THE homelessness problem in St Helens is the worst I can ever remember – and that seems to be the picture nationally.


I never thought I would see the day where we have so many people living in shop doorways. 


This is supposedly a prosperous country and yet we cannot give people a roof over their heads.


It has now become normal and acceptable to see people sleeping in the streets and my heart genuinely bleeds for these people you see dossed down in Church Street without judging how they have got there.


Are they going to be there when the winter comes?

The affordable housing situation in this country is a sick joke and we need to go back to the things we did after the war when even after such a huge crisis we built council houses and everyone had a job.


If there is nowhere for the people living rough to go to then we should create places.


But if there is property available, then maybe we have to start showing some tough love.


By that I mean a direct intervention by the authorities, taking the people off the street and putting them into this accommodation with a warning issued about the consequences if they choose to return to the streets.

And rather than squeezing benefits, is it not time we got back to the post war consensus of full employment and guarantee every school leaver a real job and do away with the need for benefits?


Mike Crawford, 
Dentons Green