I am writing a daily blog to work through overcoming homelessness and detail the fresh start I am embarking upon with my family.
I spent yesterday doing a lot of running around for a number of reasons, but I enjoyed myself immensely. I caught up with my previous boss who runs the cleaning company I worked for. She’s doing a marvellous job at growing her business, diversifying it away from purely domestic cleaning as we discussed in the summer of 2024. Then, I was one of four people in her company including her, now she employs ten people excluding herself. It’s amazing and I am so incredibly pleased for her. If anyone deserves success, it’s her. She is a beautiful woman inside and out (think a young Meryl Streep) and she is smashing it. It is getting a little overwhelming for her, however, and we talked about the ways I could go back on payroll to help her in ways that aren’t the cleaning I am still not allowed to do. It was great to catch up with her, and I was pleased as I say that she is doing so well.
I was also pleased that the guidance I had given her based on my business coaching skills were working for her. It’s interesting, I was going to type ‘expertise’ instead of skills, but I felt that was in some way being boastful. As though I was bigging myself up – but, why shouldn’t I? I have helped numerous businesses to grow over the years, providing an objective outside perspective that business owners can miss because they’re in the thick of it. It is something I am good at, and while I am not sure I want to pursue it in terms of a business, I should be proud of what I have achieved.
I also had an amazing discussion with the CEO of a homeless charity based in Cambridge. It wasn’t about how the charity could help me in my current situation but how I could help others given my current situation. We talked about how there is a silent epidemic of middle class people struggling, of how they might be wearing nice clothes, for example, but that’s simply because they are the clothes they have. They haven’t been bought recently. The CEO said that she had been volunteering at a food bank during Covid and a man pulled up in his nice car, was well dressed and didn’t seem the typical person needing the help of a foodbank. But he said that it was the last ride out in the car as it was being taken away the next day, he was wearing the clothes that were in his wardrobe and that his reality was that he had no food to feed his family with.
We discussed how the system is not taking this seriously.
I spoke with some friends yesterday evening who are living in emergency accommodation and they said they were getting the distinct impression that the Local Authority was dragging the process out so they would give up and rent privately. They have been waiting since May for a process that is supposed to take a maximum of four weeks to get all paperwork processed and a ‘bidding number’ to be activated so they can bid on Local Authority properties. It has been almost six months with repeated requests for information that has already been provided.
We agreed that there is a sense when dealing with the Local Authorities that they do not believe that middle class people can be homeless, can be destitute. It’s the same with government civil servants, they have no empathy or awareness that anyone can hit hard times. Apparently, research has shown that many people are three pay cheques away from devastation. But that is simply not appreciated, understood or integrated across government departments. It’s a form of bigotry really – you can only be poor to have our help, and you can’t be poor if you live in a nice house and have nice things even if you’re in danger of losing it all. It’s inverted snobbery.
All of this is compounded by a system that just doesn’t work. The left hand rarely knows what the right hand is doing in government at the best of times, and this is not the best of times. Far from it. We have a situation where housing is separate to the welfare system in both central and local government so there is no chance for joined-up thinking, for a strategic view of how the state can provide the safety net the welfare state and state housing is supposed to be. Public help for people and businesses is not meant to be permanent, it’s meant to be something that assists people to get on their feet again. It’s meant to support those who fall upon hard times, to get them out of it so they can go on and support themselves. Unless you have lifelong problems, which the state absolutely should support, it is not meant to be forever. The problem is that this fact is forgotten, hence the over-stretched system that is breaking.
If we had a robust, functioning, education system then people wouldn’t have recourse to the welfare system as they would have an education that would help them access employment opportunities or feel equipped to be entrepreneurs. But that whole argument is for another time.
It was, as I say, a very interesting discussion and I will be having further meetings and discussions with the charity to see how I can help. With 20-odd years of lobbying experience behind me, experience in the public sector and my own lived experience, I hope I can highlight the reality for many people in the so-called middle class.
In terms of keeping myself accountable, whilst I didn’t write yesterday I did do a huge amount towards community in many ways. And I walked a LOT yesterday which meant I did something for my health and wellbeing. All in all, it was a good day.
Because I am soaring. I am thriving. I am successful. And I am so very, very grateful.
Louisa Simpson 