Rough sleeping: numbers rise in Brighton and Hove

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Recently published figures have revealed that the number of people who are rough sleeping in Brighton & Hove has risen sharply over the last year. 

88 people were recorded as sleeping rough on the city’s streets during the Government’s 2019 annual count, which took place overnight on Tuesday 12 into Wednesday 13 November 2019.

This figure was verified by independent organisation Homeless Link, and shows a rise of 34 per cent on 2018.

The count pools one night of research undertaken across the city by teams of outreach workers and volunteers working together to make a record of people rough sleeping after midnight and through the early hours.

A misleading figure?

Due to the fact that the count takes place on just one night of the year, however, homelessness outreach workers question the accuracy of this figure as a measure for the extent of rough sleeping in the city.

Frances Duncan, CEO of Brighton charity The Clock Tower Sanctuary, drew our attention to some revealing statistics in our recent interview. Commenting on the 2018 count figure of 64 people, Frances said:

As a bit of context for that figure, in 2019, we saw 128 new young people come to us for the first time. That’s huge – a big increase for us on previous years. Of those 128, nearly 60 were rough sleeping. So if that statistic of 64 people rough sleeping in November 2018 was correct, then the vast majority of them would have been people that we came across and we know that isn’t true. The council knows it’s not accurate, anyone who works in the sector knows, anyone who lives or works in the city knows just from walking around. Rough sleeping is huge issue in Brighton.

The difficulty in providing an accurate figure, Frances informed us, stems from the nature of homelessness in Brighton:

Homelessness ranges from the people you see sleeping in a doorway or under the pier through to someone who might be sofa-surfing for a few weeks, or who is sleeping in a car or a van. Perhaps they might be having a couple of nights in a backpackers hostel, or they might be somewhere like Nightstop for a few nights. Our experience is that people will go through a number of those scenarios in a bit of a cycle – so they might rough sleep a couple of nights a week, and then have a couple of nights in a hostel or on someone’s sofa, for example. You can’t really base a figure on one count conducted on one night of the year, which is where the 64 figure came from.

‘A national scandal’

Commenting on the impact of the Government’s austerity measures on homelessness, Brighton and Hove Councillor Gill Williams, lead for housing, said:

We’re not seeing a drop in the flow of people who are facing rough sleeping in the city and who we need to help. In the twenty first century the human tragedy of street homelessness is shocking and unacceptable.

Sadly, this rise in numbers was not unexpected due to the ongoing impact of Universal Credit as well as the damage caused by cuts to support services for mental health and substance misuse. This is a national scandal and we’re feeling the terrible impact locally.

Positive action from Brighton and Hove Council

Amidst such disheartening news, it is good to hear that Brighton and Hove City Council will be continuing their commitment to investing in homelessness services.

In their budget for the year ahead announced last Thursday, £30.9million was pledged towards homelessness services for 2020/21. This includes £50,000 for weekend winter shelter provision for rough sleepers and £300,000 for enhanced support and facilities for around 100 short term and emergency temporary accommodation properties.

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Could the council be doing more to help homeless people, however? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Featured image: © PickPic.

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