Increase in homelessness in Kingston By Natasha Radosavljevic There have always been problems in the London borough regarding homeless people. Recently there has been an increase in Kingston upon Thames of homelessness. The amount of people sleeping on the streets in Kingston have increased by eight percent in the past five years. There has been a problem with affordable housing in Kingston in the last three years. This has caused the influx of people without a place to sleep.

This has become more significant as the homeless are mainly asking for food rather than money. There are lots of people who believe that the homeless are going to use the money they receive on alcohol and drugs. Lots of these people also believe that the homeless have themselves to blame for the situation they are in. This idea stops people from giving as much money to the homeless. Therefore, their request for food instead of money shows how desperate they are. They are disadvantaged and as a community we should be helping them a lot more especially considering the increase. Giving the homeless some food isn’t enough. Government officials should be focusing more on providing affordable housing and job opportunities to these people. There are many organisations that are giving lots of help to the homeless. Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness (KCAH) have a night shelter called the Haven. This shelter is doing a great job at helping but as they only have the capacity for 30 people more must be done to solve this problem.

Homeless shelters are a great way of helping the homeless but there aren’t enough put in place. Although you might not be able to open a homeless shelter you can do a lot by volunteering and helping the homeless. How are you going to help the homeless during this cold winter?