Sleeping Rough

(asked on 28th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were sleeping rough in England and Wales (1) between November and December 2019, (2) in January 2020, (3) in February 2020, and (4) in March 2020.


Answered by
Lord Greenhalgh Portrait
Lord Greenhalgh
This question was answered on 13th May 2020

MHCLG’s latest official annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot Statistics published on 27 February 2020 provides information about the estimated number of people sleeping rough across all local authorities in England on a single night between 1 October and 31 November 2019. These statistics provide a way of estimating the number of people sleeping rough across England on a single night and of assessing change over time. There were 4,266 people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in Autumn 2019 in England. For more information please see the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019/rough-sleeping-snapshot-in-england-autumn-2019

The devolved administrations publish their own statistics on homelessness which contain information on rough sleeping. The Welsh Government publish a?national annual rough sleeping monitoring exercise, which includes a two week information gathering exercise followed by a one night snapshot count. The figures are not directly comparable between countries as they have a different methodology, coverage and are carried out at different time periods. For more information please see the following link: https://gov.wales/national-rough-sleeper-count

We are providing £3.2 million in targeted funding to help support individuals who are sleeping rough off the streets, and an additional £3.2 billion to local authorities as part of the wider government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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