How Many Die On Our Streets?
The most visible manifestations of homelessness in Hastings are from those who have been sleeping rough – piles of blankets and sleeping bags left in seafront shelters or makeshift tents at the top of the beach or in doorways. Monitoring rough sleeping is a clear priority for the council with outreach teams visiting anyone they can identify. In the most recent count at the beginning of March there were 16 people sleeping ‘out’, slightly down from last year’s count of 20.
The council, however, reports some success in that only two of them are still on the streets from a year ago. All others have been found shelter – either temporary or permanent – though that does mean that new rough sleepers are appearing as others are helped with shelter. And this year the outreach workers have found that half of all rough sleepers are sheltering in some sort of vehicle.
“Every year the government talks about a targeted priority group,” says Glenn Haffenden, the council’s deputy leader and Housing and Community Wellbeing portfolio holder. “It’s a horrible word to describe the number of rough sleepers who are most entrenched, who have been on the street longest in Hastings.” But there is central government money available to help the homeless who don’t even have a roof over their head. This winter Hastings received £345,962 to ease ‘rough sleeping winter pressures’. This enables the council to maintain the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol designed to prevent deaths among rough sleepers.
However success in that specific area is extremely hard to monitor, and accurate statistics almost impossible to come by. Government figures suggest that 90 homeless people died in the Southeast region in 2021, and extrapolations suggest this would equate to seven in Hastings itself. But it seems no distinction is made between rough sleepers and other homeless people – those in temporary accommodation or briefly staying in other people’s homes.
53 year Norman Hardwick, who tragically died in Sedlescombe Road St Leonards just before Christmas, was known to be homeless, And two other deaths among homeless or rough sleepers have been confirmed by Hastings County Councillor Godfrey Daniel.
The council says it is grateful for funding from central government to help rough sleepers, but there are major problems with its allocation. “We’ve just recently been given a tranche of funding which came out of nowhere,” says Cllr Haffenden, but we’ve been given very little time to spend the money so it’s not enabled our housing team to really think about the best strategic way to allocate it – and we don’t know if we will get it again.”
One thing that it now makes possible is the appointment of a ‘Rough Sleeper Navigator’ to work with those who are most entrenched on the street, to encourage them to come indoors and to help them once there. The advertisement for the post is currently on Hastings BC’s website.
There is also government money available to provide temporary accommodation for rough sleepers. The councils has a number of projects starting in the next few months including a seven bed HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) in Sedlescombe Road South and the conversion of Astec House near Asda into seven flats along with former office buildings in Cambridge Gardens. “We recognise there isn’t enough settled accommodation for people having to rough sleep,but there will be more coming online; and our partners at Seaview are developing their potential accommodations well which is fantastic,” says Glenn.
Certainly the council needs its own buildings. A major anomaly of the rules means that central government subsidises them, but not temporary accommodation provided by the private sector. This has to be entirely funded by the council and accounts for a major proportion of Hastings BC’s annual budget. Plus it gives rise to the absurd situation that it costs them more to take rough sleepers off the street and house them in private temporary homes. Nevertheless, getting them shelter does save money for other agencies like the health service. “If it’s our own accommodation we can recover the costs from central government,” says Glenn Haffenden, “so it’s cost neutral for us and a win-win on all counts.” And he is insistent that no one should ever forget the moral aspect to homelessness and rough sleeping which, he says, tends to get buried under statistics and protocols.
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