The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester

The Meteor is proud to present our first special edition in print, which covers our latest exploration into the increasing crisis of homelessness in Manchester. The growing problem is obvious to anyone walking through the streets of Manchester where rough sleeping has increased 13-fold since 2010. Greater Manchester’s Mayor,Andy Burnham, described the rising numbers as a “humanitarian crisis” in January when the latest figures were released.

With support from the Lush Charity Pot The Meteor has investigated this expansion in human misery, and explored the main causes: the austerity-driven economic agenda and failed housing policy of government. It also gives voice to homeless people and reports on initiatives that could help them secure a home.

The Meteor special edition was well received at the Lush Summit 2018, where Chris Packham took an interest in the edition and also Satish Kumar – a man who walked from India to the UK in his quest to ban the bomb. The Lush Summit was an excellent and inspiring experience for The Meteor crew, providing us with fresh impetus to make our media organisation grow and become a trusted source of informative, though provoking and accurate stories for communities across Manchester.

Information about our upcoming Meteor Journalism Course 2018 is also included on the back cover. We have teamed up with the Centre for Investigative Journalism to offer a free twelve week training course in community journalism. If you have ever been disappointed by media coverage in your area before, this is a chance to set the record straight by producing the news yourself. The course starts in Manchester city centre on the 14 April. There is a quick and easy application to complete, check out the link here for further details.

The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester is the first of many exploration projects we aim to undertake. The final part of this project is an event at Partisan in Manchester on the 22 March, 7-9pm, showing short films on the subject of homelessness and squatting in Manchester, followed by a panel discussion concerning housing, homelessness and the role of independent media in reporting it. We would love to see you there – further details of the event will be released on our website and social media channels.

The end of this project does not end our work reporting on every aspect of the housing crisis. With national government policies set to increase the crisis over the next few years their will be no end to the stories we need to cover, and with your help and support we will cover them.

A list of venues where our publication is available is included below, if you know of anywhere that would like to stock our publications please get in touch:

Peoples History Museum – People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER

Nexus Art Cafe – 2 Dale St, Manchester M1 1JW

Three Minute Theatre – Afflecks Arcade, 35-39 Oldham St, Manchester M1 1JG

Levenshulme Inspire Centre – 747 Stockport Road, Manchester, M19 3AR

Castle Hotel – The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

Cask – 29 Liverpool Rd, Manchester, M3 4NQ

Didsbury Library – 692 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, M20 2DN

 

The Meteor team

Part of ‘The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester‘ series. The rest can be reached by clicking here

Feature Image: James KA Baker (Chris Packham with copy of The Meteor at the Lush Summit 2018)

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  • Conrad Bower

    Reporting interests include social justice, the environment, and human rights. A staunch advocate for the scientific method and rational debate for understanding the world - he believes only greater public understanding and engagement with the problems affecting society, can produce the progressive change we need. Co-founder of The Meteor.

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