Olympic homelessness targets – the race is on

The pressure is on to eradicate homelessness in London by 2012 and to help rough sleepers off the streets. The chances of this being a success are finely balanced, putting the government, NHS, local housing authorities and the voluntary sector at the frontline in the fight against homelessness making it their priority. Kate Murray investigates.

When the World’s athletes and tourists arrive in London for the Olympics in two years’ time, there’s one sight the authorities don’t want them to see. Rough sleepers, so the hope goes, will by then no longer be a feature on the Capital’s streets.

The year of the Games has been slated as the endpoint for an ambitious program to end the scourge of street homelessness once and for all. It’s a formidable challenge. Although the last government’s efforts to tackle rough sleeping had a marked impact on the numbers on the streets, a significant problem remains. Many of those still sleeping rough have complex problems such as mental health issues, or alcohol or drug dependency.

The London Delivery Board, established by the London mayor to bring together local authorities, the voluntary sector and other key partners such as the NHS to meet the 2012 target, says it has already made progress. Its achievements include helping three quarters of London’s 205 longer-term ‘entrenched’ rough sleepers off the streets and creating a new outreach team to tackle the emerging problem of homeless people sleeping on bendy buses. It has also developed a targeted program for vulnerable rough sleepers who may return to the streets from hostels.

Pressure’s on

Many of those on the frontline in the fight against homelessness have welcomed the creation of the delivery board and have been closely involved with its work. But question marks remain about whether the 2012 target is achievable, and – until the coalition government spells out its policies in detail – there’s uncertainty too about the political direction the new administration will take on homelessness. Campaigners say they hope new housing minister Grant Shapps will keep up the pressure; both on the target, but also on the joined-up approach which will ensure that any success is sustainable.

Homelessness charity Crisis is one of those which pushed for a target. The organisation’s director of policy and external affairs Duncan Shrubsole says: “They [the new government] need to similarly commit to the target to end rough sleeping by 2012. They also need to do much more joining up with other government departments, such as health, criminal justice and housing benefit. Shapps has said they will have a government minister in each [relevant] department who’s responsible for homelessness. That’s good but we need to see that driven through.”

On the increase

Crisis says although good progress has been made, particularly on longer term rough sleepers, the number of rough sleepers in the Capital actually seems to be on the up, according to the yearly outreach figures, which are regarded as more accurate than single night headcounts. Part of that is down to increasing numbers of people on the streets from the newer European Union countries who do not qualify for state support. “In the cold winter shelters we see far more people from Eastern European countries than previously. That’s a real challenge,” says Hazel Cheeseman, policy and public affairs manager at St Mungo’s.

She points out too that many rough sleepers are often more challenging to support than those on the streets a few years ago. “We see more clients with substance abuse problems,” she says. ‘The problem about drug use is it comes with a lot of additional problems. The clients are more vulnerable and have more support needs than they did in the past. Homelessness is not just rooflessness; it’s not just a housing issue. People who sleep rough often have chaotic lives and they need a lot of support.”

Help is at hand

In the face of such needs, many homelessness organisations are offering more focused services than ever before. Homeless Link, the umbrella organisation for homelessness charities, says there has been a dramatic increase in specialist services over the past two years – including a 32 percent rise in employment and training. Homeless Link chief executive Jenny Edwards says the sector is responding magnificently to the changing picture but warns that funding pressures may hit services. “It is essential that investment programs are maintained in order to sustain and build on the substantial progress that has been made for some of our society’s most vulnerable people,” she says.

Emergency service

Much more work, campaigners argue, should be done around preventing rough sleeping in the first place. Crisis’ Duncan Shrubsole says widening the homelessness safety net should be a priority, so that those facing a problem have somewhere to go, as should a quick response for those in trouble. “A lot of people might get into difficulties such as family breakdown but our belief is that no one should end up on the streets,” he says, adding: “The sector as a whole agrees that if people do hit the streets, they should get help within 24 hours to get them back to where they came from or into somewhere else.’

Alastair Murray, acting head of the charity Housing Justice, agrees that the system is failing to help those in housing need soon enough. “As soon as someone has to sleep in a doorway or on a park bench, there’s often a rapid decline. Why can’t people be helped when they first say they need help? Everything after that is trying to pick up the pieces.”

He says local authorities need to be more responsive to those who come to them for help and to work more creatively with would-be partners, such as churches, who would be willing to offer emergency accommodation. “Churches are willing to be partners in this but not many are being used,” he explains. “A lot of local authorities have prejudices and say things like ‘we haven’t commissioned this service or its volunteers are getting in the way of professionals’.”

