UK Homelessness

dippy3103

worried_jim wrote: »

Begging pays more at the weekends as there are more people out. They aren't really homeless.

You have met them then? Begging may well pay better at weekends and there may well be a few that are not homeless but you can't suggest that of all of them.

I was recently approached by a begger- saying he needed to catch the bus up to the hospital urgently as a family member had died. As luck would have it a bus to the hospital appeared. I offered to pay his bus fare rather than give him the cash. He declined and walked off.

NYM

You can't walk down Oxford Street/Regent St in London without being accosted by beggars. If you gave change to them all, you'd be broke by the time you'd get to the end of the street!

To be fair, most are Romany/other similar nationality and probably are genuinely homeless. The English beggars are often drunk (men and women)

Yes, I know...I'm generalising

worried_jim

dippy3103 wrote: »

You have met them then? Begging may well pay better at weekends and there may well be a few that are not homeless but you can't suggest that of all of them.

I was recently approached by a begger- saying he needed to catch the bus up to the hospital urgently as a family member had died. As luck would have it a bus to the hospital appeared. I offered to pay his bus fare rather than give him the cash. He declined and walked off.

Exactly my point.

MissMoneypenny

NYM wrote: »

To be fair, most are Romany/other similar nationality and probably are genuinely homeless.

Then they don't have a right to reside in the UK and are illegal.

Expect to see more on the street as all illegals are going to be homeless under the Immigrationn Bills 2014 and 2015, because a landlord will be going to jail for 5 years if they house them, even if their name isn't on the tenancy. That includes those who rent rooms too.

Even EEA citizens are not just allowed to live in the UK after their initial 3 month visit. To have a right to reside they need to be a "qualified person" under treaty rights of free movement. The UK has very strict rules now on what am EEA citizen qualified person is and they can and do, deport and ban (for 1 year) those who overstay.

dippy3103

worried_jim wrote: »

Exactly my point.

Yes. And if he genuinely in need of the bus fare I would have helped him. Who is to say he wasn't homeless?



The homeless need a hand up not a hand out.

worried_jim

dippy3103 wrote: »

Yes. And if he genuinely in need of the bus fare I would have helped him. Who is to say he wasn't homeless?



The homeless need a hand up not a hand out.

Its because he was lying to you and taking you for a total mug.

dippy3103

worried_jim wrote: »

Its because he was lying to you and taking you for a total mug.

Really? Just because he lied about why he wanted the money it doesn't mean he's boy homeless & in need. Now if I was a "total mug" I would have handed over the cash.

ab1982

Any chance you could wire a tenner to me? Sort code 105678, ac 9673472..

Need it for bus fare.

Cheers x

sangie595

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Then they don't have a right to reside in the UK and are illegal.

Why would you think that? If the people NYM spotted are "similar nationalities" to Roma, then there is a pretty high possibility that they were all born in Britain - we have a substantial Roma population in Britain who have been here centuries, some families for 500 or so years. I very much doubt that they don't have the right to reside in the UK and are illegal. They may, in fact, be more deeply entrenched in the UK than some of the posters here are!

Roma is not a nationality. It is an ethnic group, some of whom may come from Romania (where they comprise a very disadvantaged minority of 3.3% of the population), but most of whom reside in many countries across the world, not just Europe. And very few Roma are homeless - despite popular mythology, the majority are settled and you wouldn't spot them if they were your next door neighbours.

And whilst Roma communities have some bad eggs (who doesn't?) they are generally hard-working and proud people who would not be found begging on a pavement. The surviving traditional families would not accept begging as a way of life - they would trade what they have or can make, which is why, in some areas, you will find Roma women and girls selling trinkets and posies/charms. They may not be to someone's liking, but they regard selling such things preferable to begging because it is a fair trade.

Yes, some Roma do come to Britain from European countries, perversely because we are considered a country of opportunity where people are not (as) racist, unlike many of the countries they come from where institutional racism is endemic, and their lives are quite literally at risk in some places.

There is no reason to assume that any Roma is illegal or an overstayer, or even not British. And no reason to assume that anyone can identify a Roma from a British person, a Romanian person, or a Polish person. Let's not add to the discrimination Roma face by assuming anything we don't know for a fact. Whatever one thinks about immigration, it is perhaps something to be a little bit proud of, that a very disadvantaged ethnic group think that the British aren't really racist. It'd be a shame to disillusion them...

dippy3103

ab1982 wrote: »

Any chance you could wire a tenner to me? Sort code 105678, ac 9673472..

Need it for bus fare.

Cheers x

Nope.... Xx