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12:00pm Friday 30th December 2011 in News
By Nafeesa Shan, Reporter
CHARITIES have been forced to turn people away after a dramatic rise in homelessness across East Lancashire.
More than 2,600 people applied for emergency housing help in East Lancashire this year.
In Blackburn with Darwen alone, 425 more people said they had no where to live than year.
And in Pendle, the council said it expected the number of people it helped to double this year while rises have also been recorded in Burnley and Rossendale.
Homelessness charities said mounting debts, cuts and spiralling costs had resulted in a large increase in requests for urgent help.
And bosses at Nightsafe said it has had to ‘turn people away’ due to the numbers contacting them.
Dorothy McGregor, founder of Accrington-based Maundy Grange, said the charity was being ‘overwhelmed’ with requests for help from people at risk of losing their homes or already homeless.
She said: “It is exceptionally busy at the moment.
Six months ago we were helping 150 people a day – now we are seeing 200 a day.
“It is on the increase and people are needing more help with food parcels and debt. Everything is mounting up.”
Helen Bishop, deputy manager of Maundy Grange, which helps people across East Lancashire, said she was seeing a lot more inquiries from people trying to hold on to their homes.
She said: “Our debt advice counsellors are being kept extremely busy. Self employed people in particular seem to be falling on hard times and they are afraid of being made homeless.
“A lot more food parcels are going out to people who have had their benefits cut or are sleeping on couches.
“There are misunderstandings about the kind of people we help. If people come to the centre and have a look around they will find people from all walks of life.
“A lot have just fallen on hard times for many different reasons and are trying to live as normal a life as they can.”
Paula Kaniuk, Nightsafe chief executive, said: “We have had to turn people away. We normally shelter 380 people a year and 350-400 young people use our other services. We are hoping to reach more young people this year and there is an increasing demand for our services.
“Axing the Education Maintenance Allowance grant has had an effect. Young people who would have stayed at home now have nowhere to go because they cannot pay their way.
“I would say there is a rise of about 20 per cent in people seeking our help.”
Dean Jackson, from Clayton-le-Moors, was homeless for five years.
The 25-year-old, who is originally from Wythenshawe, said: “I had been struggling to find work and couldn’t pay my rent.
“Then I started sleeping on people’s sofas. When I arrived here in July someone told me to go to Maundy Grange and in just a few months, everything changed.
“They helped me get my own bedsit, so I now have an address and I can look for work. I have started doing volunteer work too, to help boost my CV.
“For years I felt like I wasn’t able to accomplish anything but Maundy Grange help you through the system. I get help with my paperwork here and really good advice. I have seen it happen to a lot of other people too. They really change lives here.”
Nina Morrow, 47, lives in Accrington and is originally from Longridge. She said: “For many years I worked in the caring service at Whittingham Hospital in occupational therapy. And then I did respite care for Crossroads.
“I got myself into financial difficulties and couldn’t afford to fix my car, which led to my losing my job. I had become ill with depression and anxiety which made it hard to get another.
“Without Maundy Grange I don’t know how I would have survived. I have worked since I was 16 and I never expected this to happen to me.”
In Blackburn with Darwen 1,398 applications were made to the council for emergency housing, 201 in Burnley, 251 in Hyndburn, 95 in Pendle and 603 in Rossendale.
No applications were made in the Ribble Valley.
Wayne Forrest, housing needs manager at Pendle Council, said: “Over the last five years, the council has worked hard to prevent homelessness where possible and as a result, actual homeless applications dropped from 159 in 2007/08 to just 85 in 2010/2011, despite a rise in general inquiries. However, although work to prevent homelessness continues, 95 homelessness applications have already been received to date with an estimated turn out of 190 for the full year.
“Whilst there does not appear to be a specific reason for this rise, the prolonged economic difficulties appear to be a major contributing factor.”
The Bishop of Burnley, the Right Reverend John Goddard, said that efforts across parishes in East Lancashire had been stepped up to help those in need, including provision of food parcels and financial advice sessions.
He said: “Traditionally we might think of young people who have been excluded from their homes, or those many refer to as ‘tramps’, but now homelessness touches all sorts of people across a wide spread of society.
“I am most worried about the young people this affects - mainly teenagers who have experienced a marriage breakdown and who are sadly not wanted. The young are very vulnerable on our streets.”
Comments(14)
QuarryGang78
says...
