Powerful Memoir of homelessness in the UK

Daniel Lavelle’s Down and Out, reveals his own experiences as well as those of witty and complex, hopeful individuals he has encountered who have been shunned or forgotten by the state that is supposed to provide for them- in order to shine a powerful light on this dire situation. Daniel Lavelle,  a freelance feature writer, graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BA in history.  He has covered serious topics such as mental health, homelessness, and culture for the Guardian and co-authored the series “The Empty Doorway”, New Statesman, and the Independent. He also has an MA in journalism from Goldsmiths and in 2017 he received the Guardian’s Hugo Young Award for an opinion piece on his experience of homelessness.

Daniel Lavelle, left care at the age of nineteen, experienced homelessness for the first time not long after, and began life navigating broken social services that were not fit for purpose, many like him slipping through the cracks. Assessing its significance, its precursors and causes as well as the role played by government, austerity, charities, and other systems in perpetuating this crisis. He is desperately seeking to ask how we as a society might change our practices and attitudes so that, one day, we can bring this injustice to an end. A damning personal tale of how the system fails our kids, with government incompetence, alcoholism, and child abuse, from supervised injection sites for drug users to Housing First. The book instills a sense of empathy for those pushed to the periphery of society by a neglectful state.

Down and Out is a powerful expose of the homelessness crisis, the homeless vending machine that was installed in Nottingham by the charity Action Against Hunger in 2017, provides food and other essentials for people sleeping rough, although charity schemes with good intentions rarely get to the root of the problem, as Lavelle eloquently puts it, it would be “bad for business”.  As getting to the root of the problem would mean redesigning and recalibrating society completely.  He starts with an ADHD diagnosis in childhood and how a school system that didn’t cater to his needs, among other things caused trauma. People become, and often stay homeless, because the education system doesn’t work, as there is no mental health support, and because housing is not treated as the fundamental human right it should be. The criminalisation and stigma around homelessness are contributing factors to not enacting concrete solutions. He recommends psychological support, the role of charities, and basic rights for tenants. We should question what the government and society more broadly are doing. The pandemic finally alerted the UK government to the seriousness of the homelessness crisis. The Everyone in the scheme, implemented during the first lockdown to house rough sleepers, helped 37, 430 people find temporary accommodation and in 2021, over 26, 000 people were able to move into permanent accommodation thanks to the scheme. Down and Out forces us to rethink our own biases and prejudices, and about the need to change our attitude and practices as a society in order to end inequality, because what benefits the vulnerable ultimately benefits everyone. Poverty is not just a consequence of moral vice, something that only happens to shirkers and junkies who refuses to take responsibility. “Homelessness can happen to anyone, all it takes is a job loss, a benefit sanction, a relationship breakdown, illness or bereavement and you could be leaving behind an empty doorway”  wrote Daniel Lavelle.

Down and Out Surviving the Homelessness Crisis by Daniel Lavelle £18.99