Nation to Celebrate over 65s with Silver Sunday

On this week’s Thrift Urban Housing blog I will be discussing the over 65s event that will be taking place across the country by hosting activities for elderly people. Silver Sunday gives the elderly the chance to meet new people as well as revive a traditional sense of community by bringing people together through a variety of activities.

Thrift Urban Housing is a housing charity that supports less privileged people who are in need; people who are capable of taking care of themselves but need solid support in doing so.

Loneliness a Serious Problem for the Elderly

The Silver Sunday event was launched in 2012 by The Sir Simon Milton Foundation with the key incentive being loneliness among elderly people. A report into this issue revealed that over a third of people over the age of 75 felt they were lonely. Silver Sunday gives them the opportunity to leave their homes and brings back a sense of purpose that makes them feel like equal members of society again.

Actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley backs the event and has recently spoken out against the image of elderly people in Western society. “The Far East has a different attitude to old age entirely where the older you get, the more you’re respected and your opinions are sought. That doesn’t happen in this country.”

This subject is something that is particularly close to home for Thrift Urban Housing. Their Befriending Scheme was set up specifically to deal with the issue of loneliness and perhaps more importantly, the vulnerability resulting from loneliness. One of their key initiatives is to help elderly people stay in their homes for as long as possible through the Stay Put scheme, but as a result loneliness can occur and so have an obligation to counter that through the Befriending Scheme.

Celebrities Back the Event       

As well as Joanna Lumley, other high profile figures like London Mayor Boris Johnson, Terry Wogan and Gloria Hunniford also lend their support. Furthermore, the Daily Express has the long running Respect for the Elderly campaign which strives for better treatment of the elderly people in society.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has released data that shows a quarter of people who receive care still experience loneliness and lack social contact and acquaintances. Six per cent described feeling isolated from society. 22 per cent of elderly people receiving care and 27 per cent who were reliant on help said they lacked significant social interaction.        

Pressure Increases on UK Homeless Charities as Demand Grows

On this week’s Thrift Urban Housing blogspot, I will be discussing the unprecedented rise in homelessness that has lead leading youth homeless charity Depaul UK to suggest a 300% increase in services would be required to meet the growing demand.

Thrift Urban Housing is a housing charity that supports less privileged people who are in need; people who are capable of taking care of themselves but need solid support in doing so.

Nightstop

On a previous Thrift Urban blog post I brought you the news that Cumbria County Council had approach Depaul to set up their innovative ‘Nightstop’ scheme in Cumbria. This scheme is an emergency accommodation service that enlisted volunteers to open their doors to homeless people for the night.

This perhaps emphasised the pressure and demand that Depaul were already under to stretch their services to other parts of the country where homelessness was not given as much attention as large cities or more urban areas.

Since the beginning of this scheme, Depaul have seen a significant increase in homeless people seeking their help. The demand for beds has soared by 300% in 12 months, meaning that the charity has been forced to turn away twice as many homeless people.

Demand Stretches Depaul

Depaul currently operates in just 25% of the country and over the past three month Nightstop North East found that it had to turn away 40 young homeless people just to lack of beds. Depaul has 46 volunteers in that region, but would need at least 65 to meet the current demand. In London, Depaul requires 5 hosts in every borough with a 100 minimum in the city overall. Currently, there are only 56 in the city.

With this in mind, Depaul may appeal to its hosts to accommodate young homeless people for more than the one night that is expected. Commenting on their predicament, Chief Executive of Depaul Martin Houghton-Brown said:

“Recent times have been tough on young people, with an estimated 80,000 becoming homeless or sleeping rough last year in the UK and demand for our services rising so fast we are having to turn young people away. This is forcing more and more to sleep in unsafe places, vulnerable to exploitation and harm.”