Preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place:

• reach more people at risk of homelessness at an earlier stage, by building a network of prevention and support, working with partners and communities.
• make our services more visible through targeted information campaigns.
• proactively offer personalised support to those at risk of homelessness where possible, from helping them negotiate with their landlord to offering employment and skills training so they can increase their income.
• do more to identify and address the main causes of homelessness in Westminster and also the wider causes, through research and outreach.

Improving our services and response when people become homeless:

• make our housing services more transparent, accountable and accessible
• better communicate what we can and can’t offer.
• ensure a range of accommodation is available for the homeless households that we have a housing duty towards, when homelessness cannot be prevented.
• review how people access supported housing and ensure our supported housing meets needs, now, and in the future.

Meeting the challenges ahead and having a homelessness system fit for the future:

• become a leader in the field of homelessness prevention proposing solutions and bringing key decision makers together to share information and ideas.
• make the case for homelessness services and prevention work to be fully funded and lead the discussion with government and others on how the welfare system can work better for low income residents in central London, where the cost of living continues to increase beyond many people’s means

The Homelessness Strategy is aimed at preventing all forms of homelessness amongst Westminster residents, but, when asked, less than three per cent of rough sleepers identified Westminster as their last settled base.

Rough Sleeping is rarely solely to do with a lack of home and those that find themselves on the street have often have experienced trauma, addiction or mental health problems, which means their solution is more than just a roof over their head. Often they have housing available to them but are not ready to make use of it or to engage with our services, they therefore need a different type of support.

Rough sleeping can have wider impacts on the community so the response needs to look beyond the individual. The government recognises that rough sleeping is a very different type of homelessness and is encouraging local authorities to have a dedicated rough sleeping strategy.

Find out how you can help someone sleeping rough.