Sadiq Khan announces £10m investment in rough sleeping services

Transcript

00:00Well I'm really pleased and proud that today we're announcing 10 million pounds of additional

00:05money to address and tackle rough sleep and first to reduce it then to end it. The ambition is with

00:11this 10 million pounds for us to have five ending homelessness hubs across our city in the north,

00:17east, south, west and the centre of our city. This hub we have in Lewisham which St Mungo's

00:25run with our support is a no second night out hub. Wouldn't it be great if there was a no

00:30first night out policy across our country including London. It will also help support our

00:37homes off the streets initiative which provides clearing houses and homes for those coming off

00:41our streets. The key prize is that we'll be able to support advisors to give prevention advice

00:47when somebody's at the cusp of being made a rough sleeper. So for example we know people

00:52sometimes turn up at day centres and are really worried about you know them ending up in the

00:57streets. Wouldn't it be able to advise them in relation to support they can receive to avoid

01:01them becoming rough sleeper in the first place. Over the last couple of years the number of people

01:05rough sleeping has only gone up and up. You've warned I think twice now since Labour took power

01:10in Westminster that things will get worse before they get better. When will things get better?

01:14When will the numbers actually start to go into reverse? So one of the things that you know

01:18I'm really keen to continue with is the system we have in London of counting rough sleepers,

01:25the chain system. No one else in the country has that. So we have an accurate real-time information

01:29how many people are sleeping rough and that's why we can say with confidence we've taken off our

01:33streets more than 18,000 rough sleepers and more than three quarters have stayed up. The challenge

01:38is there are more and more people coming to London from outside our city and then up on the streets

01:42of our city and there are still people being evicted because of section 21, not being able to

01:48stay in their homes because they've lost their jobs and so forth. That's why we've been honest

01:52with Londoners as I always try to be. Things get worse before they get better. We're currently

01:57negotiating with the government the next round of affordable housing programme which is really

02:01important to build the genuine affordable homes we need. Going through Parliament is the renter's

02:06right bill which will mean that section 21 is no longer available to landlords to evict people

02:10without any good reason and so a combination of those things happening will mean we'll start to

02:15turn the corner. In the meantime, I'm not waiting. These Ending Homelessness Hubs are going to be

02:20working towards making sure we can prevent somebody becoming a rough sleeper in the first

02:23place. I'm afraid what I'm going to control over though is people coming to London from outside

02:27the country, from outside the city for obvious reasons.