Homeless crisis deeper 40 years after landmark
TV programme
Polly Curtis
Wednesday February 15, 2006
The Guardian
Forty years after a public outcry over
homelessness was triggered by a BBC drama depicting one
family's descent to the streets, 100,000 households are still
living in temporary and often cramped accommodation, a report
by the charity Shelter showed today.
Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home was watched by 11.8 million
people in 1966. The story of one family's downfall after an
industrial injury sparked public debate, and led to the
founding of the homeless charity Shelter.
But figures released by the charity to mark its 40th
anniversary show the number of households in temporary
accommodation has soared from 6,400 in 1976 to more than
100,000 today, with many families still living in one room
and sharing cooking and washing facilities. The building of
social housing has fallen by 87% over the same period.
Adam Sampson, director of Shelter, said: "So much has
changed in the last 40 years but, tragically, Cathy has much
less chance of coming home than she would have done back
then. With more than 1 million children in bad housing it is
a national scandal that even more families are suffering the
kind of long-term damage and insecurity witnessed in that
heartbreaking film about homelessness. The physical condition
of housing has improved, but there's a very real problem of
supply."
In the year Cathy Come Home was first broadcast the
government built 180,000 houses compared with 20,000 last
year, the Shelter report says.
The report says: "We are a nation obsessed with home
ownership and home renovation. Property prices are sky-high,
bringing profits to those lucky enough to own their homes,
but leaving others lagging far behind. In 1994 the price of
an average house in Kensington would have bought two in
Leven, Fife. Just 12 years on it would buy 24."
Housing minister Yvette Cooper said: "Hundreds of
thousands of children have been lifted out of bad housing
thanks to the major programme of refurbishment to council
housing since 1997, the ending of bed and breakfast
accommodation, but we have to go further.
"The next challenge is to get families out of temporary
accommodation. We have to recognise that this country has
built too few homes for a generation."
The government has committed to halve the number of families
in temporary accommodation by 2010 while increasing house
building budgets by 50%.
Guardian
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