Homelessness

Fiona Onasanya Excerpts

Tuesday 27th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Fiona Onasanya (Peterborough) (Lab)]

It is an honour to take part in the debate initiated by the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran), and, indeed, to follow the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), but it is important for us to remember when we are in this place that the power of Parliament is not just the power to debate. People do not care how much we know about the issues that affect their lives until they know how much we care, and that will be evidenced in our action. Those whom we are here to represent must always be at the forefront of what we say and do here, because otherwise we risk becoming a bureaucracy that is void of compassion. That is why action to increase funding must be taken.

My constituency is ranked 46th on Shelter’s list relating to people who are in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough. Every week, I meet people who do not have a place that they can call home. In fact, many of my constituents are unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure and adequate housing. We have also heard about the homeless gentleman who passed away in Westminster station. Homelessness is not an aspiration. When we were younger and we thought about what we would like to do when we were older,becoming homeless and finding a piece of cardboard to sleep on in a shop entrance would not have come into the equation.

[Sir Edward Davey]

The hon. Lady is making an excellent point. Does she agree that the fact that the Housing Act 1996 describes people as “becoming homeless intentionally” is quite outrageous and offensive? Is not that the exact point that she is making?

[Fiona Onasanya]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention, and I absolutely agree with him. I should also put on record that I was a commercial property solicitor before coming to this place. No one becomes homeless intentionally. I know that that Act looks at whether someone has taken steps to put themselves in a particular position, but no one takes steps to make themselves homeless. Someone could lose their job, for example, and be two months behind with their mortgage, or they could get into arrears with their rent and have their accommodation repossessed. Did they deliberately not pay their rent? No, there were factors that meant they did not have the funds to do so. I absolutely agree that no one is intentionally homeless.

Being or becoming homeless is an unintended consequence of many factors, and we are not doing enough to address that. Over £7 billion of cuts have been made to housing benefit support since 2010, with 13 separate cuts to housing benefit over the past eight years, including the bedroom tax and breaking the link between housing benefit for private renters—local housing allowance—and private rents. I believe that the 169% increase in rough sleepers since 2010 is a direct result of decisions made by Ministers in this place to reduce funding for homelessness services, and of a lack of action to help private renters.

The issue of homelessness has not been adequately funded, and there has been a steep drop in investment. I understand that the Government are looking at being fiscally minded, as the hon. Member for Harrow East said, and paying attention to what they are spending, but we seriously need to invest to save in this regard. This is the sixth richest country in the world, and we cannot have people sleeping on doorsteps who are unable to look after themselves and who have nowhere to call home. We cannot have people who are sleeping on sofas falling through the gaps because they are not considered homeless. That is unacceptable. We have a chance here to make a difference and to do something. We have a chance to invest in lives, because we are here to serve people. If we forget that, we have forgotten who we really are.