Crisis: Undercover report reveals councils now fob most desperate homeless off with nothing

[Tony Gosling]

Even in the 21st century, homeless people who ask 
their council for help are being turned away to 
sleep on the streets – cold, desperate and 
forgotten. This is nothing short of a scandal.No 
One Turned AwayTo investigate the scale of the 
problem, Crisis recently sent undercover 
researchers to 16 councils across England to test 
the support that is offered to homeless people. 
In 50 out of 87 council visits shoppers received 
little or no help at all. Across the country, 
this is likely to mean thousands of homeless 
people are asking for help and getting nothing.In 
response, Crisis has launched No One Turned Away, 
a campaign calling for politicians to review the 
help single homeless people in England get under 
the law, so no one is forced to sleep rough.To 
support the campaign, please sign the petition on 
the right of this page.Read our Turned Away research

Turned Away
https://community.crisis.org.uk/no-one-turned-away/no-one-turned-away-twitter

Eight mystery shoppers visited 16 local 
authorities across England to examine the quality 
of assistance single homeless people receive from 
Housing Options and homelessness services. The 
report reveals that at the majority of visits 
mystery shoppers were not adequately assisted:

In over half of the visits (50 out of 87) they 
received little or no help from local 
authorities, though in the scenarios they were 
presenting they had nowhere to stay that evening

Gatekeeping occurred in a third of visits (29, 
all in London) and meant that mystery shoppers 
did not receive an assessment of their needs and 
were turned away without any help
There were marked regional differences in their 
experiences. At one London authority and all of 
those outside the capital mystery shoppers were 
able to speak to a Housing Advisor and staff were 
sometimes more proactive in trying to provide assistance

A lack of privacy when they were discussing their 
circumstances and sometimes being made to feel 
like “a number” caused mystery shoppers to feel 
anxious, vulnerable and  humiliated
Crisis is calling for the law to be reviewed to 
ensure that all homeless people who approach a 
local authority are given the help they need. 
Download the report Download the summary

News Latest
news about our campaign


No One Turned Away launched at Parliament

http://www.crisis.org.uk/news.php/904/no-one-turned-away-launched-at-parliament
24 October 2014 | Topics: 
<http://www.crisis.org.uk/news.php?show=tags&tid=13>Campaign 
<http://www.crisis.org.uk/news.php?show=tags&tid=19>London
MPs gave their backing to Crisis' new campaign at the House of Commons.

[]


At the well-attended launch event, Crisis chief 
executive Jon Sparkes joined key politicians and 
decision makers from across the sector to call 
for more to be done to help homeless people get the support they need.

MPs Karen Buck (Lab), Mark Pawsey (Con) and 
Stephen Gilbert (Lib Dem) gave speeches in 
support of the campaign, before one of the 
undercover researchers behind the report outlined 
the obstacles she faced when she approached her council for help.

Crisis’ No One Turned Away campaign is calling 
for politicians to review the help single 
homeless people in England get under the law so 
that no-one is forced to sleep rough. To 
investigate the scale of the problem, Crisis sent 
undercover researchers to councils across England 
with more than half receiving little or no help at all.

<http://community.crisis.org.uk/file/policy---document-upload-or-download/MysteryShopping_Report_FINAL_web.pdf>Read 
the Turned 
Away<http://community.crisis.org.uk/file/policy---document-upload-or-download/MysteryShopping_Report_FINAL_web.pdf> 
research

report
http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/MysteryShopping_Report_FINAL_web.pdf

summary
http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/MysteryShopping_ExecSummary_Final_web.pdf 
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