30/01/2017 Inside Out West

Tonight, the homelessness epidemic sweeping across our cities.

I join the street doctor helping those sleeping rough.

Rachel Stonehouse heads to Finland in the search for solutions.

If you are at rock bottom, you are really at rock bottom,

And I met the ex-squatter creating new homes out

Any country or area in the world should be able to house its own

You would have to be living on them moon not

to notice that there are more people sleeping rough.

Here, in Gloucester, they are convinced that the answer

Well, I got up at the crack of dawn to see the other side of the story.

We walk pass rough sleepers on our high street every day.

I mean, here, there will be six people sleeping rough.

So, what is the real scale of the problem?

This GP in Gloucester has worked with the homeless

Once a week, he swaps his surgical gloves for a fleecey pair and goes

Well, we will start by going through the centre of town and see

Are their tents in the park, or in the disused garages

If there are any health issues that people have,

they can come and see me at the homeless clinic

I am surprised when we head to a location I know well.

A shopping centre car park right in the city centre.

Is this a good place for them to hide out?

There are few places where you can conceal yourself.

Normally they will sleep behind the ticket machines

So, unless you know where to look, you can walk past without

Because you have got the slight warmth of the ducting blowing down

This car park offers all sorts of places to hide away.

They usually have to leave here about six, you can see

Minus four at ten to six in the morning.

At least we have some shelter here from the rain but it is not

great on the concrete base, of course.

John is sleeing in a small tent with his partner and their dog.

So, are you getting hassle from the council, or...?

The police and the council, like, even during the day and in town.

You're not allowed to leave your stuff anywhere.

You got to start with nothing again and in weather like this,

You have just got to put up with it, haven't you?

Have you been moving from place to place?

We have been here for about two weeks, but they have said

if we do not move our stuff by 11 o'clock today,

So I have got to find somewhere else to go.

I do not know, just find somewhere else.

The council reckon that there are no homeless people in Gloucester.

But I cannot see how they can say that when people are on the streets.

What strikes me about them is that they are just kind

of stuck in this cycle that they are going to

Their future is from one day to the next in terms of where

on earth are they going to find somewhere that is safe

but they are not going to be persecuted, attacked,

robbed or have their belongings taken away by the council?

Alan says homelessness is increasing in Gloucester,

Are you going to come down to the breakfast club

We have asked him to keep a diary of the number of rough sleepers

I think you will find one of us frozen soon, it is that cold.

It is OK outside in the month of May and June,

you can get away with it, but not now, you need to be indoors.

Gloucester City Council has recently tried to reduce

begging on the streets with tougher punishments.

The Safer Streets scheme also tries to discourage the public from buying

We see people spending their money on drugs quite a lot

of the time and unfortunately, when well-meaning people give

food instead of money, that just frees up the money that

people would have spent on food that they can now spend on drugs.

There used to be a 21-bed emergency night shelter in Gloucester,

Not for a lack of demand, says the mayor who used to run it.

The council do not want to have people being homeless in Gloucester,

councillors are saying things like the only reason that homeless

people come into Gloucester at the moment is that they come

here still expecting to find a night shelter.

Now, when we were in the process of shutting down, they were saying

that the only reason that homeless people came into Gloucester

They blamed us then and they blame us now and in my view,

it is blaming the messengers for the message.

The bottom line is there is simply not enough accommodation.

All over Britain, homelessness is increasing, why should

It was a big part of your life, wasn't it?

20 years of my life trying to do the best I could with what I had...

I grew up in Gloucester, but at 6am out with Dr Harris,

So, in here there will be possibly up to six people sleeping rough.

So, the lady with the bad chest condition will be in there.

You must be absolutely frozen, aren't you?

I'm a wuss, I'm a wussy Englishman, you're...

Bozena is from Poland and her English isn't great.

But it is clear her living conditions are not

This woman is sitting on her own in their with a chest infection.

