• TODAY (January 25), the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government releases its annual Homeless Link figures for rough sleeping across the country.

These show that rough sleeping in Camden is now at unprecedented levels. On the night of the official count in November 2017 there were 127 people sleeping rough compared to practically none 10 years ago.

This is an appalling situation made worse by the politics of austerity that have led to cuts in services across the country.

Rough sleeping has no place in the 21st century, but numbers continue to rise, especially as people arrive in central London. It is harmful to the individuals themselves and has an impact on the lives of our residents and businesses.

We are confronting this issue head on. We continue to invest in specialist outreach services. We are working closely with partners to develop our Routes off The Street approach to improve services and continue with our approach of using enforcement options where services have been refused.

There are 651 hostel bed spaces available in Camden, most of which are in use each night.

We are doing all this and more in Camden. I recently identified resources for additional teams to focus on hotspot areas where there are higher concentrations of rough sleepers and providing extra bed spaces during the winter. This focus means we can assist more people, supporting them to stay off the streets.

In two weeks in December the team carried out 12 patrols, speaking to 63 people, leading to 28 service offers being made, 14 people referred to specialist agencies, seven offered accommodation, six found emergency beds through the pan London Severe Weather Emergency Provision scheme and 68 cases of illegal street activity being disrupted.

Camden cannot do this alone and we now need government to recognise that this is a crisis and increase its support to deal with this nationally important issue.

CLLR NADIA SHAH
Cabinet Member for Safer Communities