KENT NEWS: A charity for the homeless
has taken a step forward in the nationwide fight to end rough sleeping by 2012.
Porchlight, which was named as a champion in the Government’s ‘No One Left Out’ campaign, held a conference last week to bring together different agencies from across Kent to help the plight of vulnerable, homeless people.
The Canterbury-based charity also
commissioned a piece of research by the University of Kent called Slipping Through the Net which revealed how rough sleepers and service providers view each other.
Homeless people, local authorities, mental health units, prison and probation services and housing providers were interviewed as part of the study.
Chief executive of Porchlight Mike Barrett said the research was conducted to find out how to stop vulnerable, homeless people slipping through gaps in the system.
“What I want to do is build on what the report is saying and take a more joined-up approach,” he said.
“What we’ve seen is that provision for single, homeless people is not really co-ordinated and therefore it is easy for some people to slip through the net and not get help.”
According to the research, the extent
of homelessness in Kent is difficult to quantify
.
Different types ranging from rough sleepers to sofa-surfers and the ‘hidden homeless’ not living independently, means true figures are hard to collate.
A count at the end of last year by Porchlight found 23 people sleeping rough in the county’s 13 districts, with evidence of a further 31 homeless.
But Gill Bryant, outreach strategic area manager, said at the time that the real figure was more like 200.
The different definitions of ‘homeless’ was highlighted at the conference as the reason so many vulnerable people are passed from one agency to another, in many cases causing them to vanish into the system altogether.
But Mr Barrett said regardless of what situation a person is in, they should be able to get the stability they need though the county’s services.
In 2008-09 in Kent and Medway, 1,159 households were accepted as homeless and in priority need for council housing by local authorities, but 44 per cent were rejected.
Although there are no official figures, research suggests that agencies are housing three times as many homeless people as councils.
Porchlight itself has four accommodation projects – in Dover, Canterbury, Ashford and Ramsgate.
Mr Barrett said single homeless people interviewed in the study felt they were being pushed from “pillar to post”.
“The fact many individuals in our society are already frightened, frustrated and angry may go someway to helping practitioners understand why vulnerable people vanish or do not respond positively to being told they need to find their own way,” he said.
“This is in a housing market that is out of reach in terms of affordability and supply.
“We hope the report is received in a spirit of co-operation and is the catalyst to get agencies, organisations and government talking about how we can work better in partnership.”
Asked whether he believes rough sleeping can be wiped out by 2012, Mr Barrett said: “It is possible, but what is really important is that we maintain that.
“It must not be for the short term – the problem is not going to go away, we have to keep working at it.”
POSTED: 06/02/2010 16:00:00
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