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The Homeless
During the year homeless people made very heavy demands on the department and
strenuous efforts were made to prevent homelessness by every method possible with the aid of all
our colleagues.
"Woodlands" temporary accommodation for eight families was opened in February and
four families were moved there from "Suttons" Hostel in Hornchurch thus bringing all those for
whom we were responsible within the Borough. Continued pressure made necessary an overflow
into another property of 1031 Forest Road in October but still pressure increased.
Those homeless through no fault of their own were only difficult to help when we lacked
accommodation to shelter them temporarily, and soon we lacked this because the available
accommodation was blocked by families of the type unlikely to be acceptable for normal Council
housing. These latter families are the most difficult problem with which the social workers of
this and other departments have to deal. Homelessness is not a problem of one department only;
moreover these families can often pose a problem to which there is no solution, and which the
onlookers expect to be solved while they watch with deepseated emotions unrestrained by knowledge
of the facts. Homeless crying children and feckless work-shy parents stir up opposite emotions
and yet they are two aspects of the same problem. Sentimental compassion or a rejecting condemnation
are equally unhelpful, yet both attitudes are pressed on those who have to deal with this
problem by those who do not.
It is greatly to the credit of the staff that by tireless effcrts in this situation they, in the
very great majority of cases, managed to find other expedients to cope with the situation without
resorting to admission to the hostel. These expedients were often poor ones but even so required
skill and persistence to be achieved.
The co-ordinating committee of social workers (Health and Welfare, Children's, Housing,
Ministry of Social Security, N.S.P.C.C., etc.) has found its proceedings dominated by the problem
of possible homelessness which has such administrative urgency, and it may well be that attention
to other problem families, where impending homelessness is not a feature, has suffered as a result.
Yet considering the work of this committee in this one respect it has indeed achieved a great deal
during the year. Of course, it cannot prevent what is already a fait accompli, but where advance
knowledge of impending homelessness is available (and this applies particularly in the case of
Council tenants) the streamlining and rationalization of the social work effort has achieved much.
The problem of homelessness may be easing in the sense that the pressure (if not the
length) of the housing waiting list is lessening as years pass, but for the inadequate feckless
family it occurs ever more frequently with rising rents. The philosophy of some families is that
however you behave, be it irresponsibly, maliciously or psychopathically, the State will see that
you do not lose the basic essentials of food and shelter. It is a contemporary point of view as a
flower of the Welfare State. It may well be morally right, and it is better than any insurance
policy from the feckless family's point of view, but from the social worker's point of view it is
disheartening. On the other hand, some families are truly inadequate and no threats, degradation
or teaching can alter their basic weakness. For them the State must provide at considerable
expense and with little or nothing to see in return.
E.W.W.
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