Rough Sleeping Strategy – Principles and Essential Elements

Friday, 13 April 2018 - 1:35pm

This paper sets out Homeless Link’s position on the key principles and the essential elements that any cross-Government strategy on rough sleeping should include.

Homeless Link is a member of the Government’s Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel, chaired by the Homelessness Minister Health Wheeler, set up to help develop the national rough sleeping strategy to deliver on the Government’s commitment to half rough sleeping by 2020 and eliminate it altogether by 2027. As part of this work, we are also represented on all five of the Task and Finish groups that are feeding into the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel and strategy and these are Data, Accountability & Frameworks; Prevention; Interventions; Recovery; and Long Term Societal Change.

The Advisory Panel includes experts, charities and local government representatives. The Panel includes a number of Homeless Link members: Crisis, Shelter, St Basil’s, St Mungo’s and Thames Reach, and we are committed to ensuring the experiences of our members are heard by Government.

As part of our work in feeding into the development of the rough sleeping strategy, Homeless Link has produced a paper, informed by our members via our National Advisory Council, setting out the key principles and essential elements that the cross-Government strategy on rough sleeping should include.

The key principles that we have set out include:

National and Local Leadership and Accountability on ending rough sleeping.

A commitment to addressing the structural factors that have caused the rise in rough sleeping, including action on housing supply, reducing poverty and welfare reform.

Recognition of the contribution of voluntary sector homelessness services in effectively tackling rough sleeping and ensuring these services are adequately resourced.

We do hope that the final version of the rough sleeping strategy will take into account these principles and essential elements as we have set out in our paper.