Heavy-handed enforcement

Housing Justice is one of the voices speaking out against some of the more punitive methods which have been used to get rough sleepers off the streets, including the controversial Operation Poncho. In that initiative in the City of London, rough sleepers’ sleeping spots have been ‘wetted down’ in the middle of the night to move them on. Murray says: “When you are talking about heavy-handed enforcement being used on vulnerable, damaged people, we don’t feel that’s the right approach. We are not saying there’s never a role for enforcement if someone is being anti-social. The trouble is sometimes street homelessness seems to be lumped in with street drinking and begging when they are not the same thing at all.”

Provide help now

Some campaigners fear there may be more tough initiatives in the run up to 2012. But could there be even more rough sleepers who need help by then? According to homelessness organisations, the impact of the recession has not yet been seen on the streets. “It takes a longer time for the effects to show,” says Duncan Shrubsole: “You don’t necessarily lose your job and hit the streets straight away. But the longer people are out of work, the more pressure it puts on their mental health, relationships and personal circumstances. We are expecting there could well be an impact on homelessness for months and years to come.”

Even more reason then, the homelessness sector says, for the new government not to target cuts on the most vulnerable. As Hazel Cheeseman puts it: “It doesn’t pay to cut corners with this client group as they have a lot of needs that end up costing the state lots of money: If we don’t help them now, their problems will only become more serious.”

Tackling rough sleeping

How many are there?

• The figures are often disputed, with some campaigners arguing that snapshot street counts - and official rounding down of figures - seriously underestimate the number of rough sleepers.
• The official statistics for 2009 show there were 464 rough sleepers on one given night in England. Others prefer to use the figures from a database of those contacted by homelessness services over a year. These show that 3,472 people slept rough in London last year - a rise of 455 on the previous year
• More than 9,000 people have been helped off the streets of London since 2000.

Who are they?

• According to the latest figures, nearly nine out of 10 rough sleepers are men and two-thirds are under 45.
• Between 30 and 50 per cent of rough sleepers have a mental health issue.
• Nearly half have an alcohol problem and 40 per cent have a drug problem.
• Around 40 per cent have been in prison.
• Growing numbers come from eastern Europe - around 14 per cent in the capital last year.

Cutting the numbers: two decades of work

• The Rough Sleepers’ Initiative was launched in 1990, with £96 million allocated for a three-year programme to tackle rough sleeping in London. A further £86 million was made available for another three years. The Conservative government at the time hailed the initiative as a success and said it had cut the number sleeping rough in the capital from more than 1,000 to around 420.
• The Labour government expanded the RSI outside London when it came to power in 1997. But the RSI was replaced in 1999 by the Homelessness Action Programme, with a new Rough Sleepers’ Unit also established. The then housing minister Nick Raynsford set a target of reducing rough sleeping - then said to be running at about 1850 people a night in England - by two-thirds by 2002, with an ambition beyond that of reducing it to ‘as near to zero as possible’.
• Funding of £150 million to tackle homelessness was unveiled in 2004, with an additional £90 million for improving hostels.
• More funding - this time of £200 million - accompanied the announcement in April 2008 of a new target to end rough sleeping by 2012. The ‘No One Left Out’ initiative included a 15-point action plan to help rough sleepers off the streets.

Case study

St Mungo’s – Shelley

Shelley hadn’t lived in Britain for some 30 years when she was deported from the US for drugs offences. Homeless and without the papers she needed to work,  her future looked bleak. But a year and a half on, she is rebuilding her life, thanks to an apprenticeship with St Mungo’s where she is now a key worker, helping other homeless people get back on track.

”St Mungo’s have been fantastic. These are people that have helped me so much,” she says now. “There was a time when it was very rough for me - I had nothing and didn’t know where to go or what to do. I really enjoy what I am getting out of the programme. It’s not just about me helping people with the job - there’s a lot of personal growth for me.”

St Mungo’s launched its apprenticeship scheme last year as part of its efforts to support its clients into work. It says tackling unemployment among homeless people should be a priority for politicians and the homelessness sector alike.

According to St Mungo’s, there’s been an astonishing shift over the last 25 years: in 1984, 86 per cent of its clients were in work, compared with just 4 per cent today. In part, that change is due to the much more complex needs of many ex-rough sleepers, with many more struggling with mental health or addiction problems. But St Mungo’s says many of those it helps do want to work and helping them to achieve that goal is part of its ‘recovery approach’ to tackling homelessness.

“It is all about looking forward, rather than the historic approach which was about warehousing people in hostels,” says St Mungo’s policy and public affairs manager Hazel Cheeseman. “People need a lot of support, not just with their housing, so they can recover from homelessness and be resilient against future homelessness.” The importance of supporting people into work forms the theme of St Mungo’s action week this month, when it will be urging the new government to do more to help.

