The head of the Cardinal Hume Centre in London, Cathy Corcoran, has told the Tablet there is a toxic mix in society at present causing poverty to be on the increase, linked to changes in welfare benefits, a lack of affordable social housing and rising homelessness.
Speaking as she announced her retirement in May after 15 years at the Centre, Ms Corcoran said she thought that if Cardinal Hume saw the streets around Westminster Cathedral now, with the growing number of homeless people, he’d be taken aback, but also pragmatic: “He’d be shocked as it was his mission thirty years ago to get to grips with the problem. He’d want to do something about it and would have great compassion particularly for the young people whose lives are being blighted at such an early age.”
So, asked the Tablet, was she also shocked that despite all the resources that have been directed at the problem, homelessness is on such a sharp increase? ”Yes, especially as so much progress has been made over the years but I am also pleased that the issue of homelessness is rising up the political agenda, and that more people given the visibility of homelessness, want action.”
Homelessness has more than doubled in London since 2010, and now stands at more than 8000.
But that figure, she pointed out, is just the counted ones. Thousands more are the “hidden homeless”, in insecure accommodation, sleeping on floors or even, she says, staying on night buses to keep warm.
“If Cardinal Hume was here now he and I would be having a bit of a tussle and a tough conversation. He’d want to bring everyone in and focus on giving people a roof over their heads tonight. But nowadays we want to focus, at the centre, on preventative work and putting resources into stopping people losing their homes or jobs or to winning the right to remain in the UK."
She added that the Centre is also currently housing 11 child refugees: “I think he’d be delighted with that. He’d also be happy with us getting so many homeless young people into jobs and education.”
Ms Corcoran lamented the lack of a joined up national policy to tackle homelessness and its root causes. She pointed to a particular problem within the private rented sector where people are losing their homes due to the arbitrary and often unreasonable hikes in rent, a problem compounded by the lack of affordable social housing.
She wants the government to pay the issue more attention. So after decades spent in the charity sector, having started at CAFOD in 1977, Ms Corcoran said she won’t be escaping into retirement and will be looking to find new ways of contributing: “It’s been an absolute privilege to work for two such great organisations. I can’t just stop. I still need to find ways of channelling my anger at the injustice of it all into something positive so that I can do something to make things better.”
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