by Grautr » Sun 17 May 2009, 09:43:00
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'H')ere is a YouTube interview with a homeless nurse in London who is living on the streets.
homeless nurse living on the streets of LondonSurely an actual interview with a homeless person in Britain is sufficient to demonstrate that there are obviously ARE homeless people in Britain?
If not, there are interviews with lots of other homeless british people on the same youtube page the link brings you to.
Ok, I watched the vids.. they interview two homeless people. My only comment is that it's interesting that they both claim they can't get help because they don't have any "problems," such as addiction or mental illness. So I dunno, that seems a step up from the homeless situation in the US. The homeless here complain that there's just no help at all, not that there's only help for the addicted / ill homeless.
Of course I know there are some people living on the streets in the UK, but my hunch is that overall it's far less by percentage than what we have here in the US.
I mean for Pete's sake, do you ever hear about tent cities being shut down in the UK? No, you don't -- because Britain doesn't have tent cities.
To sum up, this debate is going in circles. We can both throw up anecdotal evidence that isn't really conclusive. If anyone happens to have a link to some real data that compares homelessness in the US as a percentage of the population compared to European countries, I'd be interested in seeing it.
My definition of homelessness, by the way, is living on the street. I think Britain counts those in emergency housing as homeless, but what I'm interested in is whether western European nations have anywhere near the numbers of people actually sleeping on the street as we do.
Here in the Netherlands I have never seen homeless people but 4 years ago when I lived in London there were plenty. No children though. Homless families with children in England go to the top of the housing list as a priority above all other cases.