Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Homelessness in Harringay
Is it just my impression or the number of homeless people in Harringay/Green Lanes is going up by the day? Last night I counted about 7 people on the way from Homebase to the Post Office. And they weren't even the usual faces I see all the time.
I am wondering if the number of homeless people has increased everywhere in London or just in this neighbourhood?
Tags for Forum Posts: homelessness
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by anton on
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Thanks for pointing out this thread...makes sense. I am wondering what Harringay council is doing about this? Personally I'd like to see a cleaner and safer Harringay and it would also be good to know that these people are being supported and helped of they have a drug problem.
I hope Green Lanes doesn't turn into something like Hastings Street in Vancouver...
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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McDonald's, 1am. Have a look.
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Honestly they are doing very little. I don't think they pretend otherwise. They are hugely under-resourced and concentrating their resources on families who they are obliged to house. Personally I think that's the right priority for resources. Children can't be blamed for the poor decisions or bad luck of their parents. Where street homelessness is concerned, they rely almost entirely on organisations like No Second Night Out to take up their slack.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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My wife and I were briefly in Vancouver in 2004. We saw Hastings Street in the Company of a policeman. He told us that it attracted homeless people as the climate meant it was less likely you'd freeze to death by sleeping out. There were still rooms for rent. Though I gather there's been demolition and an explosion of towers for the super-rich. Do you know if the drug and homelessness problems are still as bad? (Or even worse?) and whether the Wards development was successful?
I thought there was a huge amount to learn from how Vancouver - and perhaps other Canadian cities - handled various social issues. And some clever small ideas. When we came home I suggested we trialled some of these in Haringey. (Their "Blooming Boulevards" and "stencilled fish" schemes for example.) But we found that nobody locally wanted to listen. Or even watch a few of the many short videos which the City Council had made.
It was a harsh lesson in just how little within our own Council I saw any "disposition to learn".
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Unless you are or know somebody who is homeless you cannot know. I'm interested in what Alan Stanton is saying.
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Only been there one time last year and it was still was pretty bad. Really shocking, especially as I bumped into that street unaware of where I was. I was on a sightseeing bus and got off at the wrong stop...there are really two completely different sides to Vancouver...
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Permalink Reply by JJ on
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Unfortunately the reasons cited miss the main point. The visible increase in homelessness can be traced back to the policies of the present government, in particular the benefits cap and the subsidisation of owner occupiers rather than those in housing need, that is the reason for the ripple effect of councils sending their homeless and badly housed people to neighbouring boroughs. The choice ofsuccessive governments to subsidise rents and owner occupation rather than bricks and mortar and homes for secure rent have been calamitous and have led to a major housing crisis for the whole country and London in particular. Housing costs have rocketed and the owner ooccupation market is a giant ponzi scheme kept going by successive chancellors. It will all end in tears at some point.
Councils need to build hundreds of thousands of homes for secure rent, they need to borrow the money to do this and use their rent receipts to pay back the capital investment. We need a major house building programme.
Again though it's annoying and offensive to hear homelessness being attributed to 'poor decisions' or being aassociated with drugs, danger and being unclean. Homelessness is a systemic problem that results in iindividual tragedies.
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You're either living for free or you have an outrageously cheap mortgage. I appreciate that you think you paid for the subsidy yourself but it's still a subsidy. Ideally you should charge yourself rent and put it aside each month, minus your mortgage payment. You'll soon get an idea of what life is like in the real economy if you do that.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I saved and I paid off the mortgage out of income. That's the real economy.
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You and house price inflation paid off your mortgage. That's not the real economy, that's how individual's operate within the economy.
All I'm saying is that you need to be more open minded about what entails a subsidy. European colleagues at work are always on about the fantastic subsidy you get from living in London: the Museums, the availability of restaurants and activities, all this cool stuff we have and can do. It's not just something that the government gives you to influence your behaviour.
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