St Mungo’s response to the Government’s Rough Sleeper Initiative
18 November 2008
St Mungo's, London's largest homeless charity, welcomes the release of the government's Rough Sleeper Strategy today but says it doesn't go far enough to end the scandal of people with mental illness sleeping on the streets.
The charity is calling for an explicit zero tolerance policy that eliminates rough sleeping by those with severe and enduring mental illness.
As the strategy was released, Charles Fraser, St Mungo's CEO, joined the heads of other homeless charities to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street calling for more targeted action.
Charles Fraser says: "We welcome the Government's renewed commitment to reducing rough sleeping to as close to zero as possible. But while this is a strong commitment from the Government, how will they convert the rhetoric into reality?
"The strategy fails to address the regrettable situation whereby vulnerable members of society suffering from severe mental illness are sleeping rough and we are calling on the Government for an urgent plan addressing this."
The CEO welcomed the move to make homelessness a central Government issue, calling for a homelessness minister in all departments, but expressed concern whether delivery would follow through on a local level:
"The move to central Government symbolises a commitment to making rough sleeping a cross-government issue rather than the preserve of an individual department. This is not just a housing problem it involves health and employment.
"We stand ready to help, but the Government must be willing to work with our realities."
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