Eight east London authorities are today joining forces with charities and voluntary sector groups to launch the first London sub-regional strategy to end rough sleeping.
No One Left Out in East London is the first of its kind in the capital and trailblazes a sub-regional, multi-agency approach to end rough sleeping by 2013.
The initiative was developed after evidence that rough sleeping was increasing in east London.
The authorities collaborated with third sector organisations, including Homeless Link, Thames Reach, Look Ahead, Broadway and Providence Row, to form the East London Housing Partnership (ELHP).
Partnership working
The main message is that prevention is key and that every agency and individual has a role to play in reducing and preventing rough sleeping.
“The key point we are trying to get across is the importance of partnership working,” said Margaret Williams, ELHP’s homelessness co-ordinator.” We are the first sub-region to produce a strategy and the first to do it from a multi-agency perspective.
“The other unique thing is we are basing it on the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) data.” Chain is the most comprehensive database recording homelessness.
Ethnic minorities
The strategy will look specifically at the needs of ethnic minorities, recruit a rough sleeping officer and extend mental health services to the streets.
ELHP chair Marie Pye is today expected to say that the multi-agency collaboration was inspired by the recognition that, behind the statistics, are real people who need support to move off the streets and rebuild their lives.
No One Left Out in East London bases its targets on data recorded by Chain, which is used by the sector to record information on rough sleepers, including demographics and a client’s history of service use.
The strategy links in with the government’s No One Left Out strategy, which has been running since November 2008. An update last month showed progress had been made.
No One Left Out in East London can be downloaded from the ELHP website after today’s launch.
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