BRIDGEING THE VOID BETWEEN THE FRONT LINE AND THE FRONT DOOR

Figures for Homeless Focus group

Mark Bullock 25th August 2011

This document contains figures of discharges from HM Forces, population figures and homeless data.

Introduction
Homelessness is a factor that affects many people from all different walks of life, the reasons to why people become homeless are as varied as the people that are homeless. The most common issues that people become homeless are eviction due to unpaid rent, drug or drink issues or social disengagement. In Worcestershire there is a population of 542,200 people and it is estimated that 37,954 people are homeless this works out to 7% of the population of the county. This document will not just look at the numbers of homeless but also focus on the number of the people that are former members of HM Forces. Table 1 Shows the number of people homeless compared to those that are not home less-

Population ration Homeless to Non Homeless

37,954

Homeless Non Homeless

504,246

Table 2 This table shows the number of discharges from HM Forces between April 1998 April 2010 (12year period). The total number is 211,240 the brake drown is as follows-

Discharge Figures 1997-2010

39,900 41,900 Royal Navy Army Royal Air Force

129,440

Table 3 This table shows the number of people that are discharge to an address in Worcestershire between these dates-

People discharged to an address in Worcestershire

Royal Navy Army Royal Air Force

Between April 1998 April 2010 a total number of people discharged from the armed forces are 211,240 out of this number 31,341 that is a percentage of 14.8%. The reasons behind this are the high numbers of recruits that join from Worcestershire and the high numbers of people who work within the defence industry after discharge. Table 4 In September 2010 the current government (conservative party) asked the Defence Statistics and Data Agency (DSDA) and the Office of National Statistics to compare the number of ex forces personnel to the civilian population for each county in the UK. The parameters in which were set was anyone who has served in any branch of the armed forces between January 1939 January 2010. The results for Worcestershire was as follows-

Civlains to ex forcesWorcestershire

158,936 Civlians Ex Forces 383,264

Table 5 Table 5 shows the number of civilian homeless compared to ex forces homeless in Worcestershire in 2010-

Ex forces to civlian homeless

13,664 24,290

Civlian Ex Forces

Out of the 37,954 that are homeless in Worcestershire it works out that 13,664 people are ex forces that is a total of 36%.