Many Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families in the UK are left trapped in substandard homeless shelters for years – and urgent investment in adequate and appropriate social housing is required to prevent this.
This is the main message of a new report by London Gypsies and Travellers, produced jointly with the Roma Support Group. The two organisations will be presenting their findings and recommendations to the United Nations Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on 12th and 13th February.
“We are hoping that the United Nations will give the UK authorities guidance on how to reduce homelessness and provide adequate housing in the context of respect for human rights without discrimination,” says LGT’s Policy and Research Officer, Nancy Hawker.
The report, entitled Discrimination and Homelessness on the Streets of London, provides evidence that such action is desperately needed. It explains how Gypsies and Travellers have the right to live in specialist housing aligned with their cultural heritage – yet no Gypsy or Traveller site has been built in London since 1996 and two local authority sites have been closed. This neglect has forced Gypsies and Travellers into homelessness, living in inadequate temporary accommodation or on unauthorised encampments.
Many local authorities in London, it says, have failed to communicate clearly with providers of emergency and temporary accommodation to prevent street homelessness. The result has been an increase in the risk of harm. For example, in the last nine months LGT’s accommodation advice service has assisted three Enfield households who had turned to Council homelessness services for help, only to be eventually offered placements hundreds of miles from the carers and family they relied on.
Geraldine Lindsay, LGT Skills Development Co-ordinator, said: “We are calling on Enfield and all local authorities to stop putting people in temporary accommodation that is in poor condition, has no kitchen or laundry facilities, is located away from community and support networks and is unsafe or unsuitable for people with disabilities and those who have inherited a culture of nomadism.”
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are the most socially excluded and disadvantaged ethnic groups in the UK. “In vulnerable situations they are being placed far from their community support and in substandard housing that is inadequate by any measure,” says Nancy Hawker. “Children have died, with the conditions in homeless shelters a factor in their deaths.”
LGT and the Roma Support Group stress to the United Nations the need for urgent investment into adequate social housing, with a duty to allocate a percentage to specialist accommodation that is culturally suitable to people of nomadic heritage. “Standards of temporary accommodation must be raised to include safety, cooking and washing facilities at a minimum,” says the report.
“Local authorities should communicate effectively with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, as well as with other minoritised and socially excluded users of homelessness services, in particular by using translators and face-to-face communication.”
The United Nations Committee will consider this report and other evidence on homelessness from the UK until 28th February and will then issue recommendations to UK authorities.
You can download the report here.
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