We Need To Care About Homelessness All The Time – Not Just When It’s Abnormally Freezing Outside

This is your weekly instalment of WTF is going on because, these days, a lot can happen in a week…

Today is reportedly the coldest day EVER. Finishing off a week which has seen sub-zero temperatures become the normal as Storm Emma blows 'the Beast from the East' around we are now experiencing what some people (The Daily Express) are calling the coldest day since records began.

Snow - who knew frozen rain could be so divisive or disruptive . All week people have shared remarkably similar snaps on Instagram of their frozen surroundings/snowballing/ever so slightly delayed trains. Some have rolled their eyes, some have skived off work, some have been genuinely excited and others (me) have been super stressed because they've got shit to do and it's taking double the amount of time to walk anywhere.

Interspersed amongst the mixed emotions and (cough everyone's snow pics look the same cough) Instagramming about snow, however, people have also been sharing posts about how you can help anyone you see sleeping rough when it's this cold, namely by calling StreetLink or dropping a pin on their website.

It's no exaggeration to say that the weather we're experiencing is a life or death situation for anyone living on the streets, putting your leaky trainers, terminated train or cold Deliveroo into rather harsh perspective. It's for that reason that Severe Weather Emergency Protocol exists, giving Local Authorities across the country procedures to follow to prevent unavoidable deaths. They're supposed to extend night shelters and, with the help of organisations like StreetLink, get people off the streets.

However, as some people's posts on Instagram suggest, it's not actually the case that councils are legally obliged to give anyone shelter. That, I'm afraid, is fake news. If temperatures are sub zero for three nights in a row it's expected that councils should open emergency shelters but there is no law compelling them to do so. If only there were.

StreetLink report that they received 3,600 alerts between Monday and Tuesday alone, 2,032 of these were in London. If the number of people posting about them and encouraging others to get in touch about homelessness in their area, this number must surely have risen.

It can only be good that so many people (in my feed at least) have been posting about StreetLink and other homelessness helplines this week. However, it does beg the question: what are we doing about homelessness the rest of the year?

In Britain extreme weather is rare, which goes some way to explain why snow is still so totally thrilling and incapacitating for us as a nation every time is falls. Homelessness, however, is not seasonal. It is not uncommon, in fact, it has been steadily rising for some time now.

**READ MORE: Facts About Women Around The World **

Instagramming about how to help under these unusual circumstances is ethically neutral. It might, at worst, make you feel good and, at best, actually prompt someone to make a call about the person they pass on their way home from work/the pub/a tinder date but it does nothing at all to reduce the harm caused by the homelessness as usual that we'll return top as soon as the snow melts. It's not bad but it feels, well…a bit…inadequate.

We shouldn't only care about homelessness when it's freezing - when we can imagine in very real terms how horrific it would be to be sleeping outside. We should care all the time. The number of people sleeping outside in 2017 was up 15% from 2016 and 169% from 2010, as citizens of one of the richest countries in the world that should make us feel ashamed every day.

We have failed as a society when that many people are forced to sleep rough and Instagramming about it because it looks a bit suspect not to isn't the answer. Sharing a story with StreetLink's number is the Instagram equivalent of Band Aid 30 - it's well-meant, benignly positive and offends nobody but, ultimately, it's just a gesture.

Post about homelessness this week, by all means. Go out and try to help as many people as you possibly can. But remember this: homelessness is the sharp end of the housing crisis, there are thousands upon thousands of empty homes in this country and we could afford to house these people. Referring them to charities in an emergency is piecemeal and make do, if you really want to help make sure your there for them when the thaw comes too.

Don't just Instagram about this issue. If you see someone sleeping rough over the next few days and want to help, you can report their location to [StreetLink ](www.streetlink.org.ukk.org.uk)or [Crisis](https://t.co/0NcDA2Vt9xcDA2Vt9x ).

After that, remember this moment and make sure to stop and speak to homeless people for the rest of the year, ask them how they are. Take an interest - not because it looks good but because you want to. And then, write to your MP and tell them you thought the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017was a step in the right direction but hardly ambitious enough.

When you've done the above, if you can, donate to Street Link or Crisis because, until our politicians get their act together and commit funds to solving homelessness, it will, sadly, fall on charities to pick up the slack.

**Follow Vicky on Twitter **@Victoria_Spratt

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.