Help for homeless

WE had some very welcome news this week from Stockport Homes as they have now started to provide cold weather provision for anyone who is currently sleeping rough.

This means that almost anyone, regardless of their circumstances or situation, will be provided with somewhere safe and warm to sleep. But only if the nightly temperature stays under zero degrees for three consecutive nights.

Our team have been busy identifying and referring people to this vital winter service. I am, however, at a bit of loss to hear that while cold weather provision is in place Stockport Homes will conduct a rough sleeper count and put together their yearly guestimate snapshot figure of the number of people sleeping rough in Stockport and send this back to central government.

I hope that they will include in their official snapshot figure everyone that they have accommodated under the cold weather provision?

I find that official rough sleeper counts serve very little purpose and never provide an accurate figure. The people taking part in the count are not permitted to enter places where people do sleep rough due to health and safety risks.

I’m always impressed with the number of willing volunteers prepared to give up three hours late on a Thursday evening to do the count though, but then they do all get Friday off work, long weekend anyone?

Rough sleeper counts need to be reformed, not just in Stockport but right across the country. The counts should be done over a significantly longer period of time than three hours on a Thursday evening.

Counts should be done over 24 or 48 hours and include people who are presenting as homeless at housing offices, hospitals, police stations, citizens advice centres and job centres as well as charities and other organisations that have contact with people who are homeless.

We would have a meaningful figure so government could be put under pressure to provide Stockport and other areas with higher resources for dealing with homelessness.