Southwark is seeing the highest number of new people sleeping rough since late 2020, according to Liberal Democrat analysis of the latest GLA data.
The reporting system known as “CHAIN” is published on a quarterly basis and shows how many people are sleeping rough and living on the streets. The latest quarterly figures showed that across London there was the biggest increase since the beginning of the pandemic.
Here in Southwark, it’s the second highest quarterly increase in total people living on the street since covid at 14%, with the highest being spring 2022 at 21%. 91 new rough sleepers were found in Southwark in July-September this year, with 151 in total living on the streets.
The reports showed that most people sleeping rough suffer from either mental health or substance abuse issues, and around a third have been in prison with nowhere else to go.
The scale of the problem is underlined by the thousands in Southwark who are in receipt of housing duties to prevent or alleviate homelessness from the council. 2787 households are in receipt of either prevention or relief duty, the 3rd highest number of households in London.
This comes as the Conservative Home Secretary made a statement over the weekend describing sleeping rough as a ‘lifestyle choice’.
During Covid, the government implemented the ‘everyone in’ initiative, providing support to local authorities to reduce rough sleeping. By contrast, Suella Braverman’s recent proposals around homelessness would ‘cause deaths’, according to leading homelessness charities.
Commenting, the Southwark Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson Cllr Emily Tester said:
“These sobering statistics are another reminder of how bad the housing crisis has got. Housing benefit has been frozen for a number of years, leaving people out of pocket just as we’re seeing a cost of living emergency. The result is 151 people living on the streets here in Southwark.
In 2023 no one should be sleeping rough. The Labour council and Labour Mayor need to get a grip on the housing crisis, and build the genuinely affordable homes we need, instead of wasting time and money on pet projects”
Deputy Leader and Parliamentary Spokesperson Cllr Rachel Bentley said:
“The callous comments made by our pantomime villain Home Secretary last week are appalling. It follows a pattern from this government of failing to address the root causes of poverty and inequality, and instead taking the easy path of demonising the vulnerable.”
