Its been very strange reading this thread, because approximately 6 weeks ago I bumped into an old acquaintance who had fallen on hard times, heres what we have been through so far....
I saw "dave" stood at a bus stop and pulled up to see if he wanted a lift, he said yeah and in he jumped, I asked where to, he said some dive B&B in a town close to our village.
We got talking about why he was there and basically he had fallen out with his girlfriend, and she kicked him out. he had been to the council who said that he wasn't a priority and that he should "sofa surf" until his application to bid on social housing properties was processed (up to 6 weeks!)
I should add that Dave is unemployed and has been looking after his girlfriend who has a rather serious heart problem, and his little boy who is apparently autistic and quite a handful.
Anyways when dropping him at the hotel I did the friendly thing and said if there was anything I could do to help just give me a shout.
4 days later he was on my doorstep asking if I could put him up for a few nights...he had ran out of money for the B&B, and spent the previous night rough in a local park!
Fast forward to now, he is still sleeping at my house, trying to find a job....I have been to the council offices with him who went through what limited options he had, which amounted to bouncing between friends houses. I asked the question why nothing could be done and the lady said (in her words) "Dave is quite simply not a priority, he is not a female, he does not have a child with him, he does not have drink or drug dependencies, he is not mentally or physically disabled and he is not an ethnic minority....I wish I could do more but the system simply does not allow fast tracking etc"
I was absolutely gobsmacked both with her reply and also that the "System" would allow him to be in this situation.
So far Dave has been in touch with 2 local homelessness charities, the council, social services, CAB and also our local councillor....nothing from any of them.
The scary thing is that when he is able to bid on properties the cheapest ones in our area seem to be costing about £83 per week, as far as weve been told the council will contribute £55 toward his rent....where will he find the other £28 to make up the shortfall?
I know that a job is key to solving this problem and he has been applying for jobs, walking round shops and factories asking for work etc but so far nothing has come up.
So like I said, here we are 6 weeks later...hes still sleeping on my sofa, and it feels like he is no further forward at all.
but oh no you cannot be a victim of racism if you are a white male. You're just ****** and need to take it on the chin.
