What if I asked you to describe the first image you see in your mind when I say the word “homeless”? Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of you who are attending this training might say a person who sleeps rough or a sleeping bag or a tent on the high street. Of course, if you have worked in housing for some time, you might find it more difficult to picture anything because you already understand that you don’t have to be on the street to be homeless. In fact, people with no alternative to sleeping rough represent a small but very obvious aspect of homelessness despite what the imagery in popular media might lead you to believe.
The iceberg below reflects the number of people who accessed Shelter Cymru’s services over a four-month period in 2022. As you can see, homelessness doesn’t just live on the streets for many of the people we worked with. In fact, rough sleeping is just the tip of the iceberg when compared against people who are at risk of homelessness. What affect could helping people at an earlier stage have on how we draw an iceberg like this in the future?
There are many different ways to be homeless. This course will help you to spot the signs that a person might be at increased risk of becoming homeless.
Listen to the audio for this lesson below.