There has been an explosion of controversy here in the UK in the wake of Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s comments that homelessness is a “lifestyle choice.” Homeless charities, such as Crisis, Centrepoint, St Mungo’s and Pathway, strongly criticised the comments that were made on X, and in a letter said: “Sleeping on the street is not a lifestyle choice. Laying blame with people forced to sleep rough will only push people further away from help into poverty, putting them at risk of exploitation. At the extreme end, we will see an increase in deaths and fatalities, which are totally preventable.
“People sleeping rough frequently experience violence and abuse. The impact on their physical and mental health is significant. The average age of death for people experiencing homelessness is just 45 for men and 43 for women. This is not a life people choose.”