'Human cost' of recession felt in Tiverton (From This is The West Country)

'Human cost' of recession felt in Tiverton

8:00pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Devon

A TIVERTON housing charity has said Mid Devon is increasingly feeling the ‘human cost’ of the country’s economic problems as the number of homeless people seeking support continues to rise.

The Churches Housing Action Team (Chat) said it saw an average of 21 people a month in 2010-11, compared to 35 a month since.

Housing advice team leader Joe Turner said: “The human cost of the financial restraints that people are living under is finally starting to show across Mid Devon.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of British people returning from abroad, mostly Europe, some from Australia, who often return home with nothing.

“There’s been an increase in relationship breakdowns, which I suspect is a consequence of severe financial stress. Single mums trying to support their children and dads struggling to keep a job and keep in touch with their kids.

“Families are overstretched with young people who end up moving out and staying with us – which we’ve always had but has become worse – and people are having their pay frozen or reduced and can’t afford to live like they used to. Then we’ve got the people we’ve always had coming in – people out of prison, children leaving care, the same as we’ve had for the last 16 years.

“We’ve also upped our game a bit and networked more across parishes and the district so more people know we’re here.”

Mr Turner said Chat tries to build people’s morale and provides them with an address, emergency food parcels, a phone to use and help replacing essential ID.

He added: “We’ve not closed the doors on anyone yet but it’s going to be hard to keep absorbing this level of increase.”