Thousands of rough sleepers were taken off the streets and housed by the government during the first Covid lockdown. Three years later, one man has yet to leave his 'temporary' accommodation.
Thousands of rough sleepers were taken off the streets and housed by the government when the first Covid-19 lockdown was announced. Three years later, one man has yet to leave his "temporary" accommodation.
He'd spent the last three of those years wandering central London by day, and at night sleeping across the seats at Heathrow Terminal 5. "They got up in the morning and they just went about their day, and came back at midnight or 1am and slept on the seats, then got up the next morning and carried on like everybody else would."Heathrow was popular with rough sleepers when the first lockdown was announced
But with no national directive and insufficient funding to continue the scheme, as well as a lack of affordable housing for people to move into, most councils were forced to close this emergency accommodation after a few months. Many rough sleepers found themselves homeless once again.
It costs up to £250 a night to house him in his central London hotel, where he has been staying continuously for the past 14 months. "Under the Everyone In budget and rough sleeping budget, they seem to have no caps and therefore they can spend whatever they like housing people so if they are going to try and house people, the government and legislation has forced them to spend these ridiculous sums of money."
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