FAQs

Whether you’re an individual, a business or another organisation, by signing this Charter you are showing your support for ending rough sleeping and supporting people off the streets. It is also a place to raise money for services, to channel people’s desire to volunteer and to keep people updated about the work to address rough sleeping.

London has 33 local authorities, dozens of homelessness service providers, and various sets of data and websites all highlighting different aspects of the problem of rough sleeping in the capital. For the average person (or faith group or business) who wants to find out more about rough sleeping, to offer help, or to signal their support for the issue, it is hard to know where to turn first. We intend the Charter website to be a place where you can easily access information about rough sleeping – not just looking at the statistics but hearing from people who have experienced rough sleeping, and those delivering frontline homelessness services about their experiences. We also want the Charter website to be a place where you can show your support for this important issue, get ideas and information about how you can help and see the progress that is being made despite the economic and policy environment being a difficult one in which to seek to end rough sleeping.

Government ministers, the Mayor of London, and elected local politicians are responsible for determining what is a priority for funding and attention in any given electoral period; hope that the London Charter to End Rough Sleeping will show them that this is an issue that many people care about in London. Even if all you are able to do is sign the Charter, this is important as it keeps rough sleeping in the mind of policymakers and maintains the momentum we have created towards bringing an end to the need to sleep rough. 

Finally, some people who sleep rough are destitute and do not have access to wages or benefits. Funds raised through the Charter can be used to help provide solutions for those still on the streets. We know a lot of people already volunteer for, or donate to, local homeless charities – and we urge you to keep on doing that if you are – but if you are new to this issue and want to help, the Charter is a place where the options available for you to help are made easily accessible and understandable.

The most common reason for someone becoming homeless is that they lose their tenancy – maybe because of arrears or losing their job, because their landlord wants the property back, or because they can’t cope with things like bills, neighbours, or even the isolation. About a quarter of those new to rough sleeping every year have left a tenancy in the private rented sector, where affordability is more likely to be an issue.

Another common reason is a relationship breaking down or violence in the home and the person needing to leave – this could be someone leaving a partner, a friend or the family home. 

When these situations happen, many people are able to stay with friends or family while they save up, find work, or find somewhere new to live, but a lot of the people sleeping rough don’t have that kind of support network. This might especially be the case if they have recently arrived in the UK from abroad or if they have fallen out with their family.  

Anyone can end up homeless, but experience tells us that the majority of those that sleep rough in London have other support needs – they may be suffering with mental ill health or an addiction, have uncertain entitlement to public funds, have been in prison or care, or have learning or physical disabilities. Of course, some people sleep rough with none of those support needs – they may have suffered the shock of a job loss, the loss of a loved one, or an eviction, and not have the kind of safety net that others might rely on to keep them off the streets.

The figures change all the time. However, during 2023 CHAIN data shows that outreach teams made contact with an average of around 700-800 different individuals each month. Some of them are actually living on the streets, most will have slept out for just one night and some might spend a few nights on the streets before they are helped to find somewhere. 

CHAIN is a database used by all of London’s outreach teams to record all street contacts and works with those that are sleeping rough in the capital. The CHAIN figures (https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports) over the past ten years tell us that anywhere between 7,000-11,000 people slept rough in London over the course of a year. This sounds like a lot, but the majority of this number (around 70%) were seen just once, with around 20% spending enough time out during the year to be counted as ‘living on the streets’, and the rest being seen intermittently. Despite these numbers, London has lower levels of rough sleeping than most of the other world cities who measure the problem. 

The published Government figures focus on a single night ‘count’ which takes place in October/November every year. Local authorities and their partners count (or otherwise estimate) the number of people that are sleeping on the streets on that night to create a ‘snapshot’ figure. Since it is a snapshot on one night only (and can be affected by a range of factors like weather, events happening in a locality, the date and time the count takes place etc.) it is less likely to be accurate than the data collected in

London through the CHAIN database.  In the Autumn of 2022, London’s single night snapshot total was 858. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2022.

No. It’s horrible and dangerous to live on the streets and people rarely do it if they have an option not to. Sometimes a person’s mental ill health might make it hard for them to make good decisions and accept offers of support, or a person may be in the grip of an addiction, but even in these cases, given the right housing option – with support – people would move off the streets in a heartbeat.

Not all people begging are homeless, and not all homeless people beg. Reasons for begging are varied, but in the UK people rarely need to beg to pay in cash for a stay in a homeless hostel – most hostels would accept housing benefit to cover rent. Of course there may be other reasons why some people, who do not have access to benefits, might beg. In some circumstances, people are being exploited and beg because they are forced to, with the money raised going to an organised criminal gang.

What you do when you see someone begging is a matter of personal choice. If you’d rather not give cash because of concerns you may have about how the money is likely to be used, you could say hello and/or offer to buy a hot drink or a sandwich instead (if you are able to afford this). People who have slept rough have told us that simply being acknowledged is important.

There are a range of reasons why. The cost-of-living crisis has increased living costs and made it harder for people to pay rent and bills. Employment is often less secure, with wages not keeping up with continued increases in rent. There isn’t always sufficient support available for people who get into difficulties with debt or benefits, and so small problems that may not have had to lead to someone losing a tenancy are not always dealt with. 

