I was recently working with a man whose mother was in a hospice. He couldn’t afford the bus, so every day until she died he walked a six-mile round trip from his home to see her. That’s an extreme example, but it’s indicative of the types of financial situations I’ve seen the cost-of-living crisis push people into.
I’ve worked as an adviser for Citizens Advice Newcastle for 15 years. I currently work across two projects, one in the west of the city and another in the south-east. Both deal with very different demographics, but a common denominator across both is the level of poverty, and how this has manifested into a lack of hope among people.
In the west end of Newcastle, the decline in terms of housing is absolutely chronic. Some of the stories me and my colleagues deal with are just horrific. You have landlords who don’t even see tenants as human beings. People are living in damp, unsafe properties and the pressure on the local authority to provide housing for people is just enormous. I’ve seen a number of situations where illegal evictions have been attempted. People have been told they’ve got three days to leave a property because the landlord has got somebody else lined up to move in. People are frightened and intimidated and, ultimately, there’s no quick solution in terms of moving them into social housing.
