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A meticulous investigation exposes the shameful truths surrounding the UK’s homeless population
The reporting project that became this book began with a man called Tony, who froze to death in December 2017 in the back garden of the home in Lowestoft from which he had been evicted, bankrupt, a few months before. Learning of Tony’s story, Maeve McClenaghan began what became an 18-month project to record every instance in the UK of a person dying while homeless.
In 2018, according to the charity Crisis, there were around 12,000 people sleeping rough in England. A further 276,100 people were living in temporary accommodation, sofa-surfing with family and friends, or in tents, cars or on public transport. Even the government’s own, lower, estimates were scandalous, with 4,751 rough sleepers representing an increase of 169% on the year that David Cameron’s Conservative government came to power. In No Fixed Abode, McClenaghan sets out in meticulously researched detail the consequences of this crisis for its most marginalised victims. Continue reading...