As cold winter weather approaches, Sutton Council is asking residents to help homeless people by making referrals using the new Streetlink service, if they spot anyone sleeping rough.

Streetlink now provides a single point of contact for all London residents to report rough sleeping in their area. Any Sutton resident who encounters a rough sleeper can contact Streetlink, who will provide an outreach worker and refer the rough sleeper to the appropriate council in order to arrange accommodation and support.

The call to residents comes as Sutton Council launches a new service to help single homeless people from Sutton access the private rented sector.  Vulnerable people from the borough that are identified as rough sleeping will be offered dedicated support to find suitable accommodation, negotiate with landlords, complete tenancy agreements. THEYcan receive help towards paying initial rental deposits. 

The new measure is in addition to Sutton Council’s existing Sutton Rough Sleeping Group which was set up last year to help rough sleepers enter accommodation and rebuild their lives. The group brings together agencies that work with rough sleepers, including drug and alcohol services, Sutton JobCentre and voluntary organisations. 

At this time of year, rough sleepers are at much greater risk from illness or even death due to exposure to freezing weather conditions. 

We set up the Sutton Rough Sleeping Group to help those individuals move into suitable accommodation and now we have increased support.  The service is providing much needed support to help them overcome difficulties such as ineligibility for social housing and expensive private rental costs.

Although we do not have large numbers of rough sleepers in Sutton, many of them  often seek out open spaces like parks. Due to this, the council is seeking help from members of the public to notify them of anyone that is rough sleeping.

Anyone who sees a rough sleeper should first call Streetlink on 0300 500 0914.

Richard has a particular interest in rough sleeping and homelessness, partly because his daughter Ellie is the communications manager for st. Basil’s, the largest homelessness charity in the West Midlands. He led the scrutiny carried out by the Housing, Economy and Business Committee of the Council’s policies on avoiding homelessness, which showed that a change to the policy (leading to people becoming homeless and being put in B and B accommodation before all legal steps were concluded)  promoted by Conservative Councillors would have increased homelessness in Sutton.