26 | BIGISSUE.COM 02 -08 MARCH 2020
investigation.
Words: Liam Geraghty
Rough sleeper
numbers are down,
the government says.
But don’t celebrate yet
he UK government has hailed
a small drop in the number
of people sleeping rough in
England for the second straight
year. It’s welcome news.
The nine per cent decrease
means that officially there were
4,266 people counted by outreach
workers, local charities and community workers on one
autumn evening between October 1 and November 30.
The snapshot represents a small step in the right
direction on the mammoth journey to ending rough
sleeping“onceand for all”by 2 0 24.Thatwas Boris
Johnson’svow lastweekwhileunveiling£ 236 mof extra
fundingtowardsHousingFirst-styleaccommodation
and an urgent review from homelessness tsar Dame
Louise Casey.
And they have a way to go – rough sleeping levels are
still 141 per cent higher than when the Tories first took
power a decade ago – meaning 2,498 extra people are
living on the streets today.
Any reduction should be celebrated, says The Big
Issue Foundation chief executive Stephen Robertson.
“Each time a number goes up from a previous one it
is easy to worry and call for more action,” he says. “When
a number goes down it is encouraging but is it equally as
good? Behind all this is the age-old question of whether
we can even trust the numbers we are told.”
That is the age-old question – the snapshot method
of counting rough sleepers has long been queried.
We named actor and presenter Ross Kemp a Big Issue
Changemaker this year after he exposed the snapshot’s
shortcomings in his Living With documentary last year.T
No chance to rest
Despite the recent drop
in rough sleeping, there is
still a long way to goImage: Prisma by Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images