New centres aimed at taking rough sleepers of the street will be set up in 15 locations across England. This is a £4.8 million government project will open 11 shelter by spring 2019.
Homeless charities welcomed the project but said the government could do more to help. The shelters will open in Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cheshire West and Chester, Derby, Gloucestershire, Lincoln, Liverpool, Medway, Nottingham City, Preston and West London. A further four will be set up later in 2019 and 6,000 should receive support by 2020. They will provide immediate shelter and support as part of the government’s £100 million rough sleeping strategy.
The government’s £100 million rough sleeping strategy will be spent on many different things that will help rough sleepers. £30 million will be spent on mental health treatment and help for substance misuse. £50 million will be put forward to put towards new homes outside London for those who are ready to move on from hostels and refuges. The government want to end rough sleeping by 2027.
Seven homelessness charities advised ministers on the strategy – Crisis, Homeless Link, National Housing Federation, Shelter, St Basils, St Mungo’s and Thames Reach.
All made a joint statement to say it was a “a significant step towards the government’s goal of ending rough sleeping by 2027”.
They added: “must also set out bold, cross-departmental plans to tackle the root causes of all forms of homelessness and prevent it from happening in the first place”.
More than 550 people have died homeless since the start of winter 2017…
Matt Downie, director of policy and external affairs at Crisis, said:
“These statistics are a harrowing reminder of how deadly life on the streets can be. As we get closer to Christmas and temperatures are dropping, rough sleepers are facing exposure to dangerous conditions, above and beyond the violence and abuse often experienced when living on the streets.
“It’s a failure of the largest magnitude that in one of the world’s richest nations, people with nowhere to turn are dying. This has to stop and the government must put in place a full-scale plan to end homelessness once and for all. We also need to see the review system used to investigate the deaths of vulnerable adults expanded to include all cases of people who have died whilst street homeless. With this in place, crucial lessons can be learned that help prevent further deaths.
“The Government recently pledged to make this happen, but it is disappointing that no progress has been made to support local authorities to implement this. We cannot wait any longer, we need to see action now.”
More than 24,000 people will be facing Christmas sleeping rough or in cars, trains, buses and tents; this is far more than there were five years ago. The number of people sleeping rough in England has more than doubled according to the charity Crisis. Government only count on estimates using local information or a physical count on one given night. There will never be a sold number of people sleeping rough due to increasing numbers and locating every rough sleeper.
In a survey carried out by Crisis 61% of 2,000 Brits felt angry, frustrated or upset about the state of homelessness across the country but feel powerless to help. 69% people felt powerless to help the homeless and concerns were growing for them. 74% said they were worried about homelessness in Britain with more than half of people saying they are more concerned now than five years ago. There are around 236,000 reported people who are experiencing homeless in the worst ways, this includes sleeping in the streets, sleeping in cars, trains, and tents, or living in in unsuitable temporary accommodation.
