80% say Government should be doing more to help those in danger of having their home repossessed

13 November 2008

A recent survey conducted by Ipsos MORI for St Mungo's, London's largest charity for homeless people, has found that 80% of people in Britain think the Government should be doing more to help prevent those who are at risk from losing their homes. Elsewhere in the survey it was revealed that 14% of people fear being forced to leave their homes due to falling behind on their mortgage or rent.

St Mungo's is warning of a tough Christmas after just over half of those surveyed (52%) said they were concerned by their current financial situation.

The large majority of people (67%) said they had cut their overall spending on at least one of the items asked about over the past three months, with 30% cutting spending on luxury or non-essential items. Almost a fifth of people (18%) have reduced the amount they spend on gas, electricity or heating and 18% have cut back on household food. Moreover, 63% said they were planning to cut future spending over the next 12 months on at least one of the items asked about in the survey. Due to the current financial situation it is easy for people to get embroiled in their own finances, but St Mungo's say we should not lose sight of those who are worse off.

93% of Polled St Mungo's clients either believed that losing their job contributed to their homelessness or based upon their experiences believed that a recession is likely to cause more homelessness1. St Mungo's say that in the current economic climate they are likely to see an increase in rough sleepers. Seventy-two percent of the British public polled by Ipsos MORI agree. They too believe rough sleeping and living on the streets will increase as a result of the current economic climate.

St Mungo's Chief Executive, Charles Fraser, said:

"At the moment we are witnessing a downturn in the economy that is being felt at all levels of society. The Government needs to act quickly if we are to avoid a sharp increase of rough sleepers on the streets.

The most vulnerable people in society will suffer the most from the financial crisis and we must provide support for those who need it. We need a guarantee from the Government that those who are hanging on by their fingertips won't be shaken off".

With the imminent release of the Government's Rough Sleeping Strategy, St Mungo's are calling for a reinvigorated government commitment to reducing homelessness by providing:

  • Access to shelter
  • An end to people with mental illness being on the streets
  • More high support move on accommodation
  • Health services and training opportunities for every former rough sleeper now in a hostel
  • A radical rethink of the treatment options for rough sleepers with drug and alcohol problems

Work and learning provision that develops skills, as well as attributes such as confidence and aspirations.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

St Mungo's are London's largest charity for homeless people. We open our doors to homeless and vulnerable people, enabling their recovery, and work to prevent rough sleeping in the first place. We run over 100 projects and help 1000s of people make life changes every year.

1 Taken from "Just the Job" survey conducted in October 2008.

The "Just the Job" research was conducted across twelve of St Mungo's hostels specifically to gather information from residents who have lost their jobs. Locum project workers regularly employed at the Hostel were used for the fieldwork and undertook informal interviews with 98 of our residents. The questionnaire was designed to establish the timelines around the individual losing their job and becoming homeless, as well as establishing whether the loss of employment was in some way a contributory factor in their homelessness, or in many cases, starting to sleep rough.

'ROUGH SLEEPING IN A RECESSION' RESEARCH

The research was conducted by Ipsos MORI between 31 October and 6 November 2008 on behalf of St. Mungo's. A nationally representative quota sample of 2,014 adults aged 15 and over were interviewed face-to-face and in-home throughout Great Britain. Data have been weighted to the known population profile of Great Britain.

Full results to the survey are available at http://www.ipsos-mori.com/

If you are interested in finding out more about St Mungo's or supporting our work, please visit http://www.mungos.org

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