Understanding Rural Homelessness

So this episode is going to discuss rural homelessness and rough sleeping.

So my first question is, do you think people are aware that homelessness and rough sleeping and deprivation exists in rural settings?

Well, if I kick off, because I mean, I have quite a short answer to that, and I think no is the short answer.

I would say that there's very much perception that, you know, the countryside is lovely.

That's where we go for days out.

That's where we have our holidays.

And lots of people quite understandably have a very positive perception um relationship with the countryside and so it seems a bit or it's difficult for people to kind of understand or imagine that there might be deprivation poverty homelessness rough sleeping and also i think because rural areas are quite large and so you might only see a tiny part of a rural area rather than kind of get a good sense of what's going on in rural areas.

So I think it's difficult.

And I think that's also, if I can just expand on that a little bit, reflected in the government's national plan for ending homelessness, because it's very much focused this particular round on urban areas, urban deprivation, and there is a lot of work to do there.

But I think it doesn't necessarily acknowledge that there is also work that needs to be done and issues that need to be acknowledged in rural areas.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I agree with exactly what Mitch is saying there.

And I think rural homelessness does look different.

It's much less visible.

And in the areas that we operate outreach services in, some of them are really quite rural.

So in Gloucestershire, for example, we cover districts such as Cotswolds and Stroud Valleys and areas like that, where we'll quite often find people in really secluded spots.

So it's much less visible than in the high street of a town or a city, in doorways and that kind of thing.

And often can involve people staying in vehicles, people staying in barns, derelict buildings and that type of thing.

I've experienced the same thing, you know, visiting rural parts of Derbyshire, where there were really significant challenges in terms of isolation for people, public transport links and people knowing that services exist there to help them as well as another barrier.

Yeah, I think rural rough sleeping especially is quite similar to women's rough sleeping in that there's a real misconception that it's rare.

It doesn't happen often.

There aren't many women or people in rural areas out there.

And as Matt and Viv have said, it is just because it looks different.

You know, that...

Kind of perception that we have of the average person sleeping rough.