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A GOVERNMENT scheme to help homeless people during the pandemic has come to an end. The ‘Everyone In’ initiative saw the city council offer accommodation to everyone experiencing rough sleeping in Oxford. So far, 215 out of 355 people housed have moved into more settled housing. The lease on the main ‘Everyone In’ venue – the Oxford Brookes University student accommodation, Canterbury House in Cowley Road – comes to an end on July 19. Alternative housing for the remaining 54 residents is being sought. Ahead of Canterbury House closing, Oxford City Council is exploring reopening Floyds Row. Diko Blackings, the city council’s cabinet member for affordable housing, housing security and housing the homeless, said: “The ‘Everyone In’ initiative means we’ve been able to provide safe housing for more than 350 vulnerable homeless people since the first lockdown 15 months ago.
Attempts to answer that simple question have filled countless books, Government reports, newspapers articles and television documentaries. Indeed, there are probably almost as many answers to that question as there are homeless people. Besides which, getting a job in and of itself is not a guaranteed path to getting a permanent home. And, even if you don’t care a jot about helping others, you might well be moved by the thought that, as long as the problem of homelessness exists, it seems certain that our Government will continue to spend a huge amount of time and money trying to tackle it, so if only from the most purely practical point of view, it would seem extremely sensible to tackle the root causes of the problem.
A CAMPAIGN calling on people to help the homeless in Oxfordshire this winter has raised a grand total of £60,000. The Oxfordshire Homeless Movement has run a winter campaign for the last three years, backed by the Oxford Mail. This year, the charity which co-ordinates efforts to help rough sleepers find a home received £40,000 in donations from people across the county, topped up by a further £20,000 of match funding from the Oxfordshire Community Foundation. Among those who have helped include web design agency Versantus, which donated money it would usually spend on Christmas festivities, and local residents who gave at community celebrations such as a Christmas lights event in Besselsleigh.
Attempts to answer that simple question have filled countless books, Government reports, newspapers articles and television documentaries. Indeed, there are probably almost as many answers to that question as there are homeless people. Besides which, getting a job in and of itself is not a guaranteed path to getting a permanent home. And, even if you don’t care a jot about helping others, you might well be moved by the thought that, as long as the problem of homelessness exists, it seems certain that our Government will continue to spend a huge amount of time and money trying to tackle it, so if only from the most purely practical point of view, it would seem extremely sensible to tackle the root causes of the problem.