Are The Homeless Too Comfortable?

[Kromovaracun]

https://welfareweekly.com/new-tory-housing-chief-says-rough-sleepers-are-too-comfortable-on-the-streets/

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/new-housing-minister-kit-malthouse-operated-callous-policy-to-make-life-more-uncomfortable-for-rough-sleepers_uk_5b43895fe4b07aea7542aa1a?guccounter=1

Kit Malthouse, the new housing minister, believes that "life was too comfortable on the street" and is proud of his record as a Westminster council leader making life "more uncomfortable" for the homeless in the hope (allegedly) of encouraging them into shelters.

Malthouse also supported an initiative between Westminster council and the police, in which some 30 rough sleepers were arrested in one night.

He gave this answer as a response to a question about whether he had supported "hosing homeless people out of doorways", as some of his former colleagues had suggested.

Do you think life is too comfortable for the homeless?

[Peter Pedant]

he is gonna earn the nickname
Malt Shothouse isnt he ?

[Kromovaracun]

Maybe we should think about freezing this minister's assets for a few weeks and forcing him to live on the streets. Then maybe he can tell us how cushy it is.

[Baldric]

Have posted this previously,

A fair few of the people choose the Lifestyle, I used to have premises opposite a homeless shelter, if I went in early I would often find the guests kipping in doorways on my site on bits of cardboard because they couldn't sleep in a proper bed, didn't like being enclosed and only went into the shelter to shower and eat.
Never caused me any problems tbh.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah we have a bail hostel upstream from us
( not many bodies come floating by)

[david small]

The suggestion that the homeless are too comfortable is abjectly pathetic. Sneering at those trying to cope in such situation’s shows a deep moral turpitude.

[naomi24]

//I know [he said] that sounds an awful thing to say but let me finish the argument, OK?//

So let him.

//There were, at the time [2008], plenty, well-funded – we managed to get quite a lot of funding – night shelters and night centres; we managed to extract a cheque for £130,000 for St. Martin’s so it could stay open all night. The difficulty was getting rough sleepers into those centres so that they could be interacted with, their needs could be met.//

Not that anyone could ever be accused of spinning.

[Kromovaracun]

What you're quoting is spin, Naomi.

There are very few homeless shelters in Westminster at all - still fewer which open at night. The policy was designed to shunt homeless people into other local authorities.

Plus he gave this long, rambling answer when asked if he had supported 'hosing the homeless out of doorways' - an allegation made by people who worked with him. Why couldn't he just say 'no'?

[naomi24]

Krom, //What you're quoting is spin, Naomi.//

How come what I quote from your link is spin and what you quote from your link is not?

[Kromovaracun]

Because it's clearly disingenuous. He claims that this policy - i.e. attacking homeless people - was introduced to encourage people into shelters when there are hardly any in Westminster anyway.

[Kromovaracun]

He's obviously not going to come out and admit that this was all just to push them out of his turf, is he?

[naomi24]

Krom, he said “at the time” … the time was 2008 ….. ten years ago.

[Kromovaracun]

Yes, and gave St. Martin's as an example. Which as far as I know has always been open at night anyway.

He's a politician, Naomi.

[naomi24]

Krom, I know he’s a politician – and digging up and manipulating stuff going back as far as 2004 is left wing spin.

[Kromovaracun]

It's obviously quite relevant when he's just been made housing minister, though. It's his record in office.

If I had found more centrist news sources that were reporting on this, I would have posted them. Unfortunately, these were the most comprehensive reports on it I could find.

[naomi24]

It's left wing muck-raking.

[Kromovaracun]

What? To look at a new minister's record?

Sure. I guess we should just ignore that when a new minister takes office, then. (⇀_⇀)

[naomi24]

Krom, no we shouldn’t ignore anyone’s record, but we should be honest about it rather than spin it to suit our purpose - which is what is happening here.

[Kromovaracun]

But he did say he wanted to make life for the homeless less comfortable - and his explanation makes zero sense.

This clearly is not a person who should be anywhere near high office.

[naomi24]

Krom, He said he wanted to make life less comfortable …. in order to encourage the homeless into shelters. It makes sense if you look at what he said … but you didn’t. You left the last bit off. Can't think why.

[Kromovaracun]

It says in my OP that he wanted to encourage them into shelters - with two links giving the full quote for anyone who wants it. I've already explained to you why I think the "encourage them into shelters" explanation is daft, though. The reason for it is obviously that he wanted to get them out of his LA.