GLARING PROBLEM OF INVISIBLE HOMELESSNESS URGENTLY NEEDS ADDRESSING

Cymraeg
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Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrats <montlibdems@gmail.com>

GLARING PROBLEM OF INVISIBLE HOMELESSNESS URGENTLY NEEDS ADDRESSING - ÖPIK

February 12, 2009 9:59 AM

During a Liberal Democrat Opposition Day debate today on Housing Waiting List, Lembit Öpik MP for Montgomeryshire intervened during a speech by the Conservative Housing Spokesperson on homelessness.

During the debate, he said:

"Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the work that Crisis, the homelessness charity, has done, which quite clearly shows that many more people are sleeping rough? The hidden homeless-people who are living in other people's homes, in frankly second-world conditions-contribute to the problem. Does he agree with me and with David Coulthread from Crisis that we have to be more honest about the figures before we can have a more honest strategy to resolve the issues?"

Commenting after the debate, Lembit said:

"I have been working with representatives of the Crisis charity to establish what we need to address this pressing problem. Montgomeryshire has a large amount of "hidden homeless" people, who depend on the goodwill of their friends for accommodation. We're not scoring highly as a so-called first world nation at the moment in this regard. That's why I'll be doing my best to promote the Crisis charity's approach in our county. Even if the problem persists nationwide, I'm optimistic we can do better in Mid-Wales."