Mayor announces extra £7m to help tackle rough sleeping in London
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced plans to invest an
additional £7m of City Hall resources into a range of services and
projects tackling rough sleeping in the capital. Building on the
£8.5m from City Hall already funding pan-London rough sleeping
services each year, Sadiq is proposing a further £7million to
provide both immediate and long-term support for rough sleepers,
and improved winter provision, as part of his new Budget. The Mayor
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced plans to invest an additional £7m of City Hall resources into a range of services and projects tackling rough sleeping in the capital. Building on the £8.5m from City Hall already funding pan-London rough sleeping services each year, Sadiq is proposing a further £7million to provide both immediate and long-term support for rough sleepers, and improved winter provision, as part of his new Budget. The Mayor will use this extra money to boost help for people who are homeless on the street, including by introducing a new rapid response outreach team in the coming months and by gearing up to expand severe weather shelters even further next winter. This will build on Sadiq’s expansion of his services this winter, which has seen severe weather shelters opening London-wide when it is freezing or approaching zero degrees anywhere in the capital. The Mayor made the announcement as he visited a coffee kiosk near London Bridge station run by Change Please, a social enterprise part funded by City Hall that offers rough sleepers a way off the streets and into employment by training them as baristas. Change Please was awarded £60,000 through the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Innovation Fund, for a caseworker to assist with training, employment, and wider housing and health support, as well as going towards opening two new cafes, which will support 16 people out of rough sleeping each year. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The increase in rough sleeping in recent years across the country is a national disgrace, and we are doing all we can to help people off the streets of London. This extra funding from City Hall means we can build on the new services we have introduced this winter to go even further – with new help for rough sleepers including an all-year-round rapid response team. But the truth is that we will never truly end homelessness unless the Government fully invests in the services we need, and crucially until Ministers stop ignoring the fact that their policies and cuts are making more people homeless in the first place.” On his visit to Change Please, the Mayor added: “Organisations like Change Please are doing a fantastic job helping homeless people to rebuild their lives, offering training, employment and support. It was great to meet the baristas today and hear how far they’ve come since sleeping on the streets, and the bright future they have now.” Since taking office, the Mayor has made tackling rough sleeping a priority, throwing out the previous Mayor’s inadequate severe weather shelter policy and working with boroughs to ensure all shelters across the capital are opened as soon as the temperature is forecast to drop to or below zero. They have been open 24 nights already this winter. Under the previous policy, temperatures had to be freezing for three consecutive nights and boroughs opened their shelters at different times, leading to patchy services. Sadiq has also doubled the number of street outreach workers in his services and his rough sleeping services supported more than 3,100 people off the streets last year. Cemal Ezel, Founder of Change Please, which received £60,000 from the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Innovation Fund and £50,000 from his Good Growth fund, said: “It’s fantastic to have the support of the London Mayor - the Rough Sleeping Innovation Fund has been crucial in helping us grow our business so that we can employ more previously homeless baristas and change lives. With more Change Please carts popping up across the city, and our coffee available to buy in Sainsbury's, Londoners now have the opportunity to improve the lives of homeless individuals with the simple gesture of buying a coffee.” In addition, the Mayor’s rough sleeping campaign, launched at the end of November, has already raised over £207,000 for the London Homeless Charities Group, a coalition of charities working to tackle rough sleeping. Over £46,000 of this was raised via TAP London contactless donation points, rolled out by Sadiq at the campaign launch, with 78 now in place across the capital offering Londoners an easy way to donate £3 with their contactless debit card. Earlier this month, the Mayor partnered with advertising giant Clear Channel to display weather-triggered ads on billboards and digital screens across the capital, revealing the temperature when it drops to zero and highlighting how Londoners can help by referring rough sleepers they are concerned about to StreetLink. More than 12,000 referrals have already been made by Londoners since the end of November, compared to 8,500 last year over the whole of the winter campaign. ENDS Notes to Editors:
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