As some of you are aware I help out at a food bank in Paris, whilst I was working today I was listening to the Guardian’s in focus podcast.
Today is was rather apt - homelessness - and low and behold they mentioned Emmaus. The charity has programmes across the world and in the UK, my home country. In the podcast, the interviewee Daniel Lavelle, mentioned he’d been part of the Emmaus programme in Manchester. In exchange for 3 meals a day, lodgings and 40 hours of work a week he was paid a stipe end of £40 per week (shockingly below minimum wage) and forfeited his housing benefits to Emmaus.
Now you’d assume the objective of a charity like Emmaus would be to not exist by eradicating homelessness and yet only paying people £40 per week is appalling. It’s a job these people are undertaking within in metropolitan cities where living wages are over £11.05per hour. Emmaus is akin to a modern day workhouse and heaven forbid, if you make a mistake such as drinking, drug use etc you’re licence with the charity is terminated and you’re back on the streets at square one. This has upset me greatly - people make mistakes in life, find school tough for whatever reason, are unable to nurture important relationships, struggle with the etc. Charities like this aren’t helping social mobility they are in affect stalling it and trapping them in a system that won’t let them learn new skills relevant to them, save enough money or they’re at retirement age.
I initially thought the only good deed Stephanie did was contribute to charity, but after researching I’m shocked that she, I assume unknowingly, is contributing to this organisation. I really do urge anyone if they have the spare time to give a few hours a month to a food bank or community charity - it’s truly been eye opening to how some people are forced to live in 2022. Also please research what you’re donating to and whether it aligns with your own ethics and moral compass.
That is absolutely shocking beyond belief and like you, has greatly upset me too regarding Emmaus.
My late sister was a psy community nurse and she told me that the vast % of homeless people are such generally because of family breakdowns.
Parents die, dysfunctional families, step family problems, breadwinner loses their job, can't get another therefore can't pay the bills/mortgage resulting in depression leading, in a lot of instances, to substance abuse naturally causing marital problems/breakups and, possibly, eviction etc. You see it happen in all walks of life.
If children are involved, it is generally the male who ends up homeless and very few councils/charities re-house single males, especially if there is substance abuse involved. Hostels are their only option and I imagine that they can be scary places!
What chance has anybody got of pulling themselves out of homelessness/poverty if you only have £40 pw in your pocket? That equates to £1 ph for a 40 hour work week! How is their holiday entitlement, NI contributions and taxes paid to future safeguard state pension etc?
UK public transport fares alone are an absolute fortune these days outside of anything else given the current economic climate. I imagine that they also have to buy their own clothes/toiletries etc.
PLUS, as you say, Emmaus receives whatever benefits that person originally received too - who really knows what that might amount to?
Break it down, ordinarily employ someone at £10ph for 40 hours pw and on top add their benefits into the mix, say approx £100 (IDK) = £500pw for each individual. Give that person £40 pw and Emmaus has average £460pw in their pocket for every person- does it cost that much to house (hostal accommodation I am thinking), and feed (again, thinking via donations from local businesses etc), 1 person per week? And, let's not forget, at the end of the day, Emmaus is supposed to be a charity for homeless people. Where is the charity element in that set up?
I agree with you, all created much along the same lines of how a Victorian workhouse system operated run by "holier than thou" patrons sitting in judgement hiding behind their so called respectable mask of "charity". Not on my watch, it isn't.