London is the world’s greatest city; we cannot sit back and do nothing about the rough sleeping crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/16/sadiq-khan-shame-of-london-homeless

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I am committed to tackling London’s housing crisis in whatever form it takes – and the rise in rough sleeping over recent years is a growing source of shame that we have a moral imperative to stop.

People end up on the street for many different reasons – leaving care or hospital, problems with debt, unemployment, mental health, family breakup – and so the help they need is varied too. We can support some rough sleepers, particularly when they have become homeless recently, through programmes such as No Second Night Out.

In more entrenched cases, a more intensive intervention may be needed, as a one-size-fits-all approach does not always work. We can promote innovative approaches by making our funding conditional on achieving results – an approach that has proved successful in helping people access and remain in stable accommodation.

But, crucially, we need not only to help rough sleepers on the street, but also to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place – and that’s why I’ll be launching a No Nights Sleeping Rough taskforce with prevention central to its approach.

This new taskforce will bring together all the agencies we need to tackle rough sleeping as we will only make a difference through close partnership. My team is discussing with the sector how to make this new approach as effective as possible, but it’s likely that the new group will set the strategic priorities for services the mayor provides, come up with proposals for new initiatives and projects, and lobby government for the changes we need.

In the world’s greatest city we cannot sit back and do nothing in the face of the rising rough sleeping we have inherited. A Labour mayor and government dramatically reduced rough sleeping at the start of this century and I’m determined we’ll do it again. Making a difference won’t be easy, but I will lead the way.