FROM THE EDITOR: ‘We must do more if we care about every single Sheffielder’

We have learnt a lot since March about good and bad, as well as receiving painful reminders of things we continually fail on.

Homelessness falls into all three of those. Good – we magically managed to house everybody when lockdown started. Bad – it was only temporary. Permanent fail – it is now just as bad as ever with no solution in sight.

On Page 19 you will read our latest story on what is a huge problem for our city centre. It is an issue that impacts on every town and city but must have a local solution. In that article you will see that the council says, along with its partners, it is ‘doing everything they can to help’ tackle the issue.

Whether you believe that or not, we clearly need more than our council can do because it is not getting any better.

The number of people sleeping on the streets and begging for money was far too high before lockdown. There is something absolutely awful in the fact that more people find themselves in that situation as we start to slowly recover from this pandemic.

Right when our city centre businesses need our support, the same old problem is still there and literally puts people off shopping in town.

It just isn’t good enough for any of us. Most importantly we are letting down those people who find themselves at such a low point that they feel they have no other option than to live rough.

The extent of this crisis is, perhaps, most blatant before town gets busy. On my way up High Street yesterday, just before 8am, the only people I saw were either asleep under a pile of dirty sheets or staggering across the road, high on something or other and with nowhere else to go.

I know this city like the back of my hand and even I was shocked. The lack of office workers in their suits and the usual bustle of people waiting for buses made it so blatant and heartbreaking.

So, if now is when the problem is worse than ever then now must be the time for drastic action. I simply don’t believe that Sheffield can’t do more. I know that there is incredible work going on in our homeless charities but we need all organisations pulling together as one.

You can’t ever end homelessness, although I would love to dream that one day we might. But we can help people more quickly as they fall into that awful downwards spiral. That is the least we must if we are a city that cares about every single Sheffielder.