And it has been like that for 20 years in Gloucester.

There is another one like this in Tredworth,

there is Brockworth, there are further ones in central

We are fighting a losing battle and ultimately,

Remember the diary we asked Dr Harris to keep of the number

of rough sleepers he came across in one month?

Gloucester City Council estimates the number at just 13.

Well, I do not think that we are missing

Because of the work we do with our partners, we pretty much

know everybody that is on the street and their circumstances.

We have been out and we have seen people sleeping

So, the true figure that you say does not tally with that

because you are not actually counting them properly.

Well, there probably is an element that we are not aware of because...

We can only count the numbers we are aware of and we can only take

action to help people who we met and engage with.

But I think we're doing that pretty successfully,

certainly in terms of those that we see and the concentration

But I have seen with my own eyes the real scale of homelessness

My time spent with Dr Harris in Gloucester has been just

a glimpse of the problem in the West.

Homelessness is increasing and I wonder if many of us

are in the dark about the reality of how some people

closing our curtains and shutting our doors to those

Check out our Facebook page to hear more voices from the street.

Give homeless people a home, it is what they are doing

in Finland, the only country in Europe where homelessness

A country known for its cold weather and sparse population.

But while there is a noticeable increase in rough sleepers

on the streets in the UK, in Finland it is a very

We have just walked through a park and we would have expected to see

rough sleepers on the benches in the park, and there weren't any.

So what is the secret of the country?

Lisa Lewis runs a drop-in centre for homeless people

Part of her job is helping people find somewhere to sleep.

As a female on the streets, they will automatically get

you a house somewhere in emergency accommodation.

If that does happen and you haven't got anywhere to stay,

we can get you over to Julian House in Bath because I don't want

It is fine, I have still got another two weeks anyway...

The drop-in has seen an increase in rough sleepers and Lisa

There are so many different facets to it.

You have a whole issue about putting people

into emergency accommodation, which does not work

You have the issue of not having enough housing

available, so there is not enough accommodation available.

You then have issues with the fact that all of the support services

are underfunded and having budgets cut and that is right

across the board, so that is mental health, physical health,

drugs and alcohol, it is really important that you get

all of the services able to help someone from the very beginning

and that is where we are failing because those services are not

always available or there is a waiting list.

Finland has a different approach and it seems to be working.

Lisa has agreed to travel there with me to find out what it is,

but after a decade working on a broken system, she is cynical.

When somebody turns around and tells you there are no rough

slepers in Helsinki, you are like, "yes, right!"

But then there is a little bit of you that thinks,

Since the 1980s, homelessness has been steadily decreasing here,

Give people who are homeless a permanent home, rather

Unlike the UK, emergency accommodation is a thing

of the past, there is now just one hostel in the whole country.

We have come to an area on the outskirts of Helsinki to find

out more about supported housing, specifically for young people.

So, this is, like, the communal area?

One of the reasons Fernando likes this place is it is a dry house.

It is annoying to see all of the drugs in the place you live in.

You do not want that in your own house, do you?

There is on-site help here for drug and alcohol

addiction as well as a sauna, a gym, and laundry facilities.

It is nice that you have got the rugs and things like that.

You cannot focus on anything if you do not have an apartment

because you cannot work, where do you sleep?

Here, there is no limit on how long people can stay for.

Back in Helsinki, there are a number of large,

old apartment blocks and while they might not be

as swanky, they provide homes for those in need.

How long were you sleeping on the streets for?

Why do you think that this accommodation is better

than the previous shelters that you were in?

When he was outside and there was a lot of shelters that time,

you could not go there if you had been drinking and a lot of people

of people who stay outside, they drink because it is

Here, you must take responsibility for your drinking

And here, you get support, of course, but he has said he does

not drink because he does not have to.

Walking around at night, it is visibly different to the UK.

Areas of the city where you might expect to see rough sleepers,

So, Lisa, what d'you think about what you have seen so far?

