Guidance targets eastern European rough sleepers
Guidance has been published for organisations helping central and eastern European rough sleepers return home.
Routes home has been produced by homelessness charity Thames Reach and the mayor of London.
It includes a guide to consular services and information on organisations giving support across 10 central and eastern European countries.
Jeremy Swain, chief executive of Thames Reach, said: ‘I have witnessed citizens from central and eastern Europe sleeping out in London in the most appalling conditions and we know that helping people in these circumstances to return home saves lives.
‘The Routes home website, through the support of the mayor of London, brings together in one place the learning and information we have accumulated through undertaking our reconnections work and I am certain that, through its use, even more people will be able to escape rough sleeping and return to their families and friends in safety, and with dignity.’
The website was commissioned by the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to contribute to his commitment to end rough sleeping in London by the end of 2012.
Homelessness charity Broadway’s annual rough sleeping figures, which came out last month, showed there were 3,673 people rough sleeping on the streets of the capital in 2009/10.
This was a 6 per cent increase on 2008/09, which the charity found was driven by increasing numbers of rough sleepers from central and eastern European countries.
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Readers' comments (1)
Sidney Webb | 02/08/2010 4:13 pm
Thames Reach do excellent work. Perhaps they should be trusted to carry out the roofless headcount too as they appear to have managed to count 3-times as many in London as Shapps estimates for the UK and the previous government figure estimated at a third of that.
Before the blinkered brigade kick off, can I direct them to the idea: 'even more people will be able to escape rough sleeping and return to their families and friends in safety, and with dignity' - humanity does have a place in a modern society.
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