Councils join forces to tackle region’s hidden homelessness

The national No Second Night Out project has helped close to 2,500 people to find accommodation since it was piloted in London in 2011.

Harrogate and York have already adopted the approach and are now to be joined by Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby.

Rick Henderson, chief executive of the charity Homeless Link, which supports the scheme, said: “Homeless Link is delighted that the North Yorkshire local authorities have come together to end rough sleeping in the region.

“We know that the longer someone spends on the streets the worse their problems can become and the harder it can be to escape homelessness.

“This initiative sets out a simple standard that means putting the right services in place so nobody spends more than a single night on the streets.”

Homelessness is a hidden but growing problem in typically affluent, rural areas such as North Yorkshire, where there are higher housing costs, fewer rental properties and a greater stigma attached to housing benefit, charities have warned.

And those who do end up out on the streets there are more likely to go unnoticed as they may sleep in cars, tents or outbuildings instead of bedding down in shop doorways.

Harrogate’s No Second Night Out project, which is run by independent charity Harrogate Homeless Link, has helped 177 referrals since its launch last October.

New rough sleepers are given emergency shelter in the charity’s Bower Street hostel until they can be moved into more stable accommodation.

Andy Kirk, who leads the scheme, said: “We are traditionally seen as having a low number of rough sleepers so other smaller authorities need to realise there are going to be rough sleepers in their areas too.

“For authorities like Hambleton and Richmondshire, most of their areas are covered by rural locations and it’s easier for rough sleepers to hide away without being spotted. You get people sleeping in barns.

“It’s about identifying them and getting the support for them as quickly as possible.

“All these councils signing up is great. It is recognising that there is a homelessness problem and not just sweeping it under the carpet.

“Hopefully, working together, we can do what No Second Night Out has set out to achieve.”

The Yorkshire Post reported earlier this year how the number of rough sleepers in Yorkshire has jumped by 37 per cent since 2010.

Some 157 people were sleeping on the region’s streets in autumn 2012, up from 115 two years before.

The figures included small but significant increases in York, where there were eight rough sleepers at the last count, up from two in 2010, and Richmondshire, where there were three last autumn compared with none two years previously.

The data is, however, a snapshot based on numbers found sleeping rough during a single night, and actual figures may be higher.

The new partnership, which will be launched on October 16 at County Hall, Northallerton, aims to make sure nobody found to be sleeping rough has to spend a second night out on the streets.

Using funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) the partnership has commissioned a spot purchase scheme through which councils buy in specialist services to help homeless people and street drinkers in their area.

Methods of support will vary from council to council.

Steve Guyon, head of rough sleeping for DCLG, will attend the launch to discuss the Government’s commitment to ending rough sleeping in England.

Representatives from each council and Homeless Link will also be at the event.