Thames Reach is playing a big role in the Mayor’s drive to
end rough sleeping in London – in 2009, Boris Johnson established the London
Delivery Board to achieve this aim.
Made up of representatives of local, regional and central
government, homelessness charities including Thames Reach, the police and other
key providers, it has led to the development of a more coordinated approach by
the services helping homeless people.
The aim of the London Delivery Board has been to help long
term rough sleepers living on the streets to escape homelessness and to ensure
new people to the streets do not have to endure a second night out sleeping
rough.
Every night of the year, staff and volunteers from the
Thames Reach London Street Rescue service are looking for, finding and
providing support to people sleeping rough in London, in a bid to help them off
the streets and to turn their lives around.
Figures show that over 20,000 people have been helped off
the streets of London in the past decade. In the past year alone, over 1,000
new rough sleepers have been helped into the new assessment centres set up the
London Delivery Board as part of its No Second Night Out Strategy.
Extra resources have also been set aside to help those
living on the streets and Thames Reach has been active in providing support to
the205 most entrenched rough sleepers, three quarters of who are no longer on
the streets.
Thames Reach now runs at least four outreach shifts every
night, at least double the number it was running in early 2011.
The latest annual figures for London show that 5,678 people
were seen sleeping rough by outreach workers across the capital including those
from London Street Rescue. This is an increase of 43% compared to the previous
year. This reflects the enhanced levels of outreach services being provided as
part of No Second Night Out and 70% of new rough sleepers in London did not
spend a second night out.
Find out more about No Second Night Out
