Homelessness: Rough Sleepers in London

Lord Storey Excerpts

Tuesday 30th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, no one will know better than the noble Lord that local authorities have a particular responsibility for young people, particularly those under 16. At present, there is little evidence of children under 16 sleeping rough. If they do, it is for a very short time because local authorities and the leading young people’s homelessness charities, such as Centrepoint, take them in very quickly. I think 18 to 25 year-olds are more of a problem. They seem to sleep rough for a number of reasons, but I think I can reassure the noble Lord that there is very swift action if anybody under 16, certainly from the categories he knows about, is left out on the street for any length of time.

[Lord Storey]

My Lords, my noble friend may be aware of a recent survey which found that people sleeping rough on average had a 28% contact with police and only a 5% contact with outreach workers. Will she look at the Reading single homeless project, which found that it could reduce homelessness by 52% by targeting individual needs, whether they are related to drug abuse, alcoholism or mental health problems?

[Baroness Hanham]

My Lords, the noble Lord may know that my department initiated an across-department ministerial working group, which is concentrating on all aspects of homelessness, including rough sleeping. It has been very effective in finding ways of ensuring that the problems that the noble Lord raises are dealt with.