Hard hearts

AN OPINION SURVEY published today by the BBC reveals some worrying public attitudes towards homelessness on the 40th anniversary of Cathy Come Home:

• Twice as many people would feel sympathetic to a homeless dog as to a homeless person with mental health or drug addiction problems or a homeless illegal immigrant
• 41% think homeless people do not want to be housed
• 50% think they refuse to help themselves
• 53% think giving money to beggars does more harm than good.

Against that, a quarter of people (rising to a third of 25-34 year olds) are worried about always having a roof over their heads and two thirds worry about not always being able to pay their rent or mortgage.

The BBC’s No Home season runs all this week on tv and radio. Go here for details of programmes.