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New government must tackle homelessness for mental health’s sake

Homelessness must be tackled vigorously by a new government if people with mental health problems are to be cared for in the community, says a national pressure group.

The Joint Forum of Mental Health and Homelessness, a co-ordinating group of national and local organisations, argues that nobody should be discharged from psychiatric hospital without a place to go, and is calling for a range of housing choices to be available, backed up by Housing Benefit.

‘Homelessness is distressing and dangerous for people with mental health problems, and can worsen their condition’, says the forum, which wants a new government to extend the funding of the Homeless Mentally Ill Initiative beyond London to cover the rest of the UK.

The group acknowledges that it can be difficult for people with mental health problems to manage a tenancy, pointing to recent evidence that over one in four clients had lost their accommodation because of this. It wants extra support to be provided to tenants with mental health problems, with local authority housing officers trained to provide such support.

The 1996 Housing Act removed the right of vulnerable homeless people to have priority in public housing, and the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act removed many asylum seeker’s rights to public housing entirely.