With the Christmas season fast approaching, appeals from Crisis and Shelter remind us of the plight of the homeless at this time of the year.

I read that 80,000 children will be homeless this Christmas, and that a new family becomes homeless every 15 minutes, often through no fault of their own.

Sudden illness, or the loss of a job, can happen to anyone.

It is therefore all the more shocking to see the amount of building work going on here in Battersea, where it appears that people fortunate enough to live in 4-, 5- or even 6-bedroom houses, aren’t satisfied.

These same people consider it necessary to enlarge these spacious houses even further, with extensions and basements (much to the dismay of their neighbours!)

It is all the more galling that most of the fortunate few who are able to afford these luxuries, belong to the finance and banking sector.

This is the very sector which brought about the crash of 2008 which has destroyed the financial security and retirement hopes of so many “ordinary people”.

I can’t help wondering, if all the money spent on basements over recent years had instead been given to charities such as Shelter, how many more homeless families could have been helped?

I find it a sad reflection on society these days, that the most fortunate appear to be the least satisfied.

We are definitely not “all in it together”.

Judith Howard; Bramfield Road, Battersea

What do you think? Leave a comment below or send your own letter to: letters@wandsworthguardian.co.uk.

 

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