TIMELINE OF HOMELESSNESS ISSUES THIS YEAR
Manchester as a city has always been home to rough sleepers primarily due to the nature of the city context. However, there has been a significantly sharp rise in the amount of rough sleepers in Manchester in the last 5 years. In 2010 the numbers stood at 7, today our city has nearly 200 rough sleepers on the streets. These statistics only lead us to question why, why is homelessness increasing at such an exponential rate. Comparisons in stats and poltics can be drawn here, with Conservatives coming into power in 2010. Their government policies were one of the main issues of the rise in homelessness protests seen in Manchester this year.
THE CURRENT CRISIS
ROUGH SLEEPERS DISTRIBUTION - GREATER MCR
AMOUNT OF SLEEPERS PEOPLE PER WARD
Increase of rough sleeps in Manchester from 2010 - 2014
HOMELESSNESS ISSUE ON SITE
It was one of my initial visits to Leaf St site that drew my attention to rough sleepers occupying areas of spider park. Although not overtly obvious from the photograph below, a homeless man was sleeping in the afternoon sun on the wooden blocks of the remains of the park. As not to disturb him, I photographed from a distance. Remains of rough sleeper activity are clear across the site, with empty cans and old clothes strewn in various corners. Seeing this man sleeping on site made me overtly aware of how homelessness in Manchester was effecting Hulme aswell, leading me into developing my project for the homeless population.
TEMPORARY SHELTERS IN HULME
It was recently announced that the now disused building of Hulme library will now be opened up for rough sleepers to occupy during the winter months. This came about after two high profile footballers open the doors of their renovation project to allow the homeless to take refuge over the coming winter months. This brings the issue of rough sleepers directly into Hulme as people will be making their way to the library as a place for shelter. Although the issue of rough sleepers is mainly concentrated to the city centre the issue spreads wider into inner city suburbs such as Hulme.
HOMELESSNESS IN HULME
HOMELESSNESS IN MCR
PLACES OF SHELTER, MANCHESTER
This map from the organisation rough sleepers is given to those on the streets to direct them to places where they can seek refuge, shelter, food and other services. There is a long list of places in Manchester that offers all of these amentities, however the majority are day centres where people can only come and go through the day. Manchester is in need of a shelter, a place where people can be warm, have a bed and begin rebuilding their lives. Although the work of the day centres does make a signficant difference to the lives of the homeless the need for overnight accomadation still remains.