Research into homelessness and ex-military

One of our ideas was to look into homeless veterans as Maidstone is a military town, specifically looking at the support that gets provided to them and how/why they end up on the streets.

(1)"About 7,000 veterans are homeless in Britain"

(2) Maidstone is home to Invicta Park Barracks where the 36 Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers have been since 1956. It's due to close in 2027.

(3) The 36 Engineer Regiment consists of 5 squadrons and is one of the busiest units in the corps. 

(4) The Armed Forces Covenant is singed by "all 407 local authorities in mainland Great Britain and 4 Northern Ireland councils", "to date over 1,500 organisations have signed the covenant"

(5) The Armed Forces Covenant is "a pledge that together we acknowledge and understand that those who serve or who have served in the armed forces, and their families, should be treated with fairness and respect in the communities, economy and society they serve with their lives" It looks at helping members of the armed forces community to have the same level of access to government/commercial support services that any other member of the public would have. Some of the support that gets provided is; having a home, access to healthcare and financial assistance. People involved include; central government, local government and communities.

We looked at a few charities that assist soldiers either as they come out of the army or to get them off the street all together, we then contacted a few representatives from the charities with an aim to get an interview.

(6)Shelter

Shelter helps people every year struggling with housing or homeless, they do this through advice, support and legal services. Their campaign is to make sure that "one day, no one will have to turn to us".

They have a dedicated page for homeless veterans, it has specific "Help from the military" information such as informing people about the MOD's housing advice service and about the Joint service housing advice office before they leave the forces. It gives them the grounds they can be eligible to apply for it such as; "married or a separated spouse still in services family accommodation (SFA) and single and living in a hostel within 6 months of leaving the forces"

It also gives information about charities that people can contact  for help, these include;

"Veterans' Gateway is the first point of contact for veterans seeking support. It's made up of a number of military charities and can put you in touch with organisations who can help further."

It gives important information about the council helping with housing and the process it all go's through. As well as this the charity go's on to to give the qualifying conditions for emergency housing/priority need, people in priority need have children, pregnant women in the household or you're classed as vulnerable. 

(7)SSAFA

SAFA exists to "ensure that the needs of the armed forces, veterans and their families are met in an appropriate and timely way", they "relieve need, suffering and distress amongst the armed forces, veterans and families"

SAFA have a page dedicated to helping homeless soldiers in which they discuss;

Getting veterans back on their feet

**they give out food, clothes and shelter for homeless veterans, as well as looking at the support they can provide to get them off the street. Because of the amount of volunteers they have they are able to be with veterans as they rebuild their life this can range from getting through an addiction to moving into a house.**

We contacted SAFA with hopes of including them in our news report, we weren't able to get any information we could use.

**Overall we decided not to go with this idea as we weren't able to get/find information we needed to include in our report, as well as this we also found it hard to get a response from some charities. We found that although homeless veterans was an issue it wasn't necessarily an issue faced in Maidstone.**

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) Express "Is this any way to treat out soldiers? Harsh reality of sleeping rough faced by veterans" Patrick Christys 23/17http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/782860/british-veterans-homeless-sleeping-rough-mental-health

(2) Kent Online "Maidstone's Invicta Park Barracks to close in 2027" Ed Mcconnell 11/16 
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/maidstone-barracks-to-close-115297/

(3) 36 Engineer Regimenthttp://www.army.mod.uk/royalengineers/units/28651.aspx

(4)Who has signed the covenant?
https://www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk/get-involved/who-has-signed-the-covenant/

* Policy Armed Forces Covenant
https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/armed-forces-covenant

(5) Armed Forces Covenant
https://www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk/about/

(6) Shelter "Help if you're homeless veterans"
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/your_situation/ex-services

(7) SAFA "Support for homeless veterans" 
https://www.ssafa.org.uk/help-you/veterans/support-homeless-veterans