Surge in homelessness in London during lockdown, figures show

A scheme serving to tough sleepers off London’s streets is to be expanded after a surge in homelessness throughout lockdown.

Road Buddies, which employs volunteers with expertise of homelessness or substance misuse to assist tough sleepers off the streets and rebuild their lives, will begin in one other 5 boroughs after securing greater than £600,000 in funding.

It comes as new figures present 4,227 folks had been recorded as sleeping tough on the streets of London between March and June – a 33 per cent improve on the identical interval final yr.

Some 2,680 folks had been sleeping tough in London for the primary time – a 77 per cent improve in new tough sleepers in comparison with the identical interval final yr, in accordance with information from The Mixed Homelessness and Data Community (CHAIN).

The Road Buddies programme was created by Riverside – the most important supplier of supported housing for these affected by homelessness in Britain.

It has been working in Westminster however will now broaden into the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth and the Metropolis of London.

In addition to bringing folks sleeping tough off the streets it’s going to work with a number of the 4,000 homeless folks in London positioned in motels and different types of emergency lodging throughout lockdown to assist them transfer on with their lives and never find yourself again on the streets.

Amanda Clark, Riverside’s operations supervisor for London, stated: “We’re conscious of a number of components which have pushed a rise in tough sleeping through the pandemic.

“We’ve got at all times recognized there have been important numbers of people that had been thought of hidden homeless, and had been both sofa-surfing or dwelling in overcrowded houses, conditions which might then change into a well being danger for folks throughout a pandemic and can’t be continued.

“Some employees, notably within the hospitality sector, have change into homeless as a result of they’ve been in lodging which was tied to their job and that job has been misplaced. Relationship breakdowns and the reported important will increase in home violence through the lockdown have additionally precipitated folks to depart houses to flee relationships.”