Government uses £50,000 emergency funding to meet demand
Rough sleepers flock to charities in big chill
Homelessness charities have housed record numbers of rough sleepers since the beginning of December, in the face of the longest cold snap for 30 years.
Charities have also been using emergency government funding to pay for double shifts for outreach workers in an attempt to reach the UK’s most entrenched rough sleepers, who would normally steer clear of homelessness services.
Charity Thames Reach said it had helped 250 people to find accommodation since the start of December 2009, compared with 63 in the same period in 2008/09.
The Communities and Local Government department has paid for the charity’s street outreach staff to do double shifts encouraging rough sleepers to come indoors. It is also funding the St Mungo’s severe weather shelter, which opens when temperatures drop below zero for three consecutive nights.
The CLG has also made an extra £50,000 available for councils which faced extra costs to accommodate rough sleepers in the cold weather.
A spokesperson for Thames Reach said: ‘It is a matter of life of death when the temperature is dropping to record low levels. They might normally refuse offers of help but are now accepting it.’
Jeremy Swain, chief executive of Thames Reach, said he would like the government to provide funding to assess the needs of the increased number of rough sleepers who are now temporarily accommodated so that they could be found more permanent housing and support.
Thames Reach’s spokesperson added councils were also changing their approach as a result of the cold weather with some willing to pay for rough sleepers to be accommodated in bed and breakfast if it was not possible to house them in a hostel or shelter. He said: ‘We had calls from councils who said “whatever it takes, you have go ahead to get someone into some form of accommodation”.’
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