Emergency severe weather plan activated to protect homeless Londoners
Posted 08.01.24
Mayor of London: Further reading
As temperatures are set to fall below freezing, the pan-London Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) has been activated to protect homeless people. ?
This is the first SWEP activation of the year and will ensure that councils across London, alongside homelessness charities, open additional emergency accommodation for people who are sleeping rough during weather conditions that could pose a threat to life.
All boroughs in London have committed to the 'In for Good' principle, which means no one will be asked to leave accommodation until a support plan is in place to end their rough sleeping, regardless of an increase in temperature.
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NHF sends joint letter calling to protect homelessness services from decommissioning
Posted 15.01.24
National Housing Federation (NHF): Further reading
The NHF has written a joint letter to the Homelessness Minister, Felicity Buchan, about the amount of homelessness accommodation spaces currently at risk of closure due to a crisis in local government funding.
The letter calls on the Government to boost and ringfence funding for supported housing, to protect homeless services commissioned by local authorities.
Several councils are considering proposals to withdraw funding from NHF members, who deliver supported accommodation for people facing homelessness.
In addition to the National Housing Federation, Homeless Link, and the Local Government Association, the letter was also co-signed by the Chartered Institute of Housing, Centrepoint, Rethink Mental Illness, Crisis, Shelter, the National Care Forum, and the Rural Homelessness Counts Coalition.
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Met apologises for inhumane treatment of homeless pensioner
Posted 01.01.24
The Justice Gap: Further reading
The Metropolitan Police have apologised for the arrest and detention of a homeless pensioner, accepting that they breached his human rights.
Anthony Sinclair, 70, had been living outside University College Hospital in a tent for eight months. On November 10th 2023, police instructed him to leave; when he refused, he was dragged out of his tent and held four six hours for refusing a dispersal order.
Mr. Sinclair's dispersal unfolded days after former Home Secretary Suella Braverman controversially decried homelessness as a 'lifestyle choice' and clamped down on measures under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The Act empowers police to issue dispersal orders under s.34 and act decisively on homelessness.
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