London photographer, Anthony Dawton, has spent 18 months highlighting how the homeless have coped during the COVID-19 pandemic. He says the conditions in which London’s homeless live is worse than refugee camps he has travelled to.

Around 2,600 people are estimated to be sleeping rough on any single night in the UK, according to government figures.

an expensive cycle

One third of prisoners leaving a UK prison have nowhere to live once they are released so it comes as no surprise that approximately 41% of the British homeless population has served time in prison. Some prisoners being released from prison are known to re-commit crime to prevent themselves from being homeless. According to the Ministry of Justice national statistics the current overall reoffending rate is 26%, costing £18.1 billion annually. That’s an awful lot of money!

an example of desperation

Anthony Kemp, aged 59, confesses to a murder he committed 38 years ago (aged 21) to avoid sleeping on the streets. He was later found guilty and sentenced to 15 and a half years in jail.

Whilst you may be thinking you are glad that Mr Kemp has been brought to justice, this situation highlights the level of desperation homeless people experience and the lengths to which they would go to to avoid being homeless.

Cheaper, safe option

So why we are not improving the rehabilitation and aftercare of prisoners to ensure that they can leave prison and not have to re-offend just to have a roof over their head? If this was to be achieved then you could pretty much guarantee that the re-offending rate would decrease along with the annual re-offending cost!

Everyone deserves a warm, safe bed.

To read more about Anthony Kemp please follow: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58912035

Fiona Woodhead is our IT & Social Media Assistant