Homelessness: Rough Sleepers

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Wednesday 27th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, useless data are useless; helpful data are helpful. Yes, we actually do collect figures about homelessness, which are important data. Otherwise, we would not know how many people there are or where they come from. We cannot start reconnecting people if we do not have the data to know where they should go or whether they need additional help. We do know the hotspots across the country for rough sleeping, and I am sure that the noble Lord would agree that that is a good use of information.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, young people leaving care are still sadly overrepresented among rough sleepers. I saw two young boys the other day in the freezing cold slumped in a shop corner in the Holloway Road in Islington, looking totally destitute. Will the Minister tell us what is being done to try to tackle this problem, which has been going on for so many years?

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, the noble Baroness will know that for children under or between 14 and 18 there are very fast services to make sure that they are not left on the street. Centrepoint, Depaul UK and St Basils are particularly good at finding them, so anyone within that age group should not be on the street for more than a very short time. We know that there are problems for slightly older people—those between 18 and 25—who make up one in 10 of rough sleepers. Again my noble friend is correct: some of those, at least, are people who have left care. It is one of the important aspects with care now that we make sure that they do have a future and somewhere to go and do not end up on the streets of London.