A CLUSTER of tents on the Southend foreshore could be read as a sign of the times, and a warning of worse things to come.

The tents are there because some people have nowhere else to go. It is easy to talk about the rising problem of homelessness. This is what it can look like.

The background to this situation has been developing for some time.

The queues for social housing have grown longer.

The available stock of accommodation has not risen to match. Essex towns also face a surge of new claimants moving out of London.

Meanwhile housing benefits face significant levels of reduction.

Yet the problem of homelessness has been cracked in the past. A significant number of people were sleeping rough in the town in the Nineties. Their problems were addressed head-on by a combination of determined charity and council initiatives. The sight of people forced to sleep rough has become a relative rarity. Is it now returning to haunt us?

Homelessness was never an easy problem to tackle, but it could be a lot more difficult now, as councils continue to reduce budgets for services across the board. The way forward may lie increasingly with private charities, as it did in the late 19th century.

That in its turn will depend on public generosity.