Less People Sleeping Rough in Reading

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Reading Borough Council and its partners are working hard to ensure that fewer people will be sleeping rough on the streets of the town.

During this cold weather period, the Council works with partners such as St Mungo’s, Hamble Court, Salvation Army, Waylen Street and Launchpad to ensure that anyone found rough sleeping is offered emergency accommodation, support and advice so that they do not have to remain on the street. The agencies involved use this as an opportunity to work with rough sleepers and encourage them to remain in accommodation for the long term. This partnership arrangement has existed for many years and is activated whenever the Met Office forecasts three nights or more with a minimum temperature of 0°C or below. Last year, over the winter period 46 people were offered emergency accommodation; 40% of those accommodated in SWEP were from out of the Borough.

It has been reported by the specialist housing press that London has seen the number of rough sleepers rise by 31% as of the end of October 2012 compared to the same period in 2011 (http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/6524836.article).

The homeless charity Crisis has also reported that the number of rough sleepers across Britain has soared by 23% to 2,183 in the past year.

January 15, 2013 |

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