Jesus Life 90 - Jesus Army

Homeless headlines
Two recent headlines in the The Guardian tell the
bleak story.
• “Number of rough sleepers in England rises by
a fifth. Overall, 2,181 people were recorded as
sleeping rough on any one night in England in
autumn 2011 – up from 1,768 the year before”
(23 February 2012).
• “Homelessness jumps by 14 per cent in a
year: almost 50,000 households across England
accepted as homeless as repossession rates and
unemployment rise” (8 March 2012).
Continued from previous page
and homelessness.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders
(CML), repossessions are likely to rise from 40,000
in 2011 to 45,000 in 2012. Recent figures from the
Moneyplus Group website revealed that in the first
three months of 2011 a total of 9,100 people were
evicted from their homes as a result of defaulting
on their mortgage.
Homelessness, tragically, also affects children.
Kay Boycott, the director of communications,
policy and campaigns for Shelter, the housing
and homelessness charity, said, “We cannot
underestimate the damage homelessness has
on children’s lives. They often miss out on vital
schooling because they are shunted from place to
place and many become ill by the poor conditions
they are forced to live in.”
What can be done? In recent years a number
of ambitious projects have been launched
around the UK to empower people to step out
of the cycle of homelessness, worklessness,
poverty and sometimes accompanying traps of
crime and addiction.
Create is a new, innovative and award-winning
social enterprise in the north of England,
running top-quality food businesses where all
profits go to funding an academy for training,
providing work experience and creating jobs for
people who have been homeless, marginalized
or vulnerable in some way.
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8 Jesus Life
Photo: leroys, sxc.hu
www.jesus.org.uk