Westminster suffers a particularly acute challenge in terms of the number of people sleeping rough. Indeed, 20% of all rough sleepers in London are in our City and on any given night 200+ people will sleep rough on our streets. This is more than double the next highest local authority.
Each case is a tragedy, with lives falling apart due to substance misuse, mental health or other pressures. But the fact that the numbers aren’t even higher, is due to the level of provision which the Council, funded by grants from the Government, pours into helping rough sleepers.
Westminster is the only area to have teams of outreach workers on the streets almost all hours, seven days a week, engaging with those they find and doing everything possible to persuade them to ‘come inside’ and access accommodation.
To see more information about rough sleeping, answers to questions and practical advice, please visit our website.
