Voice of London

What is reveals and the consequences on the pandemic for those who are mostly forgotten

Today a major homeless charity reported their latest demography on rough sleepers in UK’s capital London. Their data revealed that 3.4440 people were sleeping rough from July until September 2020. This is a small success if you look at other quarters.

In their press release it is said that there is a 14% decline in comparison to 2019 and 19% in comparison to the last three months. Nevertheless, the numbers also express that there is still a lot to do.

The amount of new rough sleepers that have been added are immense. “New rough sleepers account for 55% of all rough sleepers”. The increase in homelessness of 27% in three months is also alarming. The statistic show that 336 people lived on the streets in this summer.

Jon Sparks, Chief Executive of “crisis” charity stresses the improvement in a press release: “It’s welcome to see rough sleeping numbers in London finally going in the right direction. These figures show that the initial influx of people forced onto the streets at the start of the pandemic has not escalated at the pace we feared”.

On the same time, he makes clear how acute the situation is: “That almost two thousand of them are sleeping rough for the first time is alarming, with the risk of infection adding to the other dangers associated with not having somewhere safe to call home”.

According to him Winter will be a difficult time. More and more people are expected to lose their job, house and livehoods and will be forced to life on the street during the pandemic.

Therefore, Sparkes calls the government to act in the release  “to fund accommodation where people who would otherwise be sleeping rough can safely self-isolate, as they did at the beginning of the pandemic.

The measures they took in March undoubtedly saved lives and must be repeated”. At the end he underlines his point of view: “We must do everything we can to ensure the pandemic does not leave a grim legacy of widespread homelessness”.

source: press release “crisis charity, https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwizrICIpIDtAhWE6-0KHTGHAqQYABAAGgJkZw&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESQOD2-qNdDa7fCCfgtzyl7CkO0whBIZqaB6U6IFn80XxXXoETdYvRn_hP2Ij632QtlYVqHtvx_FTnQvEZOBPD_h8&sig=AOD64_0Iz5NTMi4IgVwxoq-4mmvwbRvbaA&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwiU0_iHpIDtAhWHZMAKHR3VDZQQ0Qx6BAgWEAE

words: Lara Bonczek