UK Asian Homelessness Rates Soaring
New
Kerala
9 November 2004
London,
Nov.9 : Homelessness in the Asian community is soaring
according to a new report put together by Shelter, the
British charity for the homeless.
In fact, homeless rates among ethnic communities generally
are rising twice as fast as those amongst the general
population of Britain.
The report states that, last year, there were at least 7000
families from the Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani
communities who needed housing, and the actual figure was
probably far higher than that, with some families unwilling
to admit to need, whether through pride or for other personal
reasons.
The report also indicates that over twice as many Asian
families as white live in conditions that are officially
deemed to be unfit for human habitation, with people of
Bangladeshi origin especially likely to suffer from
overcrowding.
Astonishingly, no less than half of all Bangladeshi children
living in Britain are living in officially overcrowded
conditions, and many more live in local council funded bed
and breakfast accommodation, which in Britain means cheap
guest houses and hotels hardly worthy of the name, often run
by landlords with a dubious grasp on morality.
And even when a family is housed in a house or flat belonging
to a local council, that accommodation is often of poor
quality, possibly damp, and a long way from shops and
schools.
As Adam Sampson, director of the charity Shelter said:
"The hidden housing crisis in Britain is having an
immensely damaging effect on minority ethnic communities. For
children, bad housing can, and does, have a devastating
effect on their health, education and future prospects".
Of course, one answer to the problem would be for the
government to build thousands more local authority owned
houses, but Britain's Labour rulers seem dead set against
reintroducing such a programme of public housing that was so
successful after World War Two. Only Tony Blair and his
acolytes know the reasons why this should be the case.
So, Shelter's findings will probably fall on deaf ears, even
though, according to Naz Rahman who works for the charity,
they are just the tip of the iceberg.
Many people, she says "are invisible to the authorities
and need to be helped". The big question is how, and to
help answer it, Shelter has started something called The
Million Children Campaign. It's a campaign that is aimed at
ending bad housing for the next generation of children and
calls for more investment in new homes, better regulation of
landlords and more support services for those in need or
likely to become so.