A homelessness hub in Croydon have spoken out on the impact of Covid-19 on their services and the need for greater government support to address the issue.

The Somewhere Safe To Stay Hub are at the forefront of the actions Croydon as a borough and a wider community are taking to tackle homeless in the area.

Working with Evolve Housing + Support London, they offer rough sleepers shelter but also help move them onto more stable accommodation.

However, like so many institutions, the hub have seen their services severely impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"We've been impacted very badly by the pandemic," The hub's Team Leader Evelyn Owusu told the Croydon Guardian.

"Initially the bed spaces we had here were 15 prior to Covid. When the virus hit we had to reduce that to five because the clients were sleeping in a shared space and so for safety that limited the amount of clients that could be there at any one time.

"We've lost quite a lot of bed spaces. We have to close our doors for a period just so we could figure out how to accommodate people during coronavirus.

"In the end we converted office spaces into bedrooms so we can now accommodate those five clients," she said.

The reach of coronavirus across every sector of the population has had a domino effect beyond the hub's doors too, hitting partnerships with other groups like Crisis Skylight or the Salvation Army who have also seen services impacted.

Meanwhile, moving people into accommodation has slowed down amid the pandemic, even as the virus has thrown into relief how precarious many people's economic situation has become.

"Unfortunately our target of moving people on in 72 hours is now a but longer because housing providers have to work differently, interviewing clients over the phone, having longer waiting lists because it's not just meeting the demand of our clients but of the increase in homelessness in general because of the pandemic," Evelyn pointed out.

Indeed, and Evolve Housing + Support have pointed out, new figures on homelessness in England (January 2021) for the period July to September 2020 showed that almost 70,000 households approached their local council and were found to be homeless or at risk of homelessness

The group are now calling on borough councils to include the Covid-19 pandemic as a reason for people’s homelessness when applying for housing, with Evolve Chief Executive Jeremy Gray suggesting the amend could help "thousands of people to receive the tailored support they need to become independent again." 

"The pandemic has helped us realize that homelessness can happen to anybody," Evelyn added.

"Some people have just lost their homes or places to live due to no fault of their own. It's quite interesting to see the types of clients now coming through our doors in that sense.

"The client group we see come through our doors are often people who were in employment but whose hours were reduced and so their housing was no longer affordable."

Getting people off the streets and into a safer place to stay in the medium and long term is further complicated by structural biases found in the private rented sector described by Evelyn as discrimination.

"One of the biggest barriers we face is moving our clients on through the private rented sector because they face a lot of discrimination.

"You'd be surprised to see how many landlords do not take any clients who are on benefits.

"It's through no fault of their own but it's one of the biggest barriers people can face.

"They are often judged upon their support needs, 'what is wrong with them' etc. that is often a landlord's perception when in fact these people have been working all their lives and it's only through circumstances that they find themselves in this position. It's very shocking," she said.

People are often rejected outright, she said, even with no history of rent arrears, purely for receiving what minimal state support is available on Universal Credit.

"It's a form of discrimination that they are rejected just for being on benefits.

"It's really hard to challenge it because legally they cannot put adverts barring those people from applying. Yet after you do inquire they will change their wording to say 'working professional only' or something like that.

"So many people have lost their jobs or are not working at the moment due to the pandemic. It's very difficult," Evelyn said.

The Somewhere Safe To Stay leader suggested that enhanced state support for rough sleepers, including more social and affordable housing, needs to be made available, while the structural discrimination many rough sleepers and those on benefits face to get into private renting must also be examined:

"There needs to be more support from the state. The issues we've spoken about with the private sector need to be looked into.

"There needs to be more housing available, and shared housing. especially for people with specific needs who can receive 24-hour support there," Evelyn said.