The Mayor of London has pledged to “turn the tide” on homelessness after new figures showed a sharp rise in rough sleeping across the capital since he entered office.
Official data shows the number of people sleeping rough in London increased from 8,096 in 2015/16 to 13,231, representing a rise of 63 per cent over the period.
Sir Sadiq Khan said the figures were unacceptable but insisted his administration was now focused on stopping people being pushed onto the streets in the first place.
He said prevention and early intervention would sit at the heart of a long-term strategy aimed at ending rough sleeping in London by 2030.
Despite the rising numbers, the Mayor said he remained “confident” that the overall trend could be reversed with the right mix of support, housing investment, and rule changes.
Speaking during a visit to an emergency extension hotel in East London, Sir Sadiq outlined his approach to tackling homelessness earlier in the process.
The facility is being run by charities Crisis and St Mungo’s and is offering up to 180 rough sleepers a temporary place to stay.
City Hall provided £200,000 in funding to keep the hotel open for an additional three weeks beyond the usual festive period.
Guests are being offered private rooms, three meals a day, and access to specialist advice from trained staff and volunteers until January 21.
Sir Sadiq said schemes like this were essential in preventing short-term crises from turning into long-term street homelessness.
“Over the last nine and a half years, we’ve supported 20,000 rough sleepers,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service in an exclusive interview.
“Three quarters of those have stayed off our streets, so that’s good.”
He said the main challenge was the continued flow of new people arriving in London and ending up without accommodation.
“The problem is there are more and more new people coming to our capital city [and so] more and more people are ending up on our streets,” he said.
“That’s why I’m determined to prevent, at source, somebody becoming a rough sleeper in the first place.”
The Mayor acknowledged that London’s position as a global city continued to attract people from across the UK who were already experiencing housing insecurity.
Charities have long warned that many homeless people believe London offers better access to support services than other parts of the country.
Sir Sadiq also argued that London’s overall record compared favourably with national trends.
Across England, rough sleeping is estimated to have risen by 111 per cent since 2016.
“Never before in an eight-year period have so many rough sleepers been taken off of our streets,” he said.
“Never before have so many been kept off our street.”
The Mayor said City Hall’s latest plan to end rough sleeping by 2030 included a network of new “Ending Homelessness hubs.”
He also pointed to investment in schemes such as Homes Off The Street, which provides accommodation for people leaving hospital or other institutions.
Sir Sadiq said the current system for accessing homelessness support was fundamentally flawed.
“At the moment, the rules are perverse,” he said.
“You must be on the streets, bedded in before you’re entitled to support.”
“That can’t be right.”
He added that the rules risked creating an incentive for people to sleep rough in order to qualify for help.
“So we’re trying to change the verification rules as well,” he said.
“With the plans in place, I’m confident we can turn the tide of rough sleeping.”
Sir Sadiq said London had successfully reduced rough sleeping before, including during the pandemic and under the last Labour government in the 2000s.
“We’ve done it before,” he said.
“I’m comfortable we can do it again.”
However, Crisis’ Director of Policy, Francesca Albanese, warned that progress would remain limited without a significant increase in affordable housing.
She said the shortage of genuinely affordable homes continued to block efforts to move people on from temporary accommodation into permanent housing.
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