The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, last week formally opened the newly refurbished and extended New Belvedere House, a short-term residential facility for homeless UK veterans run by charity Veterans Aid.
He praised the charity’s work supporting people off the streets into employment and housing and preventing rough sleeping in the first place.
New Belvedere House, which has been operating in Tower Hamlets for 45 years, runs a unique ‘Welfare to Wellbeing’ programme which helps transform the lives of homeless UK ex-service personnel by offering an immediate route off the streets.
Sadiq is investing £180,000 over three years in the programme, in addition to over £1.6 million provided by City Hall to assist with the £8.2 million refurbishment of New Belvedere House.
Official statistics published in June showed a drop in the number of people sleeping rough in the capital for the first time in a decade. Last year (2017/18), 7,484 people were seen by outreach workers in London compared to 8,108 in 2016/17 – an eight per cent decrease.
Ministers announced earlier this week London will receive £12.4 million in 2019/20 for rough sleeping services, with £3 million to be directly managed by City Hall.
