Cuts to housing benefit and homelessness services could lead to rough sleeping doubling by the end of 2012, rather than ending as the Mayor of London aims, Green London Assembly Member, Jenny Jones has warned. Cuts to housing benefits and to already-stretched homelessness services, some of which will close altogether, are likely to see the recent increase in homelessness accelerate.
Jenny Jones said:
"This toxic cocktail of cuts from the Government, London Councils and the boroughs will probably shatter any chance of ending rough sleeping in London. Halving street outreach in many parts of the capital, closing hostels and ending a support line for vulnerable Londoners are the last thing we need in the face of benefit cuts and job losses. It all points to a large rise in homelessness.
"The Mayor’s housing experts have been quietly lobbying, but it’s time the Mayor himself made a lot of noise about this."
Notes to Editors
The Mayor of London set a target to end rough sleeping by 2012. Rough sleeping is defined as spending more than one night in a row on the street. Recent homelessness figures from the CHAIN database show a 6% increase in people sleeping rough at some point in 2010 compared to 2009.
Evidence on housing benefit cuts from the Mayor to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee in September 2010 suggested London would face a 51% increase in new homelessness cases, with increases of 337% in Camden, 268% in Westminster, 178% in Kensington & Chelsea, 147% in Harrow and 124% in Brent. Homelessness experts believe those boroughs would be overwhelmed by such large increases, even without cuts.
London Councils decided in December to end the homelessness stream in its pan-London grants scheme, despite officer recommendations that it remain in place. £4.1m of funding has been ‘repatriated’ to the boroughs, but pan-London services including Shelter’s "first port of call" support service will most likely have to close and others will be dramatically cut back.
This comes on top of cuts to national grants such as Supporting People, which provides housing related support to help vulnerable people to live as independently as possible in the community. Homeless Link estimate that a quarter of the UK’s 44,000 hostel beds could be lost if all local authorities make the kinds of cuts seen in an initial sample.