London authorities have bought property for £ 140 million to resettle the homeless

A collective of local governments in London — London councils — have bought property worth £140 million (more than $180.7 million) to relocate homeless people from the city. This was reported on March 8 by The Guardian newspaper.

As a result of data analysis, the publication learned that more than 10 metropolitan councils have purchased at least 850 properties in English cities and towns since 2017. The houses belong either to councils or to companies that the authorities partially or fully own. At the same time, it is clarified that most of the houses are located in disadvantaged areas in the south-east and east of England.

However, as The Guardian clarified, last year the councils bought out a number of properties in the Midlands and developed plans to buy more land in the northeast of England.

It is noted that the premises are used to accommodate homeless people and families both temporarily as emergency housing and permanently in private rented houses.

"Eviction from their neighborhoods forces some of our most vulnerable families to lose essential support and destroys the lives of children who have to commute to school for hours," said Florence Eshalomi, a member of parliament from the Labor Party, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Housing, Communities and Local Government.

On March 5, US President Donald Trump ordered Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser to remove all homeless camps in the city, in particular those located near the buildings of the US State Department and the White House. He stressed that the capital should become "clean and safe."