Don’t make criminals of homeless people

As Labour party members, and supporters, we welcome the announcement by the Labour leadership that it will repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act once the Labour party is in government, but more needs to be done to end the criminalisation of homelessness. The Vagrancy Act makes it a crime to sleep “in any deserted or unoccupied building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart of waggon, not having any visible means of subsistence”. People can be fined up to £1,000 and given a two-year criminal record under an act which specifically targets the most marginalised in our society, and thousands face arrest every year.

The Vagrancy Act is just one segment of a system of criminalisation of people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping. Public space protection orders can make it illegal to beg or sleep rough within a given area. A raft of other anti-social behaviour measures, from criminal behaviour orders to dispersal orders, give police and councils powers to move rough sleepers on, or give them a hefty fine. A study by the charity Crisis showed that 73% of rough sleepers experienced some kind of criminalisation in the last year. People experiencing homelessness can be intensely vulnerable. Too often these measures trap people in a cycle, faced with fines they cannot pay and with a growing mistrust of those official council services they should be turning to for help.

No more can we threaten to fine people who have nothing. No more can we accept legislation which targets rough sleepers as criminals, when they are far more likely to be victims of harassment, violence and abuse. We’re calling for an end to the Vagrancy Act, and for councils and police forces to cease using all measures which ban begging and rough sleeping or target those experiencing homelessness.
Rachael Maskell MP, Hugh Gaffney MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP, Catherine West MP, Karen Lee MP and more than 240 others (see full list at https://www.labourhomelessness.org.uk/open-letter)

• In your article on England’s 216,000 long-term empty homes (Report, 12 March) the housing minister Kit Malthouse says local authorities have powers to take action on long-term empty homes and he expects them “to make full use of these so everyone has a roof over their head”.

Sadly we only have to look outside our window to see that this is not the case. The streets of our cities are home to thousands. Over 80,000 families and 120,000 children are in unsuitable and often overcrowded temporary accommodation, at a cost to the nation of £1bn a year. And we spend over £9bn a year on housing benefit paid to landlords who are not even required to deliver housing of a decent standard in return.

Meanwhile shortage of supply, in particular of social homes, has resulted in housing being treated as assets first and as accommodation a poor second. The minister himself mentions that councils cannot even enforce council tax premiums until a home has been identified as empty for over two years – four times the length of most private sector tenancies. This is too long. Furthermore, although government collects and reports data on empty homes there is no statutory role in bringing them into use in local authorities. This makes work on the issue patchy.

The last targeted government funding stopped in 2015 and it is no coincidence that numbers have risen since. That fund worked. It is time government backed local councils with investment to bring long-term empty homes into use for those in housing need, through incentives and through leasing and purchase schemes, as well as the currently failing enforcement regime.
Chris Bailey
Campaign Manager, Action on Empty Homes

• At Habinteg, as an organisation that provides and promotes accessible homes, we read with some optimism the news that the chancellor intends to offer a £3bn fix for Britain’s “broken housing market” (Report, 14 March). While it’s clear that more affordable housing needs to be created, it’s vitally important that the new publicly funded homes are of a standard that will continue to meet people’s needs into the future.

A report released by the Centre for Ageing Better shows millions of us are at risk of a poor quality of life in its later stages. It highlights that 93% of current UK housing fails even the most basic accessibility standards. We know our population is ageing and that he number of disabled people is increasing. Housing this growing population in suitably accessible and adaptable homes is one of the major challenges we face in the UK. Failing to address it will inevitably add to the already increasing demands on our health and social care systems.

Since October 2015, building regulations have provided a specification for accessible, adaptable homes. Category 2 homes aren’t specialist provision, but homes that are great for a whole range of households, adaptable to the needs of the people that live in them and throughout the life of the home itself.

We want to see new homes in all sectors built to this standard as a minimum requirement and government has a great opportunity to lead the way. Requiring new homes built through the extended affordable homes guarantee scheme to meet the Category 2 standard would help ensure their long-lasting value for public money, and make them homes fit for the demands of the future.
Sheron Carter
Chief executive, Habinteg

• Philip Hammond’s pledge of £3bn for “affordable” housing should be enough to build all of 30,000 new homes, but raises a number of questions. What is the definition of affordability, how many, if any, will be provided by local authorities or social housing providers, what is the anticipated geographical distribution, and will the space and energy standards be an improvement on the present levels, which are among the lowest in Europe?
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords

• I cannot be the only person who noted the incongruity when turning the page from your “Fantasy house hunt” feature (Money, 16 March) to your “Tales of austerity” (Membership page, 16 March). The continuing presence of the former (minimum house price £345,000) in the Guardian in these difficult times seems like a very bad “up yours” joke at the expense of those who struggle to pay the cost of the paper, never mind a £1.695m, 20-acre farm in Somerset. Can we lose Fantasy house hunt, or replace it with “Practical house hunt” featuring a range of affordable, for sale and for rent houses across the country?
Stephen McCrory
Belfast

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