Introduction
The London Charter to End Rough Sleeping started with a small group of organisations and city government officials – The Connection at St Martin’s, Groundswell, Housing Justice, The Passage, YMCA St. Paul’s, Bloomberg Associates, the Greater London Authority and London Councils — who wanted to engage better with the community and build a bigger movement around the goal to end rough sleeping. There are now 90 organisations signed up to support the Charter.
What is going on in London to help end rough sleeping:
Rough Sleeping Prevention Project
London is innovating in its efforts to prevent people from rough sleeping by establishing a new Rough Sleeping Prevention Project, which opened in July 2024 as a collaboration between St Mungo's, Westminster, Camden, Islington and Lambeth councils. Funded by the Government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative, the Rough Sleeping Prevention Project pilots a new approach using a Rough Sleeping Risk Assessment Tool (RSRAT) to identify people most at risk of long-term rough sleeping and making an offer of accommodation before that happens. The intention is to prevent single people from rough sleeping who are not in priority need, have no immediate pathway into accommodation and are at greatest risk of long-term rough sleeping.
The participating boroughs are assessing people using the Rough Sleeping Risk Assessment Tool who present to their Housing Options services and for those highlighted at most risk of long-term rough sleeping, referring them to accommodation managed by St Mungo's. Once in the accommodation, people receive intensive specialist support to secure an onward move suitable for their needs.
All the assessments and outcomes are being captured and will be analysed to evaluate how well the RSRAT works to identify those most at risk of long-term rough sleeping.
A New Resettlement Support Team
One of the toughest challenges facing people with experience of rough sleeping today is the difficulty they face in moving on from hostel accommodation. 40% of people in temporary accommodation are waiting to move on, of which 50% have been waiting for more than six months. Not only does this stop people from moving on with their lives, this lack of movement can also prevent people in need of accommodation from moving into hostels.
The Resettlement Support Team (RST) pilot tests a new approach to improve positive move-on rates for people living in hostels and supported accommodation in London.
The project consists of a small, specialist resettlement team, that exists to bring external resource and expertise to pilot hostels as well as challenging existing practices around move-on. The pilot will test whether this approach can lead to increased rates of positive resettlement out of these settings.
The pilot was originally proposed by Thames Reach as part of the Life Off The Streets (LOTS) hostels working group and uses funding provided under the Government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative.
Through an expression of interest process, three pilot hostels have been selected to take part in the pilot: Spring Gardens (Lewisham), Mulberry Heights (Haringey) and Northcott House (Southwark).
The Thames Reach team have now started their work supporting the hostel staff and have carried out reviews of all residents, securing their first move-ons in July 2024.
The pilot is expected to run for approximately 12 months, including an evaluation which will seek to establish the impact of the intervention, consider improvements to the model, and assess the feasibility and impact of deploying the intervention at a larger scale.
Social Media
The London Charter to End Rough Sleeping is active on social media channels. Please follow us:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/londonchartertoendroughsleeping
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/london_charter
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/london-charter-to-end-rough-sleeping
X (formerly Twitter) https://twitter.com/LondonCharter
What is the Charter?
The Charter is a way to get people together around a common goal—to end rough sleeping. The Charter will help us to:
Create a shared vision and enable people and communities to support our goal
Make a public commitment to work together to end rough sleeping
Strengthen the partnerships that are already in place
Provide opportunities for residents, businesses, workers, faith groups, charities and public bodies in London to help end rough sleeping
Communicate what rough sleeping looks like in London and how to best help
Provide transparency, accountability, and a way to monitor progress
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How many people sleep rough in London?
In June the annual figures for people sleeping rough were released. Although there were positive signs, and a huge amount of work is being done every day, overall numbers were up.
In total during the period April-June 2024 outreach teams recorded 4223 individuals sleeping rough in the capital. This is a 29% increase on the total figure for April-June 2023.
Of that total:
new rough sleepers account for almost half (46%) of all rough sleepers, with 1,931 people recorded as sleeping rough for the first time in this quarter
73% of those seen for the first time (1,419) only having a single recorded bedded down contact
intermittent rough sleepers, those who had been seen occasionally, account for 41% of all those recorded in the period, and
15% of those recorded during the period had been seen a number of times over a three week period and so were assumed to be living on the streets
You can read the full CHAIN report @ Greater London report.
