615 people sleeping outside on any given night, new figures show.
Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, describes it as a ‘catastrophe’ that rough sleeping has tripled since 2010 in the East of England when evidence shows how the problem can be fixed.
The Government’s official annual street count found that on a given night last year 615 people were recorded sleeping rough in the region.
The figures show that across the country, the number of rough sleepers has risen by 15 per cent (more than 4,700 people). The charity is warning that the true number of rough sleepers is likely far greater, as its own research finds that more than 8,000 people were currently sleeping rough across England, predicted to rise to 15,000 by 2026, if nothing changes. This is on top of an additional 9,000 homeless people sleeping in tents, cars, trains and buses.
While the charity welcomes the Government’s commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027, it is urging it to take immediate action through its Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Taskforce to tackle this emergency situation and help the thousands of people forced to sleep in dangerous conditions every single night.
Worryingly, those sleeping without a roof over their head are almost 17 times more likely to have been victims of violence and 15 times more likely to have suffered verbal abuse compared to the general public, according to previous Crisis research.
Crisis has also published an evidence review undertaken by Cardiff University and Heriot-Watt University for the first time revealing the best evidence from here and around the world on what works to end rough sleeping.
