Rough sleeping on the rise
More than a dozen people were sleeping rough in Scarborough last autumn, figures suggest.
Charities have welcomed a drop in the number of people bedding down on the streets across England, but warned more must be done for the Government to reach its target of eradicating homelessness by 2024.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data shows there were 15 rough sleepers in Scarborough during a spot check one night between October and November last year.
This was up from 11 in 2020 and 10 in 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
In England, the number of rough sleepers fell to 2,440 last year, a 43 per cent decrease compared to 2019, when 4,270 rough sleepers were recorded.
The significant decline followed the launch of the Government’s ‘Everyone In’ scheme, which provided councils with additional funding to house homeless people during the pandemic.
While rough sleeping has declined in recent years, the latest figure represents a 38 per cent increase from the 1,770 rough sleepers counted in England in 2010, when records began.
In Scarborough, there were between one and four rough sleepers in 2010.
The count includes people sleeping outside, but does not cover sofa surfers, those in hostels or shelters or people in recreational or traveller sites.
Osama Bhutta, director of campaigns at housing charity Shelter, said the figures “show the race to end rough sleeping has started but it’s far from over”.
He added that the cost-ofliving crisis and lack of longtermhomesmeans“we’renow at a fork in the road”.