In London, there is an overall shortage of affordable housing. The level at which housing benefit is paid (Local Housing Allowance rates) does not often cover the cost of rent in the private rented sector and data collected through CHAIN shows that losing a private rented sector flat is the number one reason why people become homeless and end up rough sleeping.

In London, there has also been an increase in the number (and proportion) of people sleeping rough who are not from the UK. Some of this group have limited or unclear entitlements in the UK, meaning that their options for entering accommodation can be limited and resolving immigration related issues can be lengthy and complex. There has also been an increase in rough sleeping amongst people leaving Home Office asylum support accommodation after being granted refugee status. For many, the journey to employment, a home and a life in the UK is a slow and difficult one, compounded by the lack of affordable housing and the difficulties faced trying to establish yourself in a new country without support networks or language skills. 

Pretty much everything you’d expect. People who have slept rough talked to us about the obvious things – feeling unsafe, being treated badly by passers-by or by the authorities, having nowhere to wash, suffering in the cold and wet weather, losing belongings or having them stolen from sleep sites. But they also spoke movingly about the loneliness, the stigma, and the feeling of being someone that society does not care about. 

Many said that sleeping rough had led to their health conditions worsening and talked about how impossible it was to maintain a life away from drink or drugs or to keep in contact with their families. For women and young people in particular, there was the constant threat of physical or sexual abuse or assault and violence, even from those who were their partners or friends. 

We know that the average age of death of people rough sleeping is much lower than for those who are not homeless. Ending someone’s rough sleeping is sometimes a matter of life and death.

It is impossible to imagine that we will ever be in a position where we can prevent every single person from having to sleep rough, especially in an emergency situation (e.g. someone has to leave their home that night). It is also the case that for those with no entitlement to public funds finding routes off the street is very difficult. However, we believe we can get much closer to a situation where no-one needs to live on the streets of London and people who are housed after rough sleeping are supported in their accommodation in a way that means they don’t return to the streets if things are not working out for them. 

The Government defines an end to rough sleeping as preventing it wherever possible, and if that isn’t possible, making it a brief, rare and non-recurrent experience. This is the ambition we have for London.

Ending rough sleeping requires there to be sufficient emergency accommodation and a range of settled accommodation types to meet the varying needs of all those who are sleeping rough. We already have a range of emergency shelters, hostels, supported housing projects, and settled, long term housing options – with or without support attached. Some of this is social housing, some of it is in the private sector and some is what is known as Housing First. 

Having a flexible, personalised service offer is important too. Everyone is different and what we offer needs to respect those differences. For people to move off the streets, they need accommodation which doesn’t place too many conditions on them, and which fully meets their needs. Unfortunately, we have a shortage of both emergency and settled accommodation and much of the private rented sector in London has become unaffordable to those on benefits in recent years. It is also the case that we do not have enough accommodation for those who do not have recourse to public funds. This group cannot work or claim benefits and our options for them are extremely limited.

Given that thousands of first-timers needlessly sleep rough in London every year, not able to get the help they needed early enough, another focus for the partners involved in tackling rough sleeping in the capital is on prevention. We are working to make local authority housing advice and support more accessible, and to make it more likely that we identify those without a safety net who are likeliest to sleep rough before it happens. We also are working with partners – in prisons/probation, in the NHS, in children’s services – to make it less likely that people will sleep rough when leaving care, prison or hospital.

The Target 1000 project is an initiative that focuses the attention of key agencies (outreach, housing, health, care) on an identified cohort of people who have slept rough for longer than average and for whom housing options might be hard to find. Over the past 3 years this initiative has led to hundreds of positive outcomes for those who have been rough sleeping long term. We intend to keep pressing on with this initiative, and we know we need more housing options for those who lack access to public funds, for those who are part of a couple, and for those whose care and health needs are acute and overlapping. 

The large numbers of asylum seekers who are being given refugee status is bringing new challenges. Data tells us that this group is more likely to be able to work, be younger and have lower support needs. They require new service offers which include routes into employment, support with learning English, and accommodation that is affordable and suitable for someone with lower needs. For example, there is a need to expand the availability of hosting schemes and supported lodgings – where young people are accommodated in a family setting for the time it takes them to get on their feet.

Efforts to end rough sleeping in London are supported by significant funding from the Government, from the Mayor of London, from local authorities and from charities themselves. The most important thing is that we continue to work well together to make sure that all that resources and efforts are utilised as effectively as possible and we keep identifying unmet needs and eliminate service gaps. 

Sign the Charter. It sends a signal to those in power – who make decisions about policy and funding – that this is an important issue that we need to tackle and keep tackling until no-one needs to sleep rough. 

Make a pledge to do something. It might be to offer tea to the person you see every morning in the doorway on your way to work. Or to get your company (or church or mosque) to hold an event to raise awareness and collect money (or items). It might even be to donate your time by volunteering at a cold weather shelter. Or to donate money if you have some spare in these difficult times. Some people – who have the space and time – host a homeless asylum seeker or refugee in their home. There’s really no limit on what you can pledge or do. 

Thank you for considering donating! All donations will be used to pay for services and initiatives that will help end rough sleeping in London. We don’t use any of it for overheads or promotional purposes. Organisations will receive the donated funds through a process which will be managed by Housing Justice and involve Homeless Link, GLA and London Councils. We can’t wait to share more information about how it’s being distributed and the impact it is having soon.