As Andy Burnham set out his plan to end rough sleeping on Tuesday night, volunteers from homelessness charity Under One Sky were offering hot drinks, sandwiches, socks, underwear and soap to dozens of rough sleepers around Tottenham Court Road in central London.
Among those sleeping on the streets, the prime minister’s plan was met with widespread scepticism born from long familiarity with similar political declarations.
“You can never end rough sleeping. I think he is taking on a monumental task,” said a former construction worker in his 50s, who did not want to be named.
He was living in a hostel after struggling to find work over the past few years, and was reluctant to sign on for unemployment benefits. “[Burnham] has committed himself to the target; if he doesn’t fulfil it, there will be problems. I wouldn’t have done that,” he said.
Many said it was hard to follow the news without regular internet access, but several were aware that Burnham had made a commitment to end rough sleeping when he came to power.
“He has made a pledge? You mean he has said some words?” said one man in his 60s who has been sleeping intermittently in a tent in front of a furniture shop for several years.
He was reluctant to say why he was homeless, only that he had previously owned a restaurant before losing his house. He chose to stay in his spot on the street because of the easy access to a nearby hospital, and said he was not looking for any help from the government.
“I don’t want to go to a hostel because they’re full of people with drug problems. I’ll sort myself out,” he said.
Burnham has likened his plan to the “Everyone In” scheme launched during the Covid pandemic, which housed thousands of rough sleepers, mainly in hotels, during lockdown.
“We got people out of the cold because, as a country, we decided it had to be done. We can do it again,” Burnham said in an article for the Guardian on Tuesday.
But many working in the homelessness sector said it will not be easy to recreate this feat. Adam Soliman, a deputy manager at St Mungo’s, a homeless charity, ran a Holiday Inn branch that was used to house rough sleepers during the pandemic.
He said while the scheme was successful at getting people through the door, it did not help them to stop rough sleeping in the long term, largely because there were no permanent homes for people to move to.
“Bringing people in is great and gives them a sense of safety, but if there’s no move-on options, we’re just putting a plaster on the issue,” he said.
“Is there going to be more affordable housing for people? Is there going to be more money for mental health services?
“It’s great to get everyone in by Christmas, but on 1st January, what’s the plan?”
He also said there are many people, often with mental health or addiction problems, who refuse to engage with services for many years.
Lesley Howard, head of homelessness at charity Change Grow Live, which helps substance misusers, said the answer would not be found by “throwing more money at the issue”.
“We need to think it through and we need to make sure there’s longer-term funding because these things take time,” she said.
“During the pandemic, we had a lot of hotels that were open for people to go into. That’s not going to be the offer this time – is it going to be night shelters? That’s not necessarily an offer everyone will accept.”
Government guidance states councils should use studio flats, shared houses, supported accommodation, B&Bs, hostels and night shelters to house rough sleepers over the coming months.
Near the bars of Soho, a man who had recently been released from prison said there were lots of ex-prisoners on the streets.
“We saw that it can be done overnight; they did it during Covid. There are so many buildings up and down the country that are empty,” he said.
But he remained sceptical about whether Burnham would succeed. “He says he is going to eradicate homelessness. He is writing cheques at the moment, and this one might bounce.”