It has been a bit mind-blowing, actually.

Everything in the UK is so in the now or in

The greatest period of time is the next two years.

Let us talk about the visibility in Helsinki of rough sleepers.

Would you say before you came here that you were sceptical

that this idea that they were no rough sleepers was a bit of a myth?

I mean, you do not want to be cynical, but there is that bit

In the UK, you will never get a proper representation of how many

people are rough sleeping on any one night.

So when someone turns around and tells you that they do not have

any rough sleepers in Helsinki, you think, "yes, right!"

But then there is another bit that says, "let's go and find them".

But actually, we haven't seen anyone bedded down,

and that is kind of, like, that is really surprising.

Despite searching, we have not seen anyone who is street

homeless the whole time that we have been here.

And across the whole country, there are now only a few hundred

rough sleepers compared to the thousands

To find out more about how this change has happened,

we have come to the headquarters of the Y-Foundation,

This is our office, we have around 80 co-workers working here.

Some of the staff have also been homeless.

How did you come to get housing with the Y-Foundation?

Housing, because I have some issues like the mental ones

and the social and financial ones, and I could not provide

the house-rented flat for me, for myself and I needed help.

There are days when I am like, one more coffee cup and I am going to...

It is helping people and I can see it, because when someone is coming

on the other side of the desk, like, they have just got the house

and they are going to get the keys from me on the desk,

I can say to that person, I know how you feel.

If you are at rock bottom, you are really at rock bottom,

But it is about having that first chance.

She never had to sleep on the streets or stay in a hostel,

something the Y-Foundation has worked hard to avoid.

Hostels have been converted into apartments and private rental

properties have been bought up for social housing.

It means people are instead trusted with rental contracts to help give

them stability and a place to call home.

What are your thoughts on homelessness back in the UK?

The situation seems to be quite terrible.

If you do not have the political will, it is very difficult

for individuals and individual organisations to do a proper shop.

Do you think that the Finnish model can be adopted in the UK?

Of course, the landscape of the problem is very different,

but the structure of the problem is similar and the

We know that there are things that really work, we know that people

need affordable housing and we know that to solve homelessness

you simply also have to build new houses, new homes.

As our time in Finland draws to a close, it is clear the mindset

Is there anything about the approach here that you think

It will take some really brave people to set up pilot projects

with a specific proper formal model and run it actually as a pilot

project and prove that it works and then get the backing

so that it is rolled out across the country.

Because what will happen is that it will come back and they will say,

And that's what he said, it is not about the money.

Because actually the money that you are spending on other things can

be taken away from that and used towards this.

Because in the long run, actually, it will save money.

But in the UK, do we have the belief that people can overcome

One expression we heard during our time here -

"no one has yet failed in the future."

So that is one way to solve homelessness, build more homes.

But why do that when there are thousands of buildings

across the region already lying empty?

This is Decourcy House in St Pauls, Bristol.

I first came here in 2015 when the police were evicting

The conditions that people were living in were shocking.

I have to tell you, the smell here is unbearable.

It is cluttered with lots of debris from all over the place and these

corridors move off the smaller rooms that have about three

The building had already been empty for several years and guess what,

almost 18 months later, I was last here,

And it is not only this building, just around the corner,

a whole street has been boarded up for years.

Across the city, there are more than 800 empty commercial buildings

and almost 900 homes have been empty long-term.

Could we be making better use of these buildings?

I heard about a group of people determined to change this situation.

We are interested in taking over derelict buildings,

usually office or industrial buildings and turning them

into houses for people who otherwise find it very difficult to get

onto the housing ladder, perhaps even going homeless.

Did you find yourself in that situation in the past?

Yes, I did, about 20 years ago I found it very difficult

to find anywhere to live and I was in a squat

And that seems to have continued for other people,

nothing has got better, in your opinion?

Unfortunately, the situation seems to have got much worse.