12:57pm Fri 30 Dec 11
happycyclist
says...
1:25pm Fri 30 Dec 11
QuarryGang78 wrote:Thanks for that, Quarry Gang.
I am affraid that next month times are going to get much harder because if you are under 25 years old and renting from a private landlord or letting agent, you are probably only entitled to enough benefit to cover the cost of renting a single room in a shared house, even if you are renting self-contained accommodation.
If you are over 25, the maximum amount of housing benefit you can receive may also be restricted if you are living in shared accommodation.
From January 2012, these rules will apply to people aged up to 35 years. This will mean that, unless you are already in shared accommodation, you will see a cut to your LHA payment if you are aged under-35. You may no longer be able to afford your current property as a result. You may have to find shared accommodation, or a cheaper alternative.Yet the government have only just given the banksters 75 billion of our hard earned tax money
as their personal bonuses.When will the populous open their blinkered eyes and see whats happening around them.When the nukes are falling out the sky i expect.
district01
says...
1:49pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Keep Darwen Green
says...
1:50pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Lifeinthemix wrote:So you are saying in your article that black africans are following homeless people around in birminham raping them and these said same black africans are in with a better chance of being fast tracked to overlord status because they are black? Also in the article you state that people who are sectioned by centre point are never heard from again and centre point is run by one of these fast tracked " imports " as you call them. Are you implying that they are cannibals as well??
Be carefull with this one people. Centrepoint is now sectioning the homeless who refuse their services.
Centrepoint has prince william as its patron with a more sinister mind and Blair babe in control :
https://www.lifeinth
emix.info/2011/12/pr
ofile-lord-adebowale
-ma-cbe/
Keep Darwen Green
says...
1:55pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Lifeinthemix
says...
4:36pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Keep Darwen Green wrote:simple answer...they are there but not awake and will rant all day about rubbish.
Anyway back on track, is it me or, how can there be an article on increasing homelessness on one page of the LT and some councillor in brierfield complaining about boarded up empty houses on another? Hello is there anybody in??? Obviously not.
Lifeinthemix
says...
4:42pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Keep Darwen Green
says...
9:30pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Lifeinthemix wrote:No thanks I'll stick to maths a bit of programming and music of which you will be pants at all three. But hey, I don't point it out to you do I?
green fingers...it is not I saying prince william is the patron of centrepoint, he is.
i am not saying anything relating to blacks and rape, this was reported to me by a homless contact in birmingham and derby. the contact had no idea of the leaping lords involvment with centrepoint.
It was suggested to me that those sectioned if fit, are being taken to a boot camp in Wales, but there is no evidence to support this so the use of the term not seen again, stands.
You are more than welcome to speak with my varied multiculteral network and ask them if I be a rascist.
I see you have chosen the way of the bacon, la la insult with a little more la la
why not consider patrolling your street in the new year, it might just get you that bump on the head required in order you can learn comprehension of words and sentences
timeforcommonsense
says...
9:33pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Lifeinthemix
says...
12:08am Sat 31 Dec 11
Keep Darwen Green wrote:goodness me greenie, do you think I would deal with nutters?
Lifeinthemix wrote:No thanks I'll stick to maths a bit of programming and music of which you will be pants at all three. But hey, I don't point it out to you do I?
green fingers...it is not I saying prince william is the patron of centrepoint, he is.
i am not saying anything relating to blacks and rape, this was reported to me by a homless contact in birmingham and derby. the contact had no idea of the leaping lords involvment with centrepoint.
It was suggested to me that those sectioned if fit, are being taken to a boot camp in Wales, but there is no evidence to support this so the use of the term not seen again, stands.
You are more than welcome to speak with my varied multiculteral network and ask them if I be a rascist.
I see you have chosen the way of the bacon, la la insult with a little more la la
why not consider patrolling your street in the new year, it might just get you that bump on the head required in order you can learn comprehension of words and sentences
And by the way, I do actually know someone who has been sectioned on a number of occasions, he now lives in his own little flat with a flat topped roof. He still thinks someone is living in his ceiling though, I put this down to the methadone, so I would take what someone tells you, who has been sectioned, with a pinch of salt. Otherwise you may become guest in the next bed. You see most that are sectioned are done so under the mental health act, after refusing help, so are usually suffering some form of mental illness. Mental illness usually brought on by some form of substance dependancy or withdrawls from the same. But that wouldn't fit in with your sensationalistic view on everything would it? Did it never occur to you that your contact may be dilusional? or on medication. No didn't think so, and they can be very convincing too, because they actually believe what they are telling you.
