Ending Rough Sleeping for Good

Over the weekend, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, released a new Rough Sleeping strategy. The strategy lays out a set of comprehensive actions to build on the successes already gained in reducing the number of people who sleep rough.

For many years, Action Homeless have been working with our partners in Leicester, towards a goal of ending rough sleeping. More recently, we have been at the forefront of developing new initiatives to break the cycle of chronic homelessness and have seen the hugely positive impact that specialist interventions and tailored support can have on people with long histories of street homelessness. You can read more about this in our latest impact report.

We particularly welcome the new definition of ‘ending rough sleeping’ offered in the strategy;

The Government considers rough sleeping will have ended when every local area ensures rough sleeping is ‘prevented wherever possible and, where it cannot be prevented, it is a rare, brief and non-recurring experience’. In practice this means that we want to see more effective support to prevent rough sleeping from happening in the first place, and a tailored offer of support where it does, so people can build an independent life off the streets.

This new definition, developed along with the Centre for Homelessness Impact, gives clarity and focus, meaning that progress towards ‘ending rough sleeping’ can be tangibly measured by organisations across the country.

To read the full strategy please visit: Ending Rough Sleeping for Good (publishing.service.gov.uk)