For Shelley, her own experiences mean she has a special insight into the problems faced by the homeless people she now supports. And she’s a big advocate of tackling more than just their immediate housing needs. “There are a lot of things that can keep a person down, for some it’s mental health for others it’s some kind of addiction, or sometimes it’s your state of mind,” she says. “St Mungo’s has all kinds of different ways to try to encourage people to make changes. It’s all about trying to help people in their recovery.”

Case study

Arlington House

The iconic landmark Arlington House in Camden has been a hostel for homeless men for over 100 years. Now owned by One Housing Group and developed by Durkan, the hostel is about to reopen following a £13m regeneration and refurbishment programme. 

Arlington will house:

• 95 residential units for the homeless
• on site work experience, training and vocational opportunities in building/catering/arts and business for the homeless residents
• 35 low-rent apartments
• state-of-the-art conference facilities
• a restaurant for residents, staff and the public.

Arlington’s holistic approach aims to provide more of a home environment for residents, integrating them within the community and providing the opportunity for real independence for the socially excluded. It is designed to be a clear and definite move away from institutional and stereotypical approach to housing for the homeless. Written about by George Orwell and featured in lyrics by Madness, Arlington was originally built in 1905. 

Chair of One Housing Baroness Julia Neuberger’s vision to reduce homelessness is a step closer to reality with the relaunch of Arlington and the unique community approach.  Kevin Beirne, Group Director of Housing Care and Support for One Housing comments: “With the smart re-design of the building and expert facilities management in place we feel confident we can provide a home environment for residents, professional services to businesses, relaxing restaurant environment for the local community and a desirable living environment/building for the low-rent workers.   We are excited to be charting the unknown and we are fully prepared for the challenges of managing an integrated site.”

Case study

East Thames Group

By taking a holistic approach to tackling overcrowding, East Thames has achieved success over the past 12 months by exceeding targets and assisting the move of around 50 over or under occupied homes. Their success is the result of a carefully planned analysis of their resident profile, and using a good mix of communication channels to promote housing options to residents.

Homes Choice Manager at East Thames, Rochelle Blackman explains: “Developing a comprehensive database and resident profiling system is key to allowing us to see the broader picture of households that are either over or under occupied.

“We have invested in a purpose built IT system and use this to work closely with our neighbourhood managers and local authorities to deliver an ongoing system that indentifies families living in unsuitable situations.

“We communicate housing options to these residents through a variety of channels including Choice Homes magazine and regular resident publications, mail outs, housing options events and regular house visits. The efforts that have delivered the best response rates include advertisements and visits from our teams.” she said.

When a family wants to move, they will usually join a system called Choice Based Lettings. However, because of the demand on housing, some families are spending years on the lettings waiting list. To alleviate this problem, East Thames is supporting residents to use alternative options to Choice Based Lettings. Central to these options is indentifying households that are under occupied and supporting them to move to a smaller home that better suits their changing needs.

Mrs Smith was recently helped to move from an under occupied property. She said: “If your home is too big for you, you’d be daft not to do it (move); it’s so simple. “

Case study

Birmingham - Snow Hill

Midland Heart is leading a partnership which will see homelessness provision in Birmingham revolutionised, starting with the £10million redevelopment of the city centre Snow Hill scheme. The investment aims to help individuals beat homelessness long term, rather than limiting the service to a short term fix for one or two nights - a  new concept in tackling homelessness, similar to that seen in stateside but debuting in the UK for the first time under Midland Heart. 

Midland Heart is closing the gap between temporary accommodation for homeless and independent living, transforming Snow Hill into a community where individuals can access permanent support they need to put homelessness behind them for good.

Plans for the new look scheme include creating a mixed-use environment, providing tailored accommodation for both move-on customers and those already in full time employment. IT suites and conferencing facilities will help to support the full spectrum of customers, and will facilitate ongoing skills and training services which will help individuals take the next step to becoming fully independent.

Snow Hill currently helps up to 157 men aged 25 and over to get off the street through immediate direct access housing and support. The redevelopment will consist of 88 self-contained apartments for both males and females who are able to demonstrate a commitment to undertaking employment, education or training. Plans also include a social enterprise element, providing space for individuals to socialise, build relationships and work with advisers to gain the skills and confidence to enable them to become fully independent.

Stephen Philpott, Places of Change programme manager at Midland Heart, says: “We have needed to look at the situation, rather than just the short-term fixes. Increasing the provision of move-on accommodation which enables individuals to access support and advice tailored to their individual needs will offer that intermediate step between direct access and independent living.”