A group of Kent law students is supporting a long-term project that remembers the stories and lives of people who die homeless in the UK.
The ‘Dying Homeless Project’, run by the Museum of Homelessness (MOH), is also an ongoing campaign for change.
Students decided to get involved after MOH (a community driven social justice museum) and Catching Lives (an independent, local charity supporting the homeless) delivered a lecture at Kent as part of the Law School’s Homelessness Law and Policy module convened by Dr Ed Kirton-Darling.
Last year, MOH’s findings revealed that, from January to June 2019. a person affected by homelessness was dying every 19 hours. The MOH definition of homelessness includes people who are sleeping rough, or in emergency or temporary accommodation such as hostels and B&Bs, or sofa-surfing. The Dying Homeless Project uses information from coroners’ enquiries, media coverage, family testimony and freedom of information requests to verify details of each case.
Dr Kirton-Darling’s students took part in a workshop, hosted by MOH at Kent last month, to investigate the inquest system. Final-year Law LLB student Elishia Payumo, one of the students who participated, said: ‘We helped look for those who had died and had no information about them. It was important to try and find information about the person who died in order to give them a proper memorial. We plan on moving forward by working with the Museum of Homelessness, to sit through inquest decisions or to simply attend the vigil the MOH is holding in London on Wednesday 25 March.
‘This project has encouraged me to not ignore people living on the streets, as a simple “hello” can make their day. It has shown me that the law is not doing enough, there are enough bedrooms in the UK to put people in rooms to sleep in, yet there are still thousands of people living on streets.’
Dr Kirton-Darling is involved in ongoing research projects which focus on health and safety in housing, homelessness, and investigations into contentious death. Last year, working with Law School colleague Professor Helen Carr and the London Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committee, he investigated housing responsibilities for homeless veterans in London and identified a need for research to determine how the law may be hindering coordination and decision-making. Dr Kirton-Darling and Professor Carr had previously published a report – ‘Homeless veterans in London: Investigating housing responsibilities‘ – that found that only 9 out of 33 local councils in London made an explicit online acknowledgement of their duty towards veterans.
The module convened by Dr Kirton-Darling at Kent provides students with a strong grounding in the technical law relating to homelessness, as well as an understanding of some of the key policy debates which underlie this legal framework.