Speaking at the 2009 Positive Change awards event in Newcastle, which recognises the changes former homeless people have made to turning their lives around, Richard Cunningham, manager of the Homes and Communities Agency's £80 million Places of Change capital funding programme at the Agency, said:
"The solution to street homelessness is not simply about building more hostels - the fact is, anyone could be affected by homelessness, and anyone in this situation is going to want to better their lives and move on.
Our programme seeks to provide not just better facilities for homeless service users, but to encourage a step change in the way services are delivered.
Our projects will seek new and innovative ways to engage homeless service users to encourage them to look at themselves anew, realise their potential and move on, breaking the cycle of social exclusion."
The programme currently funds 80 projects nationwide with a wealth of innovation that includes social enterprise initiatives - such as Crisis's Skylight cafes in Newcastle and London; a butchery and farm shop at the Pilsdon community in Dorset - as well as a variety of training activities and embedded learning, such as a recording studio at Endell Street in London; and a café/training kitchen and small theatre at Leicester YMCA.
The Places of Change Programme also encourages projects to consider how they can integrate with the wider community, via open courses, gyms, cafés, or mechanics workshops where the service users - the residents themselves - can work in conjunction with local people and improve their skills.
Almost half of this year's 48 Positive Change nominees have either lived in or worked on projects funded by the Homes and Communities Agency. These include Tyneside Cyrenians' Elliott House in Newcastle, which employed its own hostel residents to "self build" an annexe to the building, thereby equipping the service users with practical construction skills they could use in future employment.
Richard Cunningham added:
"Feedback from completed schemes the programme has funded since 2005 have shown a 60% increase in the number of people moving on positively from hostels and homelessness services. This includes 500 service users who have gained employment.
It is really encouraging not only to see great success stories such as those being celebrated today coming through, which demonstrate how we have helped inspire a higher quality of service provision, but that this is being recognised.
"In addition, Places of Change has helped benefit over 600 people entering further education, 1,000 receiving pre-employment training, and 400 attending volunteering placements.
"Awards like these help break the stereotypes so often associated with homeless people and they further strengthen our belief that hostels and other services for homeless people can really be places of change."
Mayor of London Boris Johnson outlined his commitment to end rough sleeping in the Capital by 2012. He was speaking at the launch of the London Delivery Board, which brings together key stakeholders focused on ending rough sleeping.
Half of the country's rough sleepers are found on London streets, which amounts to around 3,000 people over the course of a year. There has been a decline in the number of rough sleepers in the Capital in the past ten years, but London is the only region in the country that has failed to meet the Government's 1998 target to reduce rough sleeping by two-thirds.
A reason for this failure has been the lack of a co-ordinated response that works across geographical and organisational boundaries.
The new Board provides a fresh and dynamic approach - underpinned by strong partnerships, a shared response and common ownership of the problem.
Its launch follows the Mayor's commitment in his Housing Strategy to tackle rough sleeping with practical action. It brings together for the first time key stakeholders who are all committed to ending rough sleeping in the capital by 2012.
Chaired by the Mayor's Director of Housing, Richard Blakeway, the Board is comprised of senior level representatives from influential voluntary and public sector bodies. These include local authorities, leading charities and central government, and span a range of support services that include social, health, and drugs and alcohol.