Rough sleepers fall to single figures after reaching highest level since 1990s

THERE WAS an average of 29 people sleeping on the York’s streets every night in 2017, when the number of rough sleepers reached its highest level since the 1990s, says a council report.

But the document says since then, thanks to extra funding, the number of rough sleepers decreased to nine people a night in 2018.

The figures come from a count, undertaken on one night between October and November. Members of the council’s health, housing and adult social care scrutiny committee asked for an update on work being done by the council to tackle homelessness in the city after news reports showed 11 homeless people had died in 2017.

The report says every rough sleeper is offered help to find accommodation and work is being done to help prevent people becoming homeless.

Coun Kallum Taylor said: “The report raises more questions than it answers.

“Of the 13 pages, 12 are spent covering the good (and hard) work we already know is being done, but just one focuses on the areas needing attention to stop homeless people from dying in York – which is what anyone wanting to tackle this problem should be drilling down on.

“It’s not enough to just know that this is complicated and cuts across different services beyond housing – most people get that – but where are they all actually, properly fitting in?”

The report says people can make £100 a day begging in the city and it can be difficult to encourage them to move on to state benefits.

And it adds that some rough sleepers are “entrenched and refuse any form of help”.

A York Council meeting tomorrow at the authority’s West Offices says there has been an increase in the use of bed and breakfast accommodation to provide temporary accommodation. It says 11 homeless who died in 2017 made up 1.8 per cent of the people who used homeless accommodation in the city that year.