We are pleased to announce that Deptford Reach, our service offering prevention support across Lewisham, has been awarded a grant that will fund five years of outreach in the community. This new model for Deptford Reach, which has been piloted for several months, will allow the team to work with people at risk of homelessness in the wider community, through food banks, churches, and other hubs, to ensure that support is directed where it is most needed. With the cost-of-living crisis, Thames Reach acknowledge that new people will require the service, so it is important that the team are expanding outside of the day centre model. New figures showing an increase in people sleeping rough for the first time highlights the need to take action to stop the existing crisis of street homelessness escalating further.

This funding is thanks to a partnership with City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity funder, and will allow people to access support who may be affected by the social stigma of homelessness. With the support given by the Deptford Reach team, the objective is to help as many people as possible, through casework and engagement to help issues around accommodation, mental health, employment, and immigration.

Having been recognised with a £10,000 prize at the London Homelessness Awards in October, Deptford Reach will now secure its place as a valued service in the community by expanding into the wider Lewisham borough, reaching people who won’t have had contact with the service yet. With a presence at food banks, for example, people using this service will be able to receive practical advice on maintaining their tenancies and preventing homelessness as well as essential food supplies.

Fiona Sutherland, Area Director, said: “Thames Reach are delighted for the recognition and funding from City Bridge Trust in order to continue to work to resolve issues which lead to homelessness for people in Lewisham. We know street homelessness is traumatic, and this intervention will allow us to be visible and accessible in the local community, and offer resolutions to issues which commonly lead to homelessness.”

Jordan McTigue, Lead Manager for Deptford Reach, said: “This new funding will make sure we are delivering the best service for people at risk of homelessness, providing real options to help with specific issues being experienced. From experience, we know that being out in the community is an effective way to help people who may be feeling they are running out of options.”

At Thames Reach, we welcome the new RSI (Rough Sleeping Initiative) funding provisions for rough sleeping services, with the government’s announcement last weekend that councils will receive a further £200million in this stage of their plan to support people experiencing rough sleeping. This is positive news that will help continue our efforts to reduce rough sleeping in London.  However while we welcome this investment we believe that there is an urgent need to review the national Rough Sleeping Strategy, learning from the lessons of the pandemic, both positive and negative.  Alongside this we would like to see a return to multi-year funding that can provide the sort of stability that will help us feel confident that we can offer lasting solutions to street homelessness, and help people along the journey of moving on from the streets, which only starts once an individual has been housed.

As part of this we would like to see an increased focus on the prevention stage of street homelessness, working with people to divert them away from the street and into more secure accommodation.  The last year has shown how precariously many people are housed, and highlighted the need to intervene earlier. We know that street homelessness is a huge cause of trauma and anxiety, and causes lasting damage, and it is crucial that we are able to work effectively to prevent this.

Any revised strategy will need to address the needs of people without recourse to public funds, particularly those with complex support needs.  Without this help for people who are currently largely ineligible, street homelessness will continue and numbers will increase.

The Government today releases its rough sleeping strategy, the first since announcing its commitment to halve the number of people sleeping on the streets by 2022 and to end the problem by 2027.

Responding, housing and homelessness organisations who were part of the strategy’s Rough Sleeping Advisory Group issued a joint statement saying:

“This strategy is a significant step towards the government’s goal of ending rough sleeping by 2027, which will make a real difference to people’s lives. As members of the advisory panel, we welcome the new funding commitment for dedicated outreach teams and for emergency bed spaces, while the announcement of nationwide trials of a ‘somewhere safe to stay’ duty and the review of the vagrancy act have the potential to pave the way for desperately needed reforms, preventing people sleeping rough.

“However, for the strategy to work, the government must also set out bold, cross-departmental plans to tackle the root causes of all forms of homelessness, and prevent it from happening in the first place. This must include plans to build significantly more social housing, to foster greater security for renters, to ensure people have access to benefits and other support they need to help them keep their homes. We also need to see a reversal of policies that leave migrants homeless and destitute, and healthcare, mental health and substance misuse services that are available and truly accessible to those who need it.

“To end rough sleeping by 2027, the government must build on today’s welcome announcement and set out plans to prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place. The ambitious target that the government has set itself will only be achieved if it is equally bold on addressing the polices that cause rough sleeping.”

Responding further, Bill Tidnam, Chief Executive at Thames Reach said:

“Rough sleeping is both dangerous and distressing and nobody should have to sleep rough on the streets.

“We’re pleased new measures are being taken to ensure people receive the right support to move away from homelessness.

“We welcome this strategy and its investment, and believe it’s an encouraging start in ending rough sleeping.

“We particularly welcome funding from the Department of Health, and the commitment this provides in ensuring that homeless people have access to the health services they need; as well as the recognition of the specific needs of migrant rough sleepers, who currently have few realistic options available to them. There needs to be an ongoing discussion around how this funding will be spent to effectively support this group to move into affordable accommodation and work.

“The real work now begins on implementing this strategy, ensuring a level of agreement and understanding so work can get underway, and making sure we all listen and learn from all lessons along the way”.