Plunging temperatures
are dangerous for those with nowhere to go Getty
A “quick” note on homeless people at risk; what you can
do to prevent life-threatening incidents on London streets. Big up to the mayor’s
team for responding quickly. Please see also below my exchange with Street Link’s Communication Office on
how they work and what advice they give.
Due to severe weather conditions on the go, The Mayor of
London Sadiq Khan has partnered with
St Mungo’s
to open an emergency severe weather shelter this weekend as temperatures
plummet across the capital.
People concerned
about someone rough sleeping should contact the national referral service StreetLink or use the mobile phone app or
eventually 0300 500 0914 to help connect them with their local service.
The shelter opened in south London (Lewisham) on the
evening of 4 January to help vulnerable rough sleepers off the streets and will
stay open during the freezing weather to help anyone sleeping rough across
London in what can be life-threatening temperatures.
As well as a warm bed to stay in, people will be offered
a hot shower, clean clothes, and hot food, whilst staff work to link them into
services to find them more permanent solutions to stop them returning to the
streets.
This pan-London severe weather provision forms part of
the Mayor’s wider work to tackle rough sleeping in the capital where he
annually invests £9 million to run services, which include outreach,
accommodation, and help to support homeless people into a permanent home, and
jobs and skills training. The Mayor has
also recently secured an extra £4.2 million from Government to help rough
sleepers and has allocated £50 million form his affordable housing fund to help
people in hostels into long term accommodation.
The
Severe Weather Emergency shelter, run by St Mungo’s, will be in
place throughout the winter whenever three consecutive nights of freezing
temperatures are predicted. Severe Weather Emergency Protocol aka SWEP’s
guidance http://www.homeless.org.uk/our-work/resources/guidance-on-severe-weather-emergency-protocol-swep-and-extended-weather-provision
Exchange with Street Link Communication
Office:
After reading many negative comments on FB from
homelessness activists about SWEP, including the unanswered phone calls, I got
in touch with both Street Link and a homelessness activist in order to see what
can be improved / what can be done. Hopefully, I’ll publish the homelessness
activist when he has time to reply. But for now, here are some precious advices
from Street Link:
“StreetLink is
a website (www.streetlink.org.uk),
mobile app (‘StreetLink’ from Apple iTunes or Google Play store) and phone line
which enables members of the public to send an alert when they are concerned
about a rough sleeper. StreetLink passes the information on to the correct
local authority or outreach team (not managed by us) who action the alert
by going out to make contact with the person and connecting them to the local accommodation
or support services available to them.
What
should the public do when they see a rough sleeper?
Download the StreetLink app and save the website address
to your phone, so that you can use them to alert us when you see a rough
sleeper at night.
Give a detailed description of the individual, and as
much detail as possible about their exact location to help the outreach teams
to find them.
Tell us the time that you saw the person. Bear in mind
that outreach teams go out at night or the early hours of the morning so if you
can give details of a night-time sleep site, the teams have a better chance of
finding them.
StreetLink is not an emergency service, but
outreach teams do go out on their next shift – which is at night –
to offer support. In some cases, the rough sleeper may not be helped off the
streets immediately, due to having more complex support needs, which require
the outreach team to work with them over a longer period of time.
In periods of extremely cold weather like we
are experiencing currently, we receive a very high volume of alerts and ask
people to use the site and app where possible as this allows us to process
referrals more efficiently, and therefore help more people sooner.
Occasionally we have to put the answer machine on to allow us to make follow up
calls in response to referrals, but when this happens we will follow up on all
messages that are left. We are currently redeveloping the website and the app
to make it more user friendly and ensure it can cope with the increasing
demand.
Matt
Harrison, Director of StreetLink, comments:
Often,
people want to help when they see someone sleeping rough, but they don’t always
know how. Through our website and app, StreetLink provides the first simple
step that people can take to ensure that rough sleepers are connected to the
local services and support available to them. With the public’s help, in the
last 12 months we have put almost 11,000 people in touch with the support they
needed to escape rough sleeping and we hope to have an even greater impact in
2017.”
EXTRA INFO on StreetLink
HOW
DOES IT WORK?
The details provided by a member of the public are sent
immediately to the right local authority (out of 326 in England and 22 in
Wales), so they can help connect the person to local services and support. The
person reporting the problem will receive details of the action the local
authority or outreach team will take when they are told someone is sleeping
rough. StreetLink receives a report from the council on what has happened as a
result of the alert within ten working days and, if requested, provides the
person who made the report with an update. This feedback loop is crucial to the
success of the project.
WHY
WAS IT SET UP?
Anyone can become homeless, and sleeping rough can damage
your health and be dangerous. Evidence suggests that many individuals sleeping
rough may not be known to local services while not all rough sleepers are aware
that advice and services are available to them. About 50% of rough sleepers
arrive on the streets without seeking advice from anyone. We know that members
of the public often want to help when they see someone sleeping on the streets,
but don’t always know how. StreetLink aims to help address this by providing
the first step the public can take to ensure rough sleepers are connected to
the local services and support available to them.
HAS
IT WORKED?
We launched StreetLink in December 2012. Since that date
we have received and passed on over 56,000 rough sleeper referrals from the
public. Between December 2015 and December 2016 we successfully put over 10,500
people in touch with the support they need to escape rough sleeping.
WHO IS INVOLVED?
WHO IS INVOLVED?
StreetLink is managed and delivered by Homeless Link, the
national membership charity for homelessness services in England, in
partnership with St Mungo’s, a major
provider of homelessness services. StreetLink is principally funded by the UK Government as part of their
commitment to end rough sleeping in England, with additional funding from the
Greater London Authority and the Welsh Government
More info on homelessness via The Mayor Of London: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/housing-and-land/homelessness
Also:
Last summer, I visited a friend in Deptford (we used to
work @ Riverside Studios in the 90’s).
We had lunch @ Deptford Reach. It
was £1 for a meal and people can have hot showers. They help on many levels, so
if you know people in difficulties, please tell them there is help http://www.deptfordreach.org.uk/contact/index.html
It can be a bit intimidating if you are a woman on your own, but
the place seems pretty safe.
Keep warm, help others to keep warm.
Sybille Castelain sybillecastelain@yahoo.co.uk
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