Down And Out


Charities accuse councils of underestimating numbers of rough sleepers

Homeless charities have accused London councils of trying to keep the numbers of rough sleepers artificially low by encouraging them to move on just before the date each year when they are counted.

Local councils are asked to record the number of people sleeping on their streets on one night of the year, and the figures are added together to make a national total.

According to Government figures, there are currently 483 rough sleepers across the whole of England. In Hammersmith and Fulham, eight rough sleepers were counted in the whole borough on one night last November.

The homeless charities Housing Justice and the Simon Community both carry out their own counts of rough sleepers in various parts of the capital. “Although carried out in the same way as official counts by Government departments, the Simon Community’s findings are consistently higher than those officially released,” the Simon Community say.

Alison Gelder of Housing Justice said: “We haven't counted in Hammersmith and Fulham but I would suspect that's lower than the actual figure. You never actually get all the people. Central government acknowledge it's just a snapshot.”

The Government say rough sleeping counts are conducted by local authorities in partnership with local homeless agencies and the counts are intended to give an idea of trends over time and across regions.

Figures supplied by the homeless charity Crisis also indicate that the number of rough sleepers on London's streets is far higher than official figures suggested: "Organisations that work with rough sleepers contacted 3,500 people sleeping rough on the streets of London over the last year. On top of this, rough sleepers only represent the tip of the iceberg. For every person you see sleeping on the streets, there are many more hidden homeless people living in hostels, squats, B&Bs or on friends' and families' floors,” said Duncan Shrubsole, Director of Policy and External Affairs.

"Local authorities' rough sleeping count figures and the Government's annual national estimate are only ever a snapshot as it captures just those who were bedded down and counted on a particular night. They cannot reflect the full scale of rough sleeping in any given area,” he said.

Housing Justice say there is a debate over the accuracy of official rough sleeper counts and that independent observers, including many street homeless people themselves, report heightened police enforcement activity just before street counts, the dates of which are always kept confidential.

Gelder says she and other charity workers attended a meeting between council workers, police and outreach workers in another inner London borough where proposals were discussed to move rough sleepers on just before the count. She says this leads her to believe that other councils may be using similar policies.

But a Hammersmith and Fulham council spokesperson said this was not the case locally: “No, we do not do this. We do help to get homeless people off the streets all of the year round - we do not remove them just before the annual count day,” a spokesperson said.

The homeless charity Broadway, which conducted the street count last November on behalf of Hammersmith and Fulham Council said: “The street count process is rigorous: each count is undertaken using a robust methodology adhering to good practice and approved by Communities and Local Government. An independent, trained verifier attends every count to ensure this is achieved. We are therefore able to say with confidence that the counts undertaken by Broadway are some of the most robust undertaken in any London borough.”

5 August 2009