The Ghost of Tom Joad is one of Bruce Springsteen’s lesser known but most evocative albums. Springsteen was inspired by John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath to lash out at social injustice in the USA in the 1990s. In so doing, he nailed homelessness: “No home, no job, no peace, no rest.” Twenty-five years later, homelessness continues to blight many places and societies, including our own.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 defines a person as homeless even if they have accommodation in which “it is unreasonable to continue to stay”. According to the Centre for Homelessness Impact, there are around 31,000 homeless households in Scotland. Using Scottish Government data for 2019-2020, Shelter estimated there were nearly 16,000 children in those households. The figures are likely to be underestimates as there are always the “disappeared”; those “sofa surfing” and sleeping in cars, doorways and underpasses. Additionally, there are concealed households, living under the radar with relatives and friends.

Homelessness underlies most social ills of our time, impacting particularly heavily on children and young people. According to The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, the consequences are social isolation, disturbed sleep, anxiety, poor health and disrupted education. Covid and its lockdowns have intensified the pressure on families living in unsuitable accommodation. Between April 2020 and January 2021 the number of households applying for homeless assistance increased by 20 per cent. Recent research suggests that as many as 25% of 16- to 34 -year-olds believe they could face homelessness at some point.

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Homelessness is a problem that has developed over many years.1980s Tory dogma ignored the strengths of good quality social housing that provided stability and an affordable safety net for thousands of families like mine. Councils were bludgeoned into selling off more than a million houses, inevitably impacting on waiting lists and housing benefits. As is the case with so many of Margaret Thatcher’s “reforms”, it is only now that the negative impact is fully apparent. It’s worth remembering what Mrs Thatcher said of the plight of the homeless in her 1987 Woman’s Own interview. “'I am homeless, the Government must house me!' and so they (the homeless) are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing!”

Mrs Thatcher’s insensitivity and her right to buy policy was a break with the post-war consensus on the need for massive government-led building programmes. The Blitz destroyed two million UK homes, rendering around three million people homeless. Over four nights in 1941, around 9,000 homes in Clydebank and Greenock were destroyed with many more damaged. Literally overnight, around 50,000 people became homeless. It was fortunate that it was Clement Attlee and not Margaret Thatcher who had responsibility and the will to rehouse those who had lost everything.

It was equally fortunate that back then, society was more compassionate and better led than Mrs Thatcher’s 1980s Britain. Attlee’s Labour government oversaw the building of one million new homes, 80% of which were council houses. As an encore, it established the NHS. Since then, however, there has been a marked failure of policy and will at UK level. Conservatives and Labour argue over which of them managed to build even a fraction of the immediate post-war total. Two bald men arguing over a comb.

Responsibility for housing in Scotland predates devolution, so the buck for Scottish homelessness stops north of the Border. The Scottish Government has at the very least, recognised the problem and accepted its role in addressing it. Right to buy in Scotland was ended in 2016 and two years later, the Government and Cosla launched the Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan. In her foreword, The First Minister stated that “everyone needs a safe, warm place they can call home”. The Action Plan is a vital strand in addressing the pressing social concerns that blight areas with the poorest housing. In those areas, life expectancy has stalled especially amongst women, the educational attainment gap is at its widest, alcohol and drug misuse are commonplace, while surgeries and hospitals struggle to cope with rising numbers of chronic medical conditions.

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The impact of Covid has been enormous, requiring rapid government action to support the homeless and rough sleepers in particular. The Homeless and Rough Sleeping Action Group Report published in June 2020, aimed to prevent the re-emergence of rough sleeping when memories of Covid have faded. Additionally, long-term commitment to a new generation of council housing offers the prospect of thousands of new homes for social rent.

Nevertheless, choppy waters lie ahead. The Chancellor has already warned that the dire economic impact of the pandemic will lead to many hard choices, inevitably impacting on the Scottish financial settlement. The Scottish Government’s Action Plan contains a commitment to ending homelessness altogether. It would be reassuring if all parties contesting the May elections made a similar commitment.

The homeless can struggle to be heard even at the best of times. There will be many competing voices in the post-Covid clamour for funding and support. Those lacking the human right to “a safe warm place they can call home” mustn’t be at the back of the queue when hard choices are being made. Bruce Springsteen invoked the ghost of Tom Joad in the fight against homelessness. Come May, politicians of all colours should invoke the ghost of Clement Attlee.

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