Friend of mine was gathering survey results for a kids programme in London. They take council estate kids to events and do childcare and a bunch of other stuff. When asked what they liked best, the kids kept talking about the food and how you could even have seconds. Meanwhile we’ve got food banks up and down the country struggling to keep up with demand. I know families with three kids to a room smaller than the one my youngest fills with books. I can assure you pretty is very real in London.
It seems to me this may be one part of the problem. De-industrialisation means people in developed nations have surged towards cities because that is where most jobs are. But lower paid jobs just don't pay enough to support a reasonable life for a poor family in London. It would be far easier support a family on a minimum wage job in the NW or NE of the UK than in London. But there don't seem to be enough jobs to do that.
Additionally, and I say this admitting I am speaking from a position of relative ignorance, there are a huge number of non UK born immigrants, living in state subsidised housing in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I don't fully understand why this is, but maybe it is because people are placed close to other family, maybe because of jobs.
As an immigrant to the UK myself, I'm aware that I should be very sensitive to criticisms of the system, but it does feel weird to have more than 50% of social housing in the capital allocated to people not born in the country. Please take this comment with as much charity as you can, I fully admit I am not close to the reasons for this.
> it does feel weird to have more than 50% of social housing in the capital allocated to people not born in the country
It's worth adding the context that more than two thirds of that 50% have a British passport [0], and that around 40% of London's population is foreign-born [1]. This is more a natural product of circumstance than it is anything to do with preferring immigrants over British-born individuals.
As I said, I don’t know the UK context. In the US context, I went to a pretty destitute public schooling system and we provided breakfast, lunch, and (to a limited subset) dinner - plus there is SNAP/EBT.
> I know families with three kids to a room smaller than the one my youngest fills with books.
Housing is much more of an issue for the very poor, at least in the US. But I don’t agree that it has gotten relatively worse on a large timescale.
I volunteer my time with Food Not Bombs. 20% of American children do not know where their next meal is coming from. Many are simultaneously overweight and malnourished, because the foodstuffs the US government subsidizes are calorically dense but nutritionally destitute.
Food banks, subsidized school meals, and SNAP/EBT prevent what would otherwise be children starving to death. As it stands though, the relief is insufficient. Many children from food insecure households have stunted growth and lifelong learning impairments from insufficient protein, calcium, etc.
