Over the last three months, our rough sleeper outreach and support team has done some fantastic work. Everyone who has been sleeping out on our streets has been made an offer of accommodation and more than 70 people have taken us up on our offer and now have a roof over their heads.

While the Covid crisis has helped us to persuade many rough sleepers to take this first step, the next phase of support is going to be far more challenging. It will take the efforts of us all, the council, our partners in the voluntary sector, faith and community groups as well as the public, to see that we are successful in putting an end to rough sleeping in Birmingham.

What are we doing?

Over the last few weeks, we’ve transitioned everyone that was in emergency hotel accommodation during lockdown into more permanent housing, the majority being supplied from the council’s own stock which is underutilised for single-person housing.

However, that’s just a first step. Many who have been sleeping rough for any period of time, will likely have mental health challenges or issues with addiction. This means, maintaining a tenancy can be challenging and transitioning from life on the streets to reintegrating into a community may be a long process.

But, each person who we’re helping has been assessed so that their individual needs can be met, and the right level of support is given. To do this, Birmingham City Council has committed £3.8m to ensure that this support is available and rough sleepers have the help that they need to maintain their tenancies and stay indoors.

What we need the public to do?

For our strategy to work, we need your help. While Covid presented a clear health risk to that helped to persuade many rough sleepers to come indoors, so did the lack of footfall on our high streets and in the city centre.

Before the crisis, Birmingham was an extremely generous place with rough sleepers being supported by the public’s food, drink and cash donations. But, with fewer people around to hand out money and food, it provided an incentive to rough sleepers to start engaging with us and more than 70 people were housed.

We need this progress to continue. We have a plan in place that us and our partners are committed to seeing through. But, some of the people we are helping have until now lived quite chaotic, and in some cases traumatic, lives. This means that while they do have accommodation, they may from time to time return to the streets.

When this will inevitably happen, we need the public to help us by not giving food or money as you usually might. This is a really a difficult thing for us to ask and undoubtedly, a difficult thing for many people to do. It is not within many people’s nature to walk past someone who appears to be in need. However, us and our partners are supporting Birmingham’s rough sleepers. There is accommodation, there is food and there is support available to all. However, if the public starts to help by offering this directly to rough sleepers, it could cause a set back to the progress we’re making.

Instead, we’re asking that should you wish to help, please donate to Change into Action. This is an alternative giving scheme where 100% of the money given goes to helping rough sleepers. Our outreach team and supporting partners, can access this fund on behalf of someone sleeping rough to buy things like I.D, clothing for either a day-to-day basis or job interview, or it could be used for things like a rental deposit or other housing needs. All of these are things which can make a significant, life-changing impact to someone sleeping rough.

With outreach teams providing food and medical attention to those still on the streets, the council and its partners providing accommodation and wrap around support to those in housing, and the public providing additional financial help through Change into Action, this more focused approach, means we’ll start to see an end to the homelessness crisis that has been impacting too many of our citizens in Birmingham.

This blog was posted on 14 July 2020