Big Issue founder Lord John Bird has long urged the government to establish a dedicated Ministry of Poverty Prevention and Cure, coordinating a response to poverty that focuses on root causes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crossbench peer said the broadening of focus from the immediate homelessness crisis to long-term prevention was vital and that he was pleased to see that reflected in the mayor\u2019s new rough sleeping plan.<\/p>\n
Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s vital we do more for the estimated half a million Londoners living in extreme poverty \u2013 unable to properly feed, clothe or keep themselves warm \u2013 before they fall further down the terrible spiral that leads to the cold, hard streets of our capital. <\/p>\n
\u201cEnding rough sleeping in London<\/a> by 2030 is an audaciously bold promise. Stopping the numbers rising will be a start. Others have promised the same but it\u2019s never been achieved. Let\u2019s hope this plan reaches the parts that its predecessors never got close to.\u201d<\/p>\n What is the plan to end rough sleeping in London by 2030?<\/p>\n Sadiq Khan<\/a> first announced his plan to end homelessness by 2030 ahead of last year\u2019s mayoral contest, pledging a \u00a310m funding package over three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n This money will\u00a0be used to transform and expand a network of ending homelessness hubs across the capital, providing 24\/7 specialist support.\u00a0<\/p>\n The \u00a317m funding injection from the UK government \u2013 first announced in January \u2013 will go a long way to increase the availability of housing-led routes out of rough sleeping, funding 500 home refurbishments.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mayor also plans to put more support workers and volunteers in community settings such as day centres and food banks<\/a>, so support plans can be established for people to prevent them being forced to sleep on the streets.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n The conceptual shift away from crisis support and towards prevention was welcomed by Emma Haddadd, chief executive of St Mungo\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cRough sleeping is a crisis and should not be a prerequisite for help,\u201d she said. \u201cFor too long, people facing homelessness have had to endure the trauma of sleeping on the streets before they can access life-saving support.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome the mayor\u2019s ambition to end the verification-based model for accessing help.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Khora, from the mayor\u2019s Lived Experience Advisory Group, echoed this.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo one should have to sleep on the street, at the station, on a bench. By the time someone is there, something has already gone wrong,\u201d she said. \u201cRough sleeping and the damage it does is avoidable, but services in London are full and tend to respond to people too late, after a crisis, making problems even harder to resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n Rough sleeping is only the most visible manifestation of the \u201chuman catastrophe\u201d of homelessness, councillor Grace Williams, London Councils<\/a>\u2018 deputy chair and executive member for housing and regeneration, pointed out.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cRough sleeping is the most extreme and visible form of homelessness, but we know London\u2019s homelessness pressures are wide ranging, with one in 50 Londoners homeless and living in temporary accommodation<\/a>,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Structural drivers \u2013\u00a0like a highly competitive private housing market, and an absence of social homes \u2013\u00a0are worsening this crisis.<\/p>\n John Glenton, executive director of care and support at Riverside<\/a> housing association said Sadiq Khan\u2019s plan comes at a crucial time with London having just seen the largest ever number of people sleeping rough during the winter months. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are heartened by the new approach and we are confident this comprehensive package of measures will reduce the number of people sleeping rough in London,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cHowever, to significantly and sustainably cut the number of people sleeping rough in London we bwill need larger numbers of one-bed accommodation available and also require a significant increase in the amount of social housing in London so people can access housing which is financially sustainable for them in the long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.\u00a0To support our work buy a copy of the magazine<\/a>\u00a0or get the app from the\u00a0App Store<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Google Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a conceptual shift from crisis support to prevention, Khan said, stopping the \u201cvicious cycle\u201d of homelessness in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,6332,6333,257,17562,14252,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-115587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-homelessness","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-rough-sleeping","15":"tag-sadiq-khan","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114537120751536711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1664-Subs_Media_Ads_800x250.jpg\")
<\/p>\n