Rough Sleeping Up By Nearly A Third in the Capital

Nearly 1,500 people slept rough in London in the last two months, a 31% increase on the same period last year.  The official figures, released by homeless charity Broadway yesterday, also reveal a 23% rise in the number of people ‘living on the streets', that's sleeping rough over an extended period of time.  These statistics are on top of figures from earlier in the year which revealed a 20% increase in the number of people accepted by their councils as homeless and entitled to housing in London, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands more will be getting by in hidden homeless situations, sleeping on the floors of friends and family, in squats or other insecure accommodation.  Independent research for Crisis predicts that the worst is yet to come as the continuing economic downturn combined with the Coalition Government's radical reforms and weakening of the welfare state will leave many more people facing homelessness.  Read more on the Crisis website.