I am writing a daily blog detailing my and my family’s homelessness to work through my emotions on this and to take any lessons learned from the situation. And if I can help anyone along the way, that will make me very happy.
I am not alone in my quiet homelessness. That is becoming a shocking reality to me. I am also not alone in having struggled endlessly to keep my head above the water. Just this weekend I found out via my husband that one of his schoolfriends has been made homeless because she has lost her business and her home so is now sofa surfing amongst family and friends. Another friend is about to lose his house having also lost his business, and is to move his family in with his ageing parents. And yet another friend who isn’t sure whether he can keep with his house because of the levels of debt he is in which he just cannot service any longer. What do these people have in common? They are all, frankly, bloody hard working and have tried relentlessly to improve their lives either through taking on greater responsibility at work or starting their own business. And these are not isolated people.
I find this utterly shocking and completely heartbreaking. The cost of living crisis is something that is completely undermining people. None of the people I know lead extravagant lives, they lead completely ordinary lives. This is true also of the people I know who send their children to private schools – their financial situation has been very constrained by this government’s attack on private schools. But they aren’t uber wealthy and they don’t lead extravagant lives. And even if they did, so what? It’s their right to do so as long as they’re not harming anyone else or ripping anyone else off, which they’re not. They are all hard working people just trying to get on. And having the rug pulled out from beneath them at every turn. And it’s making me really, really angry.
Why should we be working the way we are or have done, paying top-rate taxes and being the ones squeezed to the nth degree? To the point where we are popping? Very soon, there won’t be much of a middle class left. I hate this whole class divide issue – what does working class even mean anymore given the majority of people work? Is it the ham-fisted ‘definition’ given by Sir Keir that if you have more than a little in savings you’re not working class? If you earn a wage slip and can’t write a cheque to get you out of trouble (whatever that means) you’re not working class? Well, I know a fair few ‘working class’ people who have some form of savings, and who can and do write a cheque to help their children and themselves out which is their right to do so. And I know a lot of so-called middle class people who don’t have savings, any form of secondary income, earn a wage and can’t necessarily write a cheque to get themselves out of trouble – many of whom send their children to private school, apparently an upper class echelon according to the Labour government. I think we can all see that for the bullsh*t it is.
It’s the people who are silently falling into real trouble I am angry for, not least because I am one of them. In the pub we are staying in, our friend doesn’t really like the lights to be put on because of the energy costs which have gone up. Again. The cost of it starts to push his business viability into the red. People can’t come out and socialise as much as they used to…because of the cost of living. The cycle goes on. Others who have lost their businesses have lost it because large companies are retracting because of the impact of taxation on them, and they are leaving the small businesses out in the cold. One of my friends has said quite openly, small business is dead in the UK. The UK whose economy is built on small business.
It’s the personal impact of this, though. The loss of homes, the uncertainty, the fear, the stress, the anxiety and the depression it is causing. Those who are working for businesses still but who are not receiving pay rises in correlation to inflation, who are struggling under the burden of surging energy and utility bills, the cost of trying to put food on the table. It’s just…too much. People are buckling under the strain. Relationships are reaching breaking point, children are struggling with the impact, the sheer mental anguish people are silently going through is massive. They’re not necessarily going to the GP, mostly because getting appointments is difficult and even if they do, our mental health resources are already at breaking point without adding more strain onto it. And people only end up being prescribed pharmaceuticals which don’t help in the long run because they don’t deal with the problem.
And I cannot believe this isn’t happening up and down the country. People quietly breaking down under the strain of life, basically. Who are perfectly capable of life ordinarily, but life isn’t ordinary at the moment. But who is doing anything about it? Who is giving a voice to people who are struggling? I don’t think Reform UK is the answer, far from it. Anymore than the traditional parties are. There needs to be someone speaking up for the ordinary person because the fear of the future that is being created is being played out in ways that are much less than ideal. People don’t see, however, that anyone really understands what they are going through – because most politicians, frankly, don’t.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I want to find out. I’m worried any one of the people I know going through this does something final out of sheer desperation, out of being unable to see any other way forward. I’ve been through that thought process, I know how easy it is to go down that spiral and I know that some people struggle to stop. So, we need to find an answer to what is happening – and I know it isn’t just in this country. It’s globally. We have a complete dearth of decent leaders and politicians. We deserve better, and it’s up to us to make things better.
The truth is there is money in the system for everyone. Money is energy, that’s all, and there is plenty to go around. But we are told there isn’t, that there is no money around by the media, the government, and anyone else who has a vested interest in keeping the majority of people down. We need to start believing that there is money available to us, that we can be abundant in whatever way that means for us, that it’s our birthright to be happy and abundant. It is time we started to dictate the narrative about what is available to us, not anyone else who has an interest in keeping us divided. Because the current narrative? It has to end.
Because we will soar. We will thrive. We will be successful. And we will be eternally grateful.
Louisa Simpson 