Hundreds still sleeping rough every year in Birmingham

The shocking figures amount to 500 different people every year.

Birmingham City Council’s cabinet has now retrospectively approved a bid for £5.5million of funding to address rough sleeping between 2022 and 2025.

The bid was submitted by the deadline of February 25, 2022, and approved by cabinet four months later. Director of Adult Social Care Professor Graheme Betts blamed central government for the delay.

The funding programme was announced in November 2021 and approved by former Cabinet Member for Housing Shabrana Hussain. Today, a report was presented to the cabinet by the current Cabinet Member for Housing Sharon Thompson.

It stated: “Due to time constraints it was not possible to seek full Cabinet approval for the bid at the time, however, approval was sought for the submission of the bid from the Cabinet Member and Director at DMT [directorate management team] in February 2022.”

Leader of the Conservatives Councillor Robert Alden criticised the delay, saying there was plenty of time to consider the bid in the three months prior to its submission. In response, Councillor Thomspon offered to author a cross party letter to central government to express concern over tight deadlines.

If successful, the money will fund the continuation of the Rough Sleepers Initiative, which was established in 2018 and which is headed up by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. The scheme aims to reduce and prevent rough sleeping in Birmingham by providing services in a partnership between the council and voluntary sector organisations.

The complete breakdown of funding by year is as follows: £1,630,000 for the period 2022-23, £1,767,400 for 2023-24 and £2,066,908. This includes £270,000 for six employees to help rough sleepers navigate the Housing First service in 2024-2025.

Housing First works on the principle that housing is a basic human right and if provided, provides a safe platform from which former homeless people can address other issues. It was introduced by the West Midlands Combined Authority with £9.6million of government funding in a pilot scheme in 2018.

To date, it has helped 515 homeless people with multiple complex needs find accommodation in the West Midlands.

Numbers of rough sleepers in Birmingham fell from 91 in 2018 to 31 in 2021. Current snapshots and evidence-based estimates show between 19-25 individuals rough sleeping on any given night in Birmingham.

Rough Sleepers Initiative services include a 24 hour outreach service to help people sleeping rough access accommodation, provided by Trident Reach. St Basils and Aquarius provide a specific outreach service for those aged between 16 and 24.

Also included is a primary care service, the Homeless Health Exchange (HEX), which offers a full general practice, provided by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust. Change Grow Live (CGL) provides a mobile clinical prescriber and two health assistants to deliver rapid prescribing services on the streets and in hostels.