Think of the homeless and most people would probably conjure up the same image of an individual, probably a man, sleeping in a shop doorway wrapped up against the elements.
In reality this stereotype represents just the thin end of the wedge of what can be termed people living without a home.
In Brighton and Hove alone, there is estimated to be more than 1,000 people who live in insecure housing in the form of hostels, B&Bs and sleeping on friend’s couches.
They may have a roof over their heads but these people do not have anywhere they can call home and could lose the right to that property with a moment’s notice.
These are the hidden homeless and many could slip over the precipice to become the street homeless.
Even defining the number of homeless sleeping on our streets is no simple task.
The most recent count conducted by Brighton and Hove City Council in November revealed there were 37 people sleeping in well-known homeless hotspots in the city.
Final figure
On top of that there was an estimate figure of 74 homeless people whose sleeping site was known and a final figure of 117 people presenting themselves as homeless although not actually spotted sleeping on the streets.
A new counting method incorporating homeless services expertise has seen the official homeless figures rise over the last 12 months.
Julian Haddow, Project Antifreeze manager at homeless charity Off The Fence, said: “The figures probably mean there has been a huge increase in rough sleepers but it’s difficult to directly compare because the method has changed.
“Of the 43 who were not spotted in their sleeping site, these people could be in parks in woods and could include people who are presenting themselves as homeless but are in a squat.”
Another indication of the level of street homeless is the number of people attending homeless services.
Off The Fence had 611 homeless individuals walk into its centre in 2011 and it says this is only representative of the Hove side of the city.
Beyond this figure of street homeless, is another layer of hundreds of people who are holding on by their fingernails to keep a home over their heads.
Figures from Brighton and Hove City Council show that in 2011 1086 people made an application to be registered homeless.
Classification
Fewer than half of those applications, 458, passed the strict criteria to be classified as homeless and eligible to temporary housing.
At present there are 658 people currently living in temporary accommodation in the city.
The total annual bill for finding this emergency housing for individuals and families is £10million a year although the city council only has to meet £358,000 as the majority of costs are covered by housing benefits and central government.
For the hundreds of people who turn to these services, they are at their final straw.
Beyond this, and the kindness and patience of friends and families, lies the street.
The danger is the support holding these hidden homeless away from the streets and the securely homed a further level up from falling is reducing at a time when the country’s economic times get tougher.
Cuts to legal aid and advice charities, the reductions in housing allowance and the increasing pressures of unemployment and faltering job creation could lead to a rise in both the hidden homeless and the street homeless in the next nine months or so.
Simon Hughes, operational manager at homeless day centre First Base in Montpelier Place, Brighton, said: “With times like this there is always a lag of about nine months before the impact is really felt.
“There are a lot of changes set to come into force such as changes in housing allowance and cuts to the advice services and that is when we are expecting a lot more people.
“There could be a lot of people who have no concept about life living on the street.
“It will put a strain on resources and we would need a big remodelling of the service in the way we do things.”
Rough sleepers
Homeless services act fast when new rough sleepers is found on the streets.
Such is the service staff’s familiarity with their clients; new faces are easy to spot.
And action is needed fast because even three or four days is enough for people to become entrenched to a life on the streets.
Figures by Off The Fence calculate about one in ten rough sleepers are entrenched and have lived on the streets for more than three months.
To prevent this fellow homeless service CRI run a No Second Night Out programme to get new rough sleepers off the streets as soon as possible.
Bec Davison at CRI said: “After becoming entrenched as a rough sleeper, it is more difficult for them to adjust to a life off the streets as it would be for you and I to live on the streets.
“Living on the streets, people can quickly get into destructive behaviour, self-medicating with drink and drugs and generally losing control of a structured day.
“They will often fall into groups of street people quickly for safety because no one wants to be on their own.”
She added that while that previously a person’s path towards a life on the streets would be as a result of trauma or mental health issues, a new breed of economic homeless were now being seen.
She said: “We have probably got around five or ten economic rough sleepers, people who have had stable housing and jobs in the past but are now homeless because of the recession and a range of other factors.
“We’ve not seen that in the past decade.”
Another indication of the level of hidden homeless is the number of people accessing medical services who have no fixed address.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust treated almost 800 people registered as having no fixed address in 2010/11.
Health risk
In addition, the Brighton Homeless Healthcare, a GP practice for people who are homeless founded in 1998, has about 1,000 people registered currently.
The service in Morley Street, Brighton, was founded specifically to deal with issues surrounding homeless people accessing medical services.
First Base also offers a full medical facility to homeless people including oral hygienists, podiatrists, optometrists, vaccinations and mental and sexual health facilities.
Operational manager Simon Hughes said: “It would actually take you or I longer to get checked out from head to foot then it does for the homeless people who come and visit us here.”
While Brighton and Hove is well served to meet the medical needs of the homeless, a lack of provision has been identified elsewhere in the county.
A recent joint report between Adur, Arun and Worthing councils has identified a need to improve homeless people’s access to medical support.
The report said homeless people are estimated to consume eight times more hospital inpatient services than the general population of similar age and make five times more A&E visits.
Demand
Despite this increased demand the report identified that there was only one GP surgery in the whole of Worthing which took on patients who did not have a registered address.
The report also discovered that many homeless people were being turned away by GP receptionists.
Worthing Borough Councillor Bob Smytherman sat on a panel alongside Adur and Arun councillors to discuss health issues faced by the homeless.
Coun Smytherman said there was a definite need for specialist healthcare provision for the homeless in Worthing.
He said: “If homeless people don’t get to see their GP then they have to use the much more expensive accident and emergency which cause delays for everybody else in need of that service.
“I think we are pretty well served to deal with the street homeless in Worthing but our biggest problem is the hidden homeless who don’t appear on official statistics.
“In Worthing alone there could be many hundreds of people who are sofa surfing who don’t appear on DWP figures, the electoral role or GP numbers.
“When you see that one hundred people are applying for one job then employers are not going to give people who have no fixed address a second look which will make it really difficult for these people to pull themselves out of their current situation.”
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