<
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/24/can-andy-burnham-really-end-rough-sleeping>
"It is close to midnight as two outreach workers from Spear, a homelessness
charity in south London, shine their torches around bushes on the edge of a
park in Twickenham.
Suddenly they alight on an array of sleeping bags, airbeds, toilet rolls and
plastic bags stuffed with belongings – a rough sleeping encampment that has
popped up in the last two days.
“We are seeing numbers going up which is really not what we want,” said Peter
Bancroft, the operations manager at the charity. “And it is everyone from
individuals with complex mental health and substance use issues, to people who
have either had a relationship breakdown or lost their job and fallen behind
with their rental payments.”
In a bold first pledge in his first speech as prime minister, Andy Burnham
promised to eradicate rough sleeping in England, allocating an extra £340m of
funding.
The move was welcomed by homelessness charities, but with some scepticism:
Boris Johnson said he would end rough sleeping when he was prime minister, and
Keir Starmer vowed to halve long-term rough sleeping during his time in office.
Yet rough sleeping numbers have risen to 4,793, the highest on record."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
