The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced that funding has been secured for a homelessness outreach scheme to ensure no-one is forced to sleep on London's streets for more than one night.
The new scheme will help the Mayor reach his ambitious target of ending rough sleeping in the Capital by the end of 2012.
The funding was announced as the Mayor met volunteers, staff and clients from the homelessness charity Crisis at a centre for some of London's most entrenched rough sleepers.
Following the Government's recent spending review, £710,000 worth of funding has been secured from the Department for Communities and Local Government to kick-start the 'No Second Night Out' programme, which will be trialled in London from next April for a six month period.
The aim will be to ensure that no-one new to the streets of London is forced to sleep rough for more than one night.
The 'No Second Night Out' project will be managed by the London Delivery Board, a body set up in February of last year by the Mayor to bring about the end of rough sleeping in London by the end of 2012.
Official figures show that over the last year, half of rough sleepers in London have spent only one night on the street, before being reconnected or helped into services. In the past year the work of the London Delivery Board members, which includes Crisis, has seen at least three quarters of London's 205 most entrenched rough sleepers come off the streets.
The aim of the 'No Second Night Out. programme will be to give rough sleepers who have recently arrived on the streets of London the chance to come off the street and to help prevent people from falling into a harmful, rough sleeping lifestyle.
It will see the creation of a 24-hour outreach hub in central London. This will be staffed by a professional team who will help rough sleepers consider a wide range of options, which will include providing support that will enable people to return closer to home, providing it is safe to do so.
