically reduce. These days its hard enough to stay in the flats or houses we already have and with the government slow to build social housing I wanted to find out have new rules on benefits made it harder for homeless people to survive on the streets. There does seem to be a growth in homelessness but every summer London sees an influx of people from other parts of the country. What I did notice was lots of new young faces and some old faces back on the streets after being taken off the streets. I have to admit sleeping rough was a bit hard for me as I have become used to my bed and being able to watch tv when I wanted and of course having my coffee and doughnuts.
The thing that did stand out was that homeless people are really struggling to survive and as the government tighten its grip on the welfare state. I have begun to wonder if we are taking giant steps backward and have another underworld of vice showing its ugly head. The fact is as the government try to reduce its spending and tighten its belt people are going to suffer and it does seem to me that it's the people that really need the help that are going to suffer most.

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