The widespread closure of old-style hostels and reception centres radically reduces the number of hostel beds.
The 'Hostels Initiative' replaces some of the older provisions with much smaller, but higher quality supported housing projects.

1982

The first of four Bondway supported housing projects – eventually spanning Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth – is opened.

1984

Thames Reach is set up and funded by the Greater London Council to undertake outreach work with people sleeping rough on the streets of central London. This is in response to growing political concern and embarrassment at the high visibility of homeless people.

Over 1,000 people are sleeping rough in London on any one night. The numbers of rough sleepers are boosted by restrictions placed on the claiming of welfare benefits to meet 'board and lodgings', and on benefit payments to younger people.

Following pressure from political groups, local authorities and the voluntary sector, the Government creates the first of three successive three-year 'Rough Sleepers Initiatives'. These provide additional services and resources, including an expansion of outreach and resettlement work, and the funding of temporary and permanent accommodation.
Thames Reach opens Shroton Street hostel in Marylebone.

The Department of Health creates the 'Homeless Mentally Ill Initiative' (HMII), to provide community mental health care and high support accommodation for rough sleepers. Two years later.

Thames Reach opens the Aberdour & Galleywall project – the first of its HMII high-support mental health schemes – and forges a long-term partnership with the START Mental Health team in South London.

Bondway opens the unique Robertson Street project, providing 42 places for older, vulnerable ex-rough sleepers, many of whom have alcohol problems.
Lambeth High Street opens – the second of Thames Reach's HMII accommodation projects. The first of Thames Reach's permanent supported flats also opens, as part of a programme providing over 60 bed spaces in Lambeth and Southwark.

The new Labour Government's Social Exclusion Unit undertakes an extensive study of rough sleeping, leading to the creation of the Rough Sleepers' Unit. 620 people are recorded as sleeping rough on any one night across Greater London with 237 in Westminster alone. This figure is only a snapshot from a single night and the numbers sleeping rough over the year are far greater.

Thames Reach is awarded the contracts for outreach work with rough sleepers in two of the busiest areas in central London, covering most of Westminster.

The Graham House hostel opens, replacing the old Bondway Shelter.
Thames Reach and Bondway merge, creating one of the largest homelessness charities in London. The Bondway Soup Run is replaced by the London Street Rescue outreach service, which encourages people on the street to move into accommodation.
The Rough Sleepers Unit announces that its primary target set by government – a two-thirds reduction in the numbers of people sleeping rough across England – has been met

Street counts in Westminster, the borough with the highest concentration of rough sleepers in the country, show fewer than 150 people sleeping out on any one night, the lowest figure for twenty years.

Thames Reach Bondway launches the GROW scheme – Giving Real Opportunities for Work – which aims to foster an environment within the organisation and the sector that encourages the employment of people with experience of homelessness. A target is set of having 10 per cent of the workforce made up of former homeless people by the end of 2007.

A street count taken in June reports that 264 people were sleeping rough in London on one night.
Thames Reach Bondway focuses on the prevention of homelessness among people who may be in danger of losing their tenancies. Southwark Reach, the largest of these schemes, is launched.