The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, visited a St Mungo’s-run service today, which is part of his four existing ‘No Second Night Out (NSNO) services. As the Mayor’s charity partner, St Mungo’s delivers specialist care and support for Londoners sleeping rough through NSNO. This includes round-the-clock support in reconnecting service users with their families and friends, advice on what financial support they may be entitled to, helping to secure onward move-on accommodation, and mental health support.
With rough sleeping having risen across the country and recent City Hall data showing a 20 per cent annual increase in the number of Londoners on the streets for the first time, [1] Sadiq has committed a record extra £10m to his rough sleeping budget [2], focused on ‘prevention as well as cure’, to put the capital on a pathway to end rough sleeping for good by 2030.
The record £10m funding announced today will expand a network of ‘Ending Homelessness Hubs’. The hubs are safe places for people sleeping rough for the first time to be assessed by professional teams, so that plans can be made quickly to support them away from the streets in the long-term.
The expansion will establish an Ending Homelessness Hub for every sub-region of the capital [3], with a brand new fifth hub set to open in early 2026, helping an additional 500 people per year. For the first time ever, a new focus on prevention will be built into the service, meaning that teams will step in and provide support to high-risk Londoners before they spend a first night on the streets. These changes will be rolled out in co-ordination with London boroughs and the wider homelessness sector, and could see Ending Homelessness Hubs taking referrals from trusted partners such as day centres, even if individuals have not previously slept rough but are at immediate risk of doing so.
Emma Haddad, CEO of St Mungo’s, said: “With the capital seeing some of the highest rates of people rough sleeping, we welcome the Mayor of London’s focus on preventing homelessness. The NSNO hubs funded by the Mayor and run by St Mungo’s have already made a huge difference in helping people off the streets; the reality is that without somewhere safe and warm to stay for the night, it’s not only life chances that are reduced, but life expectancy as well. This announcement however illustrates that more can be done to address the root causes of homelessness.
“This investment in new hubs will help us be there for people before they end up sleeping rough. Shifting the dial to prevention brings us closer to our goal of ending homelessness for good, meaning fewer people relying on emergency accommodation in an already creaking housing system.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Mayor to turn the tide on homelessness and rough sleeping. Over the coming year, we know that that there is a lot we can achieve together.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m committed to putting London on a pathway to ending rough sleeping for good by 2030, which is why today I’m delivering an additional £10m in funding – the biggest ever single investment – to help more Londoners build their lives away from the streets.
“Tackling the capital’s rough sleeping crisis won’t be easy, but I’m confident it can be done with strong leadership and a clear vision for how to get there, backed by the Government and wider society.
“My Plan of Action on rough sleeping, due to be published this spring, will build on the huge amount of work we’ve done over the years to tackle this vital issue. As well as taking more people of the streets now, a stronger focus on prevention will help us to end rough sleeping as we continue to build a better, fairer London for everyone.”
The Mayor of Lewisham, Brenda Dacres, added: “Spaces like the No Second Night Out hub are absolutely vital in our efforts to end homelessness.
“This new funding from the Mayor of London will help to expand services to support people facing homelessness here in Lewisham and across London.
“We are facing a housing and homelessness crisis; boroughs can’t tackle this alone, and we welcome this funding to support councils and charities to help people when they need it most.”
Today’s announcement comes ahead of the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Plan of Action, due to be published in the spring and supported by St Mungo’s, which will establish a shared mission for ending rough sleeping – including the scale of funding required and the best mechanisms for achieving this ambition by 2030.
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Notes:
[1] In the period April-June 2024 outreach teams recorded 1931 people in London sleeping rough for the first time. Of these:
- 1419 (73 per cent) spent just one night sleeping rough
- 440 (23 per cent) slept rough for more than one night but did not go on to live on the streets
- 72 (4 per cent) were deemed to be living on the streets.
- The number of new rough sleepers recorded during this period was 20 per cent higher than the same period last year.
The full quarterly CHAIN rough sleeping report for 2023/24 is available here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports
[2] This new £10 million package of GLA funding represents the biggest ever single investment by a Mayor of London in funding for rough sleeping. Whilst there have been historical increases in funding by the Mayor, these have not been at this level. There have been other increases, but these have primarily been funded or jointly funded by Government, or extensions of existing contracts, rather than new GLA single funding investments.
[3] The London Plan divides Greater London into five ‘sub-regions’. These are North, East, South, West and Central London.