Seventeen of Britain’s leading health and homelessness
organisations, including the Royal College of Physicians, Royal
College of General Practitioners, Crisis and St Mungo’s have
issued a warning that without urgent Government action to protect
people forced to sleep rough this winter, lives will be at risk
from the double threat of coronavirus and cold weather.
The group, which includes leading experts and a member of the
Government’s SAGE advisory committee, is calling on the UK
Government to ensure everyone who is sleeping rough is given
safe, self-contained accommodation as a priority due to the high
risk of coronavirus transmission in communal night shelters. They
urge that councils are provided with the vital funding needed to
protect people from the virus.
Their call comes as concerns rise that, as the weather turns
colder, night shelters will be used to accommodate the increasing
numbers of people sleeping rough as councils don’t have the
funding for self-contained accommodation such as hotels, as was
seen at the start of the pandemic.
The group warns that social distancing and proper safety measures
for communal and dormitory-style shelters are likely to be all
but impossible and should not be the answer ahead of the winter
months. The group draws on international examples of communal
shelters staying open during the pandemic which have shown the
risk to life of this approach.
In March, the Government moved over 15,000 people who were
sleeping rough into emergency, self-contained accommodation
including hotels. According to a study in The Lancet this
response meant an estimated 266 deaths were avoided during the
first wave of the pandemic among England’s homeless population,
as well as 21,092 infections, 1,164 hospital admissions and 338
admissions to Intensive Care Units1. The
researchers predict that failure to maintain such measures could
lead to further spread of the virus and more deaths among people
who are homeless.
Previous studies have shown that people who are homeless are
three times more likely to experience a chronic health need,
including respiratory conditions. Warning that the economic
consequences of the pandemic “will see more and more people
pushed into homelessness,” the group warns that lives will be at
risk if the Government does not act now to provide the funding
and accommodation needed to protect people.
Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said:
“Without Government action, the reality of what could happen this
winter is terrifying. Predictions of deaths among people who have
nowhere else to go, other than our streets, or sleeping in
communal night shelters that are not COVID-secure, must act as a
wake-up call to Government.
“We cannot have hundreds, or even thousands of people forced to
live in crowded places, where proper social distancing is
impossible, and the risk of coronavirus transmission is
incredibly high. The ‘Everyone In’ scheme saw unprecedented
efforts to protect people, and undoubtedly saved lives – this
must be repeated. As we face a second wave of coronavirus,
Government must provide somewhere for each and every person
sleeping on our streets to live and self-isolate safely.”
Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College
of Physicians said: “This winter is set to be one of the
hardest we’ve faced, particularly with the added pressure of
COVID-19. For those who are homeless, or who have been pushed
into homelessness by the pandemic, the threat is even more acute.
“We know that the efforts made to support homeless people during
the first phase of the pandemic were truly life-saving. As we
enter a second wave of COVID-19, these steps need to happen
again.
“Without urgent action from the government to keep homeless
people off the streets this winter, lives will most certainly be
lost.”
-Ends-
Notes to
Editor
Letter: https://we.tl/t-DjaH9tI4C7
Signatories include:
Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive, Crisis
Professor Andrew Goddard, President, Royal College of
Physicians
Professor Martin Marshall CBE, Chair, Royal College of General
Practitioners
Dr Katherine Henderson, President, Royal College of Emergency
Medicine
Dr Adrian James, President, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Professor Andrew Hayward, Director, UCL Institute of Epidemiology
and Health Care
Dr Marcel Levi, Chief Executive, University College London
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Christina Marriott, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public
Health
Professor Maggie Rae, President, Faculty of Public Health
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Council Chair, British Medical Association
Professor Parveen Kumar, Chair, British Medical Association Board
of Science
Dr Nigel Hewett OBE, Secretary, Faculty of Homeless and Inclusion
Health
Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, Chief Executive, The Queen’s Nursing
Institute
Alex Bax, Chief Executive, Pathway
Steven Platts, Chief Executive, Groundswell
Steve Douglas CBE, Chief Executive, St Mungo’s
Polly Neate CBE, Chief Executive, Shelter
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https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30396-9/fulltext
