A look at who and what is really responsible…
JJ STARKEY
By now, you’ve likely heard of the tragic fate of Robert Homans.
At nineteen, the former Royal Horse Artillery bombardier completed his first tour in Afghanistan. By twenty-one, he had served another. These were impressive feats for a man of any age, let alone a young kid.
Upon returning to Britain, Rob encountered the same grim realities that far too many veterans face.
Yet, at least at first, he thrived. He married his wife and found a job. But soon injury, PTSD, and substance addiction seeped in. Not long after did he find himself unemployed, divorced, and homeless.
Channelling the soldier within him, Rob battled on. He sofa-surfed, searched for work, and contacted his local council for housing support.
It proved useless. Three times he asked but Worcester City Council failed to provide appropriate accommodation. They did offer him a shared occupancy some 40 miles away in Birmingham. But it was simply too far from the support network he relied on.
On another occasion, a housing officer told him flat out ‘he wasn’t a priority’ as a ‘young single male’. His mother, Dawn, recalls him being told he was looking at two years before being offered anything.
This was despite the Labour-run council currently being signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant, the pledge authorities make to give ‘special consideration’ to service personnel, especially injured personnel.
Council officials reaffirmed their pledge as recently as December 2024. Managing Director, David Blake, and Armed Forces Champion, Pat Agar, even posed for a photo-op to mark the occasion.
Rob had lost hearing in one ear due to gunfire, experienced significant PTSD and already suffered several suicidal episodes. He should have been afforded that special consideration.
Left marooned and seeing no way out, on 22 August (just 67 days ago), Rob was found dead at the age of 35. The precise circumstances of his suicide have not been publicly disclosed.
Dawn broke down in tears recounting the news to the Daily Mail: ‘It doesn’t seem real. I hope he knew how much we loved him. I feel like I’ve failed him.’
More sinister details would emerge in the aftermath.
A week on, former Conservative leader Chris Mitchell of Worcester City Council penned a letter to current councillors reminding them of their previous blocking of a proposal for 210 affordable flats in 2023.
Mitchell believes it was a development that could have met the needs of people like Rob. He was so disappointed by the decision that he tended his resignation as leader the next day.
He then unearthed a more curious detail.
The councillor who chaired the Policy and Resources Committee when that rejection was issued was Lynn Denham, now the Labour leader of Worcester City Council.
Denham has been the leader of the council since Labour and the Green Party took over in May 2023. She served as co-leader until the following year when she took over as sole leader.
Just months later, the council agreed to work towards recognition as a Council of Sanctuary in partnership with the City of Sanctuary Local Authority Network.
This is the scheme that requires councils to create tailored policies to benefit asylum seekers and refugees in order to obtain membership.
The network boasts dozens of authorities as members from Oxford to Sheffield, with many diverting thousands upon thousands in public funds specifically toward asylum-seeker aid.
In February this year, the council also approved a resolution declaring the city a sanctuary for people who are transgender and gender diverse.
Now, to her small credit, councillor Denham did call Rob’s suicide ‘desperately sad’ and offered her condolences to his friends and family. But in the same breath, she turned on Mitchell, accusing him of ‘scoring cheap political points’.
Perhaps the grim irony is that if Worcester City Council hadn’t embraced trendy political vanity projects, they might have had the time, energy, and money to sooner house treasured veterans like Rob.
According to 2021 Census data, about 7% of people living in taxpayer-funded social housing in England and Wales were non-UK nationals. By contrast, 15% were foreign-born (many of whom now hold UK passports).
In certain areas in Worcestershire, where Rob was trying to obtain residency, Migration Watch reports that up to 18% of tenants in social housing were born outside of the UK, with 60.3% in employment.
Responding to questions over the treatment of British veterans earlier this month, a Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokesman said:
‘This Government has also committed £3.5million to veteran homelessness services including Operation Fortitude, the single referral pathway for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness’.
The MoD official then referenced a new £50 million commitment for the Valour programme, which is reportedly earmarked for housing, employment, health and welfare support for veterans.
It’s certainly a welcome development, but it dwarfs that of other welfare.
In 2023, Home Office statistics put the total cost of housing migrants in hotels at £8 million a day, which equates to roughly £2.9 billion per year. At the end of Labour’s first year in government, this rocketed to £4.76 billion per year.
Starmer’s government is spending roughing 100 times more on welfare for migrants than it is its own veterans. Critics will point to the scale of the migrant issue in comparison but that only proves incompetence elsewhere.
Dawn recalled Rob saying before he shortly passed:
‘The system is just broke mum, look.’ And he pointed over to these two guys that were sleeping in the doorway, and they were veterans too.
‘He said, ‘I’ve got nothing against any section of the community. All I’m asking for is fairness. That hotel over there is full of refugees. Why can’t I have that? If they can house them, why can’t they house me temporarily till I get on my feet? I fought for this country and it means nothing.’
It seems fair to say that Rob was as much of a victim of negligent local governance as he was national and the progressive orthodoxy that still pervades both far too acutely.
Dawn has recently called for an Article 2 Inquest over her son’s suicide stating:
‘The purpose of such an inquest…is not only to determine how the deceased came by their death, but also in what circumstances, particularly where there is evidence that state agencies may have failed in their duty to protect life.
In Rob’s case, I believe that duty was not fulfilled. Despite clear indicators of vulnerability, he did not receive adequate safeguarding or coordinated intervention from the public bodies tasked with protecting him.
There were repeated missed opportunities for early and meaningful engagement, Moments where effective communication between services could have altered the outcome.’
There is an existing crowdfunder for Rob’s funeral, which has already taken place, but any new donations would likely go towards commemorating his service and supporting his family—HERE.
Thank you for your service Rob and may you forever rest in peace.
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