Christmas is an understandable deadline for getting people off the streets. The thought of someone sleeping outside becomes especially uncomfortable when the rest of us are making arrangements to be indoors together. Yet there is something worth examining in that seasonal discomfort. A person’s need for somewhere safe to sleep does not become greater because our celebrations make it harder to overlook.
The Guardian reports that Andy Burnham plans to double spending on tackling rough sleeping to almost £900 million by the end of the current parliament, including a further £432 million in the forthcoming budget. The report describes a drive to get people off the streets by Christmas, with an offer of a safe route indoors or wider support for every rough sleeper in England. These are reported commitments; the summary gives us no basis for judging what they will achieve.
A deadline can still serve a useful purpose. Without one, an urgent human need can spend years being discussed as a long-term challenge. Someone facing another night outside has good reason to want urgency from people who have somewhere to go when the meeting finishes.
The difficulty comes when the deadline begins to define the task. Getting someone indoors is an immediate, necessary achievement. Whether they can begin to rely on having somewhere to live is a question that continues after the seasonal attention has moved elsewhere.
Consider how much ordinary life depends on being able to make small assumptions: that there will be somewhere to return to, that possessions can be left safely, that tomorrow need not begin with finding shelter again. Remove those assumptions and even modest plans become complicated. We should be cautious about asking people to rebuild their lives while leaving the ground beneath them uncertain.
Public money deserves scrutiny, including questions about what happens after an initial placement. Asking those questions need not diminish the urgency of getting someone through a door tonight.
There is a responsibility here for the rest of us, too. When the promised deadline arrives, it will be tempting to look for a number and decide whether the job has been done. We could keep paying attention beyond that moment, particularly to whether people have gained enough security to make plans of their own. January is an ordinary month in which to need a home.