Contrasting Lifestyles
SIMON ANTHONY HOBSON, Chair of Surviving Christmas, writes about how it has been fighting loneliness, homelessness, and social deprivation at Christmas for the last 40 years.
In Country Life magazine, in April 2021, Hastings was number 13 on a list of best coastal towns to move to in the UK. This rating was based on a variety of factors, including house prices, cleanliness of beaches, average temperature, quality of sea water and local salaries. Parts of Hastings have changed radically and there has been an influx of wealth, especially during the pandemic.
At the same time, Hastings is the most deprived lower tier local authority in Sussex and one of the most deprived in the country. The experiences of deprivation contribute to higher rates of long-term illness, disabilities, cancer, lung disease and heart problems compared with the rest of England.
Department for Work and Pensions figures show 4,036 children in Hastings were living in relative poverty in the year ending April 2022. Meaning 24.8% of children in the area were in a family whose income was below 60% of average household income and claimed child benefit and at least one other household benefit. Loneliness has no social class.
This dichotomy of very contrasting lifestyles in such a small town has echoes of how Surviving Christmas came about in 1984. It was the initiative of some community-minded people who were enjoying a wonderful Christmas lunch at the White Rock Hotel on Christmas Day 1984. From the seafront restaurant they noticed several people walking past in the atrocious weather conditions with obviously nowhere to go or anything to do. The ‘Care in the Community’ legislation had resulted in many people having to rely on bed and breakfast accommodation for their existence, rather than previously in a form of sheltered accommodation.
The festive lunch goers agreed action needed to be taken and, working with Christ Church St Leonards, they opened the Church Hall on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 1985. On Christmas Eve, there was concern whether many would turn up, and it was decided that if 12 did so, the effort would have been worth it. In the event, there were 120 guests on Christmas Day and some 100 on Boxing Day.
The only rule for those attending was that there could be no alcohol on the premises. Right from the beginning, the volunteers came up hard against social deprivation: problem drinkers – who apparently were quite well behaved – elderly men with only jacket and trousers, no shirt, underwear or outdoor clothing, and a family of two young children with a half-naked father and a mother spaced out on heroin. Surviving Christmas was born.
WHY DOES DEPRIVATION CONTINUE?
According to multiple indices of deprivation, as recently as October 2022, a key cause behind Hastings’ and Rye’s poverty levels is the rapid rise in housing costs and the lack of accommodation that can be designated as ‘affordable’. This problem has always existed in poor constituencies like Hastings and Rye but has intensified in recent years.
The latest figures obtained by Shelter showed that 371 people out of a population of 92,855 were homeless – either in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough. Of those, 48 people were sleeping rough on any given night in 2019.
A lot of insight can be had by reading the Hastings and St Leonards Anti-Poverty Strategy Refresh 2016-2020 and the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-2023. Add to that, the present cost of living crisis and the latest figures released by the council reveal that the number of homeless people has gone from 170 two years ago to more than 1,000. Surviving Christmas is bracing itself.
Fortunately, the project has gone from strength to strength over the intervening years, extending the Christmas service to hampers for families nominated by local social service agencies and registering as a charity with the Charity Commission. All this against a backdrop where street drinking was becoming a real problem, and Hastings had blossomed into a major drug smuggling town – not unlike the gin, brandy and tobacco smuggling of 200 years ago!
It had been agreed from the start that any sense of ‘us and them’ should be avoided at all costs: the committee, volunteers and guest were to be on an equal footing. This has been maintained and any attempts to have identification tags discouraged. There can sometimes be problems telling volunteers and guests apart, but, if anything, that adds to the fun!
It is our fortieth anniversary in 2024 and we invite you to keep an eye on our website survivingchristmas.co.uk for up-coming events and how to participate, donate or if you want to volunteer or entertain musically, feel free to get in touch via survivingchristmas.co.uk!
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