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The homeless people of Rhyl are regarded as an embarrassment to be got rid of

Denbighshire Council is cleansing homeless families from seafront hotels because they may ‘deter holidaymakers and investors.’ BERNADETTE HORTON reports

RHYL in north Wales, like many coastal seaside towns, has suffered enormously under Tory austerity. 

A higher than average percentage of sick and disabled people live here, and wages are lower, with zero-hours contracts and seasonal employment making up the jobs that are available locally.  

Many people from the north-west of England flock here hoping for better lives, but soon realise the grass definitely is not greener. 

Homelessness is rocketing. Denbighshire County Council figures show a stark contrast where the authority spent £34,000 in 2013 on temporary bed and breakfast accommodation in the county, compared with £250,000 in 2017-18, and this figure is set to rise again.

Vast amounts of EU and Welsh government funding have been pumped into Rhyl in recent years, in order to change the fortunes of the town and its people. 

New businesses are impressed with future plans and Premier Inn and Travelodge have built new hotels and a new sun centre with waterslide attraction has also been built, alongside the multimillion-pound harbour and marina developments with new build flats lining the seafront. 

There is a feeling that perhaps Rhyl is on the up at last. This feeling is certainly that of Denbighshire’s County Council executive which is now moving homeless people and their families out of seafront hotels, as in its view, this creates a bad impression of the town for holidaymakers and investors. 

County councillors were not involved in the decision, and quite rightly there has been uproar at this callous treatment of homeless families who are being relocated to other B&Bs, often in other Welsh counties. It is a human cost, which Denbighshire bosses are ignoring.

I have seen a document from Denbighshire executive that states: “The high-level use of hotel/B+B accommodation [for homeless families] can contribute to a negative image of Rhyl and may deter holidaymakers from staying in the area … and also deters potential investors in developing existing or new facilities. These issues are magnified if high numbers of homeless people are concentrated in one or two establishments.”

The shadow minister for Wales, Labour’s Chris Ruane MP, whose Vale of Clwyd constituency contains Rhyl, told me that “Denbighshire County Council have totally mishandled this matter in a very insensitive way. 

“There is a wider issue however that goes beyond just Denbighshire. The number of people needing emergency accommodation in Denbighshire has shot up — a 125 per cent increase in two years at a time when budgets have been cut. 

“These figures will be mirrored around the country as the impact of Tory austerity, disastrous housing policy and precarious working hit the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities.”

It seems beyond reasonable doubt that Denbighshire County Council’s executive is actively seeking the gentrification of Rhyl at all costs. But these costs are human costs. 

Families priced out of both the owning and the private renting market with soaring house prices and rents. Denbighshire is a Tory/independent-led local authority which refuses to build social housing, a damning indictment when its next-door neighbour Labour-led Flintshire Council has already built new social housing and hopes to build more. 

A sad fact is that your postcode affects all aspects of your life, as a permanent home in 21st-century Britain should be a basic necessity not a luxury.

The homeless people and families involved in this mass exodus have no say on where they will be placed. They have become attached to the area, have children at schools in Rhyl, have medical practices in Rhyl, local family here too, but of course none of that counts to the heartless Denbighshire bosses, who view homeless people as an embarrassment who need to be shipped out rather than helped to find permanent homes in Rhyl.

Ann Jones, Labour’s Vale of Clwyd Assembly member, also had harsh criticism for what is happening to homeless families: “I am saddened to see the rise of those presenting themselves as homeless in Denbighshire and shocked to see those already homeless are being pushed out of temporary accommodation. 

“In Wales we now face a perfect storm of huge cuts to the Welsh settlement by Tory Westminster, and the impact welfare changes are having on families, particularly under universal credit. 

“I am disappointed Denbighshire has not accelerated a programme of building good quality and accessible housing as other councils have done. Denbighshire should review its homelessness policy.”

What is particularly disturbing is that the owners of one seafront hotel homeless people are being shipped out from really have a good rapport with the families and definitely do not want them to leave. 

In fact, due to the revenue they receive from the council to house the homeless, especially over the winter months, the owners are now worried over how they will manage financially, and they are looking to lay off staff at the hotel as a result. 

The lack of consultation by Denbighshire and the draconian order to leave, with some families having only 24 hours or so to pack up their things, has resulted in a furore between homeless people, the hotel owners, some county councillors and Denbighshire executive. 

James Ball, a Labour Rhyl town councillor, spoke to me saying: “I was the first Labour councillor to visit the Westminster seafront hotel and talk to homeless residents and the owners. 

“The people I met are the innocent victims of unprecedented corporatism and privatisation by the local authority. Rhyl, ravaged by crippling deprivation, is earmarked for further gentrification, euphemistically billed as regeneration by the secretive Tory Denbighshire cabinet. What is happening at the Westminster hotel is the public manifestation of a usually secretive class war waged against the most vulnerable in our community.”

There has been the usual bluster, backtracking and smarmy words to smooth over this scandal by the local authority. Indeed, one independent cabinet member, Councillor Bobby Feely, who had previously stated the homeless would have a negative impact on the tourist and regeneration programmes for Rhyl, was forced to grudgingly apologise and made a fleeting visit to the homeless families in an attempt to placate all involved. She used issues regarding planning consent in order to soften her odious remarks.

Gentrification, whether it be in London or Rhyl, has a massive impact on working-class people. We have tipped over the point where owning your own home was in reach. 

We are now in some kind of dystopian Britain where ordinary people can be pushed around, bought and sold, uprooted from neighbourhoods, where one wage cannot afford rent and food, and where homeless people are targets for abuse, are embarrassments to local authorities and are not treated as people who need help to get a permanent home. 

As Jeremy Corbyn highlighted recently, our main priority must be alleviating poverty in Britain in all forms. Denbighshire County Council executive should hang their heads in shame, and start helping homeless people, not shipping them out from their communities and networks of support. 

The language of poverty must change, no more “strivers and shirkers,” no more pointed fingers and screaming social media posts about people who have lost homes and find themselves homeless in a B&B. It can happen to any one of us. Working-class people must speak out in protection of our most vulnerable, or we are no better than the Tory politicians who govern us.

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