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.