Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s plan to get everyone off the streets by Christmas must go further, according to Kent’s largest homelessness and mental health charity.
The PM announced immediate action to offer everyone who needs it a route off the streets by Christmas, backed by increased funding of £442 million.
New accommodation and support will be rolled out across England this winter, learning from innovative approaches put into place during the pandemic.
Alongside emergency accommodation to end the need for rough sleeping, the programme, fully funded within MHCLG budgets, will offer practical help with housing, health and other needs, helping people build a more stable future.
Porchlight says the work must be accompanied by helping people to secure a long-term home and help to stay in it. The charity warns that failing to provide this could see people return to rough sleeping in the new year.
The government says that long-term support will be the focus of its homelessness response in 2027, but Porchlight says for the charity this is always the aim.
This World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day on October 10, the charity is inviting people across Kent to take part in a sponsored sleep out to raise vital funds.
No time to waste
Porchlight’s chief executive Tom Neumark said: “We wholeheartedly welcome the government pledge to offer everyone sleeping rough a route off the streets by Christmas. “That promise matters, but success relies on helping people to find a long-term home that they’re able to stay in. Failing to provide this could see people return to rough sleeping in the new year.
“Porchlight’s aim will always be to help people find a safe home and keep it.
“We’re already playing our part, working closely with local partners to get people off the street. But that’s just the start. Support must last beyond that initial crisis, allowing individuals to rebuild their life.
“This is about long-term support, to give people the tools they need to move from crisis and insecurity towards safety, stability and hope.”
Porchlight uses income to help break down the barriers that people face. This includes getting people off the streets, offering practical help with tenancies, debt management, employment and benefits and mental health and wellbeing guidance.
People need our help right now
Government figures show 216 people were sleeping rough across the county this summer. Porchlight believes the true number is higher because many others hide from view and haven’t been counted.
‘For Thanet the latest figure is 33 people rough sleeping and being helped by the isle’s own homelessness team at RISE.
As temperatures drop, the dangers are real: an increasing risk of pneumonia, hypothermia and life-threatening harm. People rough sleeping will soon face freezing conditions and a fight to survive. Porchlight is calling for the public’s help to reach people as quickly as possible.
Vicki’s story: “I never thought it would happen to me”
Vicki, 50, became homeless following a mental breakdown. The mother-of-three and former NHS worker spent years living on the streets and sleeping on sofas.
“I never thought it would happen to me,” she says. “I had worked all my life, paid all my taxes and yet was out on the streets. I couldn’t believe that a single woman had been left to fend for herself. I was lost, alone, afraid and extremely vulnerable.”
Porchlight gave Vicki a flat in a supported living property. This was combined with support to address her mental health problems, rebuild her life and reconnect with her children.
Now, as a Porchlight mental health worker, she’s using her own experiences to help others facing homelessness.
“When you’re struggling, it can be difficult to do daily tasks like making calls, filling in forms, talking to professionals or even expressing your needs,” she explains.
The Big Sleep Out
Porchlight’s Big Sleep Out is a response to the county’s homelessness situation. It aims to raise money to keep people safe and help them regain their independence.
The Big Sleep Out is about swapping your bed for a tent or makeshift cardboard shelter for the night on World Homeless Day and World Mental Health Day (Saturday 10 October). You can sleep in your garden, scout hut, school, office or community venue. Anyone can take part and so long as it’s safe and you have permission to be there, you’re good to go.
“By giving up your home comforts for a night, you can help someone who has none,” says Porchlight’s head of fundraising Hazel Eddy. “Imagine how it will feel waking up after the Big Sleep Out and going back home knowing that, because of you, someone else will soon have the opportunity be safe and warm too.”
You can sign up for the Big Sleep Out by visiting Porchlight’s website: porchlight.org.uk/bigsleepout
Thanet service RISE
In Thanet the first clients have moved into Thanet District Council’s new RISE Hub in Grosvenor Place, Margate.
The facility provides accommodation for people sleeping rough in the district who urgently need somewhere safe to live. The council-owned building has been fully refurbished, with eight bedrooms, shared shower rooms and kitchen and a communal space.
Alongside providing living accommodation, the building is also the new headquarters for the multi-agency Thanet RISE team. The team, established in 2018, provides targeted support for rough sleepers across the district. Members of staff will be on site 24 hours a day, to manage the hub, and signpost clients to key services.
The Hub offers specialist services in one location, including key workers who support clients sleeping on the streets and in accommodation, drug and alcohol workers from Forward Trust and the Department of Work and Pensions’ work coach.
The council is also proposing to refurbish an underused building next door to the RISE Hub into 11 self-contained flats for people in urgent need of somewhere safe to live. The planning application was submitted in June 2026. If approved, work could start on site in Spring 2027, with residents moving in from Spring 2028.
Since it was launched, Rise has helped 609 former rough sleepers into housing and has an 89.6% tenancy retention rate.
Rough sleeping on the isle
As of earlier this month there were 33 people rough sleeping in the district who were being helped by Rise.
Central ward’s Cllr Becky Wing said she had noticed a rise in single men sleeping on the streets, in cars, caravans and tents. She added: “For some life has dished them a really bad card (and) some have just left prison.”
Cllr Whitehead said there had been a rise and this was not uncommon during summer months and then people become more visible because they are using tents when the colder weather arrives.
She said many homeless people had complex issues around mental and physical health and high vulnerabilities.
She added: “We see homelessness due to a person leaving prison or leaving accommodation shortly after leaving prison. We see discharge to the streets from hospital which we should never see.”
She added that the currently paused unitary authorities would be in a better place to deal with this because of the joining up of housing, health and social care services.
Cllr Whitehead also revealed that she has been writing to central government about funding pots that are currently only open to strategic authorities so councils cannot access the funds, which have a lower rate for borrowing.
She said: “If we could access them, we would have the ability to effectively clear our housing register incredibly quickly.”
Cllr Whitehead is requesting a pilot scheme to allow councils the same opportunities as strategic authorities in regarding to accessing the funds.
Thanet council’s Director of Place said Thanet has been allocated a round of government funding specifically to enhance rough sleeper services.
This is understood to be £2.2m from the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant.
He said how the funds would be spent is under discussion but pointed to a gap in provision in high needs supported housing and the need for more facilities like the new Rise centre.
Leave a Reply