You on the other hand have no excuses, you need to dig deeper and stop being lazy. A scoop, as you call it, needs to be confirmed by more than two independent sources before you should commit it to an article. And preferably not three recovering smack heads.
Must do better. D
Chris P Bacon
says...
8:47am Sat 31 Dec 11
Lifeinthemix wrote:Have you got your tin-foil hat on, nonlifeinthemix? You wrote the above at 12.08 in the AM indicating you really need, and I mean need in a bad way, to get a life. All your inane, immature, 'big-boy-hit-me-and-
Keep Darwen Green wrote:goodness me greenie, do you think I would deal with nutters?
Lifeinthemix wrote:No thanks I'll stick to maths a bit of programming and music of which you will be pants at all three. But hey, I don't point it out to you do I?
green fingers...it is not I saying prince william is the patron of centrepoint, he is.
i am not saying anything relating to blacks and rape, this was reported to me by a homless contact in birmingham and derby. the contact had no idea of the leaping lords involvment with centrepoint.
It was suggested to me that those sectioned if fit, are being taken to a boot camp in Wales, but there is no evidence to support this so the use of the term not seen again, stands.
You are more than welcome to speak with my varied multiculteral network and ask them if I be a rascist.
I see you have chosen the way of the bacon, la la insult with a little more la la
why not consider patrolling your street in the new year, it might just get you that bump on the head required in order you can learn comprehension of words and sentences
And by the way, I do actually know someone who has been sectioned on a number of occasions, he now lives in his own little flat with a flat topped roof. He still thinks someone is living in his ceiling though, I put this down to the methadone, so I would take what someone tells you, who has been sectioned, with a pinch of salt. Otherwise you may become guest in the next bed. You see most that are sectioned are done so under the mental health act, after refusing help, so are usually suffering some form of mental illness. Mental illness usually brought on by some form of substance dependancy or withdrawls from the same. But that wouldn't fit in with your sensationalistic view on everything would it? Did it never occur to you that your contact may be dilusional? or on medication. No didn't think so, and they can be very convincing too, because they actually believe what they are telling you.
You on the other hand have no excuses, you need to dig deeper and stop being lazy. A scoop, as you call it, needs to be confirmed by more than two independent sources before you should commit it to an article. And preferably not three recovering smack heads.
Must do better. D
not all on the streets need to be there, some choose to learn and see.
I take your point about substance abuse but if you believe all on the streets are there from substance abuse, then you are mistaken. many end up there through debt and statute collection of it leaving them with nothing, many are there because of a breakdown of their marriage, there are lots of people fall below the social net and for as many reasons.
In 2009 under the pandamic scare, the mental health act was tweaked a lot, it is under this WHO sanctioned dictate that sectioning of people without basis in fact can go ahead.
As it was, to be sectioned whatever the reason, prevented powerful people removing enemies, today when the corporate state is the enemy, on top of the tweaks, then we are indeed witnessing a serious shift from freedom to absolute suppression of ideas and actions deemed an enemy to the incorporation of every living thing.
If you are ok with this then that is your right, i am not happy with the situation and do as I do.
Leaving such a future to our children is perhaps the greatest form of abuse an adult can create for all children, and given the corporate state is the perpetraitor of this insanity then it is they who are the abusers, yet you and others not only adore this reality, you police it for them by shouting down those who expose the situation.
thats life when adults refuse to be adults and protect the children, which leaves only the corporate state to do it for you. Its like watching adults desperate to be children again without any thoughts for the welfare of the children and the nation they live within.
Cha'mone MF
says...
12:57pm Sat 31 Dec 11
Lifeinthemix wrote:Very much like you then eh ?
Keep Darwen Green wrote:simple answer...they are there but not awake and will rant all day about rubbish.
Anyway back on track, is it me or, how can there be an article on increasing homelessness on one page of the LT and some councillor in brierfield complaining about boarded up empty houses on another? Hello is there anybody in??? Obviously not.
workaholic
says...
6:35pm Sat 31 Dec 11
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Lifeinthemix says...
12:23pm Fri 30 Dec 11
Centrepoint has prince william as its patron with a more sinister mind and Blair babe in control :
https://www.lifeinth
emix.info/2011/12/pr
ofile-lord-adebowale
-ma-cbe/