Articles:7 Steps to Ending The Need For Homelessness

From EveryonesHome.org.uk

How do you get EveryoneHome?

Why would you want to? It must always be remembered that homeless lifestyles are varied and valid - and contrary to mainstream opinion often do not beg or cause any criminality whatsoever. Although some do of course. That's why on this site it is more proper to speak of ending the need for homelessness rather than homelessness itself. Banning it, like so many governments have tried to do, in being if not in fact or law, can never be a real answer- rather another aspect of the wider problem.

Focusing on people individually when asking when can we get Everyone a Home is therefore useless.

EveryonesHome aims to focus on provision of services and the uptake of those services through constantly rolling analysis of the sector and itself when it opens it's first emergency accommodation project. Which basically means - this is the site for open uncensored dialogue and improvement over time in the Social, emergency and council accommodation markets - bringing it all together.

Through the Directory and Advice and Campaigns Sections EveryonesHome can bring greater unity and depth in a sector disparately catering to so many different "profiles" of need and yet despite many 'umbrella' organisations and central government interest - not actually interfacing well enough to resolve the fundamental questions of homelessness for themselves.

This site is about answering questions to bring solutions and provide fair access and accountability - bringing it all together.

• Is Housing a government responsibility or not?
• Is it even possible to end the need for homelessness in a civilised nation?
• What will it take? Where are we? How are we doing?
• Should you give money to beggars? Should you even give money to homelessness charities?
• Can we trust the government and homelessness industry to ensure the need for homelessness is reduced year on year towards a goal that dries up their gravy train?
• How can it be documented and proved that homelessness is actually decreasing properly and people are not just being cleared off streets constantly, or pushed into inappropriate supported and unsupported projects?

This is a site to help bring forth those answers.

But here's seven steps this small organisation is taking to help end the need for homelessness:

1. An Information Revolution: Comprehensible, Comprehensive, Centralised and most importantly Community created and maintained: Our London Directory will evolve to the stage in a month where it's 10 times better than existing solutions of finding services - whether it be emergency accommodation - or drama classes. Plus - users of services can rate them here, now, and will not be censorable and can be anonymous!

2. A Campaigning and Research Platform: - openly accessible, instantly alterable, and instantly published for all to see, learn from and interact with. In other words. It's a wiki! Your individual campaigns or those of other organisations can be placed upon the site in the relevant Campaigns section. EveryonesHome will gladly trade with everyone to help the homelessness situation, but make treaties with no-one, because only in the free marketplace of ideas and action can real change come. There's no hive mentality here.

3. A "Social Experiment" of our concept initial - instant access homelessness Shelter. Free at the point of use, supported by in-kind donations and/or individual corporate/governmental charity - but without ever succumbing to becoming an agency of the Government, or adjunct to any other organisation. It will be ruthlessly studied and analysed in itself when operating to provide extra clarity to the confusion of why street sleeping still blights London's conscience.

4. Direct Action Casework: This organisation will grow to the stage where instead of dishing out advice and counting ourselves a success when people push off and don't ask for anymore jaw jaw- we will as a community of individuals - mentor individual people through the maze and out the other side into long term secure accommodation that works for them.

5. A Community of Conflict and Consensus. Any right minded person wants to see homelessness ended and this site, democratic by the fact that on a wiki, and he/she who cares most gets the last edit. A wiki of people who care can be a powerful force for good as wikipedia has demonstrated, despite it's bad press of late.

6. Provision of real time and historical mapped and beautifully presented data on figures needing assistance and gaining it on our site in real time, provides hotspots of activity that define where EveryonesHome esque facilities would be most utilized to help people in both brief and prolonged periods of housing problems. In association to academic, governmental and grass roots power structures and letting EVERYONE have their say: we hope this site can help to improve the information and honesty of what is going on in our darker housing nightmares.

7. Thus the synergy of this resource site and voluntary action can within five years tip the balance of the game from one of waste and confusion to clarity and order, from people chasing services - to services chasing people... Advice will be centralised, locatable, instantly updating and open to comment in the appropriate places as previously mentioned. Our first pilot shelter will be perfected and sought to be replicated in time elsewhere. It doesn't matter the pilot Shelter idea is centered around a dense ordered group of small hotel cubicles, because it's a real and achievable way of ending the need for street homelessness in London (for a fantastic price!). The other great organisations in the field can work on getting everyone a nicer home, we just want to make sure there's enough safe, comfortable, yet affordable places for rough sleepers in London that everyone got a home even in personal times of distress that can happen to anyone. Everyone deserves decent accommodation, and it is possible - but focus is essential and here EveryonesHome is focused purely on raising money for short term highly practical easily accessed temporary emergency accommodation. Simple as that. That's what we want to do with the dosh. All the other great stuff above - we can do for free: and provide the competition that Shelter so desperately needs... ;)

EveryonesHome.org.uk is the organisation to end homelessness in London and beyond because it's your interactive site to autonomous yet joined up action, and seamlessly well protected, referenced, checked and consolidated homelessness information for London and soon the UK, combined with a shelter that addresses the current lack of provision for homeless persons without "a local connection" or massive drug or mental health problem... When the government hasn't got the balls or passion to get EveryoneHome and the homelessness sector hasn't the resources or leadership to pull together to do so through existing 'official' channels, we the people ourselves as individuals under one simple umbrella aim can do it, and only we can do it. It's time to take some responsibility and get involved. So Help us grow and we can get EveryonesHome a shelter to be part of the honest determination of if and when can Everyone have a home.