Charity warns of rise in rural homelessness

Jamie Vibert said there are limited options in the countryside and even less help

Warnings of rising rural homelessness have come from charity Turning Tides.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England last December said homelessness levels had risen by 40% in the countryside in five years, a crisis fed by stagnating wages, record house prices and housing waiting lists.

However, Turning Tides in Sussex has estimated that for every person rough sleeping, another 20 people are managing to get by without a proper roof over their heads.

The government said it was investing over £547m to provide tailored, local support.

Lucy Strong said it was hard to get a true picture of how big the problem is

Jamie Vibert, who has been homeless on and off in Sussex for 10 years, said: "I wasn't getting any help really. I was just kind of left there and it's had a huge impact on my mental health - depression, anxiety, worthlessness - I just gave up really."

He said when it came to sleeping rough in the countryside, there were limited options and even less help.

"There's quite a few people that are literally the same as me, in car parks, sheds, tents," Mr Vibert said. "A lot are tents, I mean the farm around the corner said people are living in tents and that, and it's pretty much all you really have a choice of unless you want to sleep in the fields."

'Insecurely-housed'

After years of trying to get help, Jamie now has a room at Roffey Place, a hostel run by Turning Tides in Sussex.

Lucy Strong, deputy homelessness services manager at the charity, said: "I would ask people to think of homelessness as insecurely-housed. It's not rough sleepers, it's people who don't have a stable, safe place to live.

"That's why it's harder to get a true picture of how big the problem is.

"It's harder for people to break out of homelessness in rural areas than it is for busier places where there might be more access to resources, like homelessness services, GPs, specialist services, mental health services. There really isn't that much up here."

A spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "The government is committed to ending rough sleeping and tackling homelessness across the country and that is why we are spending £2.4 billion to do so.

“We know rough sleeping can present particular challenges in rural areas and that is why we are investing over £547m through the Rough Sleeping Initiative to provide the tailored support that is needed locally, in councils across Sussex and the rest of England.”

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