Cold, Alone and Branded “Low Priority” by a System that Failed Him

Cold, Alone and Branded “Low Priority” by a System that Failed Him

CC Ella Worthington was recently contacted by West Lancs ARK to ask if she could help a homeless man called Ken* in Skelmersdale. For months, he had been sleeping under a subway, exposed to freezing temperatures, isolation and constant danger.

West Lancs ARK provided Ken with food, a sleeping bag and tent, however, it was unable to secure emergency accommodation. Not because his need was unclear, the ARK is an organisation that supports veterans facing homelessness, unemployment, substance misuse and poor mental health.

CC Ella Worthington immediately contacted the Birchwood Centre in Skelmersdale, which provides housing support, counselling services, mental health and wellbeing services to support people such as Ken off the streets in West Lancashire. She made repeated calls to West Lancashire Borough Council to try to navigate the statutory homelessness process on Ken's behalf.

CC Worthington adds:

“This remit falls under West Lancs Borough Council vs Lancashire County Council, however, I was not going to leave Ken to his own devices and turn my back on him, so got on with it”.

Left Under a Subway in Freezing Temperatures

With the gentleman’s consent, CC Worthington contacted him directly. Ken was kind, polite and heartbreakingly grateful simply to be listened to. He told CC Worthington he had approached different organisations for help but felt dismissed at every turn. He felt he had been categorised as a “low priority” and left to survive on the streets.

That phrase, “low priority”, should shame us all. When did being cold, homeless and mentally unwell stop being urgent? What followed laid bare just how inaccessible and dehumanising the system has become.

CC Worthington immediately contacted the Birchwood Centre in Skelmersdale, which provides housing and wraparound support to help people off the streets. At the same time, she made repeated calls to West Lancashire Borough Council to try to navigate the statutory homelessness process on Ken's behalf.

She experienced exactly what so many vulnerable people describe: being passed between departments, unclear eligibility thresholds, outdated procedures and a complete absence of urgency. The system is fragmented, antiquated and wholly unsuited to people in crisis. Even with time, confidence and advocacy, CC Worthington felt trapped in a loop of deflection and delay.

Expecting someone who is sleeping rough, traumatised and mentally unwell to navigate this process alone is not just unrealistic, it is negligent.

In total, CC Worthington made eight phone calls over three hours. That level of persistence is, in itself, a barrier. It filters out those who are too ill, too exhausted, or too demoralised to keep pushing. The result is predictable: people remain on the streets not because help does not exist, but because it is practically unreachable.

Throughout the process, CC Worthington reports she was repeatedly told that other groups are prioritised under current frameworks. While immigration and eligibility rules are matters for government, the reality on the ground is this: Many British citizens who are visibly vulnerable are being left without immediate shelter. A system that cannot guarantee emergency accommodation to someone sleeping rough with mental illness is not balanced; it is failing at its most basic duty of care.

A Preventable Crisis

CC Worthington is relieved to say that Ken is now living in an HMO in Skelmersdale and has begun accessing mental health support. But this outcome came only after intense advocacy and persistence. Tragically, he had recently attempted to take his own life, a devastating but entirely foreseeable consequence of prolonged street homelessness and systemic neglect.

Ken said to CC Worthington:

“Huge thanks for your help. You have been the only one who has stood up for me in getting me some accommodation sorted, it means a lot.”

That sentence should stop us in our tracks. No one should have to rely on chance advocacy to survive. This is not an isolated case. In Lancashire, an estimated 158 people were sleeping rough in September 2025, a 37% increase since 2021.

Across England, 9,292 people were recorded sleeping rough in the same month, a 76% rise since September 2021. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has confirmed these figures are at record highs for this timeframe. This does not include the “invisible people”, those who are not registered.

West Lancs ARK said:

“It’s heartbreaking to see so many people living on the streets and we are seeing more and more in Skelmersdale, including veterans and non-veterans.”

Homelessness is not the result of individual failure. It is the outcome of policy choices: chronic underfunding, restrictive eligibility thresholds and systems designed around gatekeeping rather than prevention. When support is rationed to the point that only the most persistent, or the most supported survive the process, the system itself becomes a source of harm.

If we are serious about ending rough sleeping, emergency accommodation must be guaranteed and access routes must be simplified. Mental health must be treated as a core housing issue, not an afterthought.

Until then, people will continue to be left outside in the cold, labelled “low priority”, pushed to breaking point and we MUST put British citizens first.

*A pseudonym has been used to protect and respect the individual's identity.