The Government announced details of a new drive to end rough sleeping by 2012. Although numbers have been driven down over the last decade and have stayed down, there remains the target of ending rough sleeping for good.
A new action plan has been developed with leading homelessness charities to prevent rough sleeping and to support those already there to rebuild their lives away from the streets.
The plan is backed by an allocation of £200 million and includes new measures such as:
The plan also calls for charities, businesses and Government to work more closely in new and innovative ways to help rough sleepers off the street and into employment
New action will be introduced across Government departments, to make sure people do not fall between different aspects of the support network. On health for example, this will be mean better healthcare access for the homeless.
The latest street count figures indicate 483 rough sleepers across the nation-wide on any given night, a sustained reduction of two thirds from its base line figure of 1850 in 1997.