Alastair Murray is Development Co-ordinator for Christian charity Housing Justice UNLEASH. Christian Today caught up with him at last week's Housing Justice conference to find out why homelessness remains in Britain and what churches are doing to help bring people off the streets.
CT: I think many question why homelessness still exists in Britain today, despite its being such an affluent country. Is it a problem with government, with society, with the homeless people themselves?
AM: I think it's a problem that's never going to go away, in that individuals struggle in different circumstances, with poverty, with mental health problems and so on. But it's a problem that has to be addressed by society as a whole and I think we have to own it as a problem and accept that it's not up to the Government, it's not up to other people, but it's up to each one of us to respond meaningfully to the difficulties people are in.
Especially as Christians, Jesus says we have to care for our neighbour. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the one who was most like Jesus was the one who responded to the needs of those around him.
CT: Housing Justice has made the point that Christians are great at giving out and giving the resources and materials that homeless people need, but we've also got to move towards support that helps them to become independent. How can churches do that?
AM: It's a difficult one really and it's like pulling in two different directions. For some people undoubtedly, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, we have to think what is their immediate need? Their immediate need is for drugs and alcohol. You may not feel comfortable supporting them in that need but that is their need. And somehow or other they are going to have that need met.
It becomes a question of wrestling with what our response is as an individual. I am very hesitant to lay down a guideline saying you should never give money to people begging. It's true that in the majority of cases people are begging to fund a drug or alcohol problem. But I am very reluctant to make a rule about that because I think it's important for people to think about that themselves.
But I think the numbers of people rough sleeping are certainly lower than they used to be and there is a lot of political will to get homeless people off the streets and reduce the length of time that people spend on the streets, and I support that, I think that's important.
There are certainly groups that are more and more excluded, though, from getting access to hostels, like people from the accession countries to the EU who have joined since 2004. There are those who don't have access to benefits for whatever reason, there are those who cannot cope with the benefit system and so exclude themselves, and there are the longer term people who are alienated from themselves and society.
Homelessness is complicated because it covers a lot of other things. People who go to homeless services aren't always homeless. They are usually on the margins in some way and lacking of a support network in some sense or another.
CT: And destitute asylum seekers have become an issue for churches as well.
AM: Yes, that has become an issue for churches. I was at a recent conference for the Red Cross where it was estimated that around 500,000 people were in the homeless asylum bracket. That's an enormous number of people. Some have been refused, some are living without documentation, and some have been here many years and are living by the black economy, just surviving. You don't see so many of them in the street because they are often in precarious situations and have no right to be here.