Tell me about this site, what will it turn into

We hope to be able to house at least ten people here,

just a drop in the ocean at the moment, but it is a start.

The other thing that is important is that it will show

What is your ultimate dream with all of this?

Well, I think the main thing is that this starts a programme

going of housing people, which this country seems to have

been shamefully ignoring for the last 20 plus years.

To me, it is basic, any region, country or area in the world should

be able to house its own people if it has any self-respect.

According to government figures, there are more than 1,000

Last year, Virginia and her five-year old son Michael became

I dropped Michael off at nursery, went to the council office just

with a bag of stuff and said, "hello, we are homeless"

and we have been in emergency accommodation since then.

How are you? Thank you very much. This is not bad. We are lucky. But

the thing is, we could be moved any time. There is no guarantee that we

would have been able to stay here. She said we could be moved at 24

hours notice. It is the insecurity of not knowing. How is your son

coping? Has behaviour is tricky to begin with. He is unsettled, it is

difficult for him. Good. I am always settled, you naughty women! We're

not meant to have guests here, so we cannot have friends around. That is

hard. Yes. For a long period, that is really difficult. How did you

come to be here? We had been living in a rented house for the last five

years, unfortunately, the landlady decided that she needed to sell the

house. I looked for somewhere else to live. I am working three days

each week and at the moment the rent is subsidised by housing benefits. I

had a landlord reference and an employer reference and I have never

defaulted on rent in my life. But they just said no, as soon as they

discover that you have housing benefit. What has been homeless men

to you? Not being able to make a place your own, not knowing if you

are going to be able to stay there long term. Not being able to engage

in your local community, I think that is huge. All of those things

are really a huge part of being stable and being normal and being a

part of society. When you cannot do those basic things, people do not

appreciate how difficult and how stressful and how disruptive that

is. Back at the building site, the timber-framed extension has been

added. This building will only house a tiny fraction of Bristol's

homeless population, but remember, our research has revealed there are

835 commercial properties within the city. Other regions have similar

numbers. More than 7000 in total. On top of that, there are more than

8000 homes that have been empty for six months or more. If the building

is almost finished. Virginia has been selected as one of the lucky

ten residents. This will be her two-bedroom flat, complete with

balcony. It is going to cost ?695 each month. That includes a service

charge and free Wi-Fi. There is also off street parking, communal laundry

facilities and a common room with a shared garden. It is time to start

moving her stuff in. Kitchen stuff... I just really think that a

lot of the stuff will not fit into the flat. Yes, there is no way there

will be room for all of this stuff. The other thing about rented places,

each time you furnish it, then you have to move again and the furniture

does not fit the next place, it is a real pain. You OK?

Bristol's Cabinet member for housing is invited to make the official

snack. No jokes about council cuts! I am so proud of the people who have

done this. I really hope that next time we cut the ribbon on one of

these, I can say, yes, the council did support this and help. -- snip.

But this time, they did not, this million pound project is being

equally funded by a bank loan and the community share offer. This way

people who put in money will get a small return on their investment.

CHEERING After the ribbon cutting, Michael is

forced through the door. A few days ago, I went to see how

she is settling in. I have brought her a present. I hope that she likes

it! Hello. Hello, Virginia. Thank you. Happy house-warming. Bless you,

that is really sweet. Look at this place. Wow! That is really nice,

is like a springboard to the future. is like a springboard to the future.

Yes, and also, knowing that the rent will always be affordable, we will

not suddenly have the rent paid up. It is amazing. It goes to show it

can be done. They have managed to build this place that you really

high spec and the shareholders will still make some money. So it is

completely possible. You can keep up-to-date with what we are up to on

Facebook and even take a look behind the scenes. Check this out, this is

what it looks like from where I am standing. That is it for this week.

Thank you for watching. Good night. Next week, who is living next door?

The new face of prostitution in our communities. We actually could not

believe that there was a tenant who had decided to run a Thai brothel

here.