Ending rough sleeping is 'not just a housing issue'

Bill Lewis describes life on the streets as lonely, destitute and tough.

That is, in part, why he is sceptical about whether the prime minister will succeed in ending rough sleeping.

"I doubt that's going to happen," he reflects.

Andy Burnham's "national drive" to stop people living in tents or shop doorways will include offering them "a route off the streets by Christmas".

Ministers have also pledged extra support beyond housing. But will that be enough?

"It's not just a housing issue," Lewis says.

"Getting everybody off the street – great, it's fine – but the problems don't end there."

Lewis, then 34, was living on the streets during the winter of 2017, when Harlow in Essex was hit by snowstorms.

He had become homeless at the end of October and was living in a tent in gardens near St Paul's church in the town centre.

His "biggest downfall" was taking cocaine, he says.

He had been working nights as a "picker-packer" in a warehouse.

"I was using the cocaine to get me through the shift and then I wasn't sleeping during the day.

"It was just this cycle – my life was a mess, it really was."

With the help of charity Streets2Homes, which works with people experiencing homelessness in Harlow, he managed to get briefly off the streets by mid-December.

But on New Year's Eve, he says he "relapsed on the drugs" and "spent the next three months getting wasted".

He was back on the streets between March and July 2018, packing up his tent each night and moving from pitch to pitch.

He started volunteering for Streets2Homes and now works for the organisation as an outreach project worker, trying to help those experiencing what he went through.

'Complex' needs

Lewis, now 43, credits the charity and religion for keeping him off the streets and clear of drugs.

He says he and his colleagues are finding more people with very high and complex needs.

"They are the ones that are really difficult to care for."

To end rough sleeping, they will need to be "in the right kind of accommodation" with "ongoing, intensive support".

Otherwise, he fears, "within six months, they're going to be failing their tenancy and back on the streets again".

"So it's all very well and good saying 'yeah we're going to get all these people off the streets' – and you know I'd love to see that – but what's next after that?"

Kerrie Eastman, a former probation service manager, has run Streets2Homes since 2010.

Her team was monitoring and supporting 31 rough sleepers when she spoke to BBC Politics East.

"They're the ones that are actually sleeping under the stars – not sofa surfing or in caravans or anything, they're actually rough sleeping," she says.

That total, she adds, is a "high number, even for us" and "has been creeping up".

According to Streets2Homes data, the average nightly number of rough sleepers in Harlow in the 12 months to the end of July 2026 was 30% higher than the previous year.

What is driving the increase?

Eastman says the "cost of living" and the "disparity" between the local housing allowance and rents, which in Harlow are "really expensive".

The local housing allowance, external in the town is £451.34 a month for private shared accommodation and £810 for a one-bedroom home.

But Eastman says rooms in shared homes in the town can be around £730 a month.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in July the average rent, external for a one-bedroom home in Harlow was £1,021.

The charity, Eastman says, is finding it "more and more difficult to house people".

As well as offering interest-free deposit loans, Streets2Homes has nine bedrooms across two Victorian cottages in the town.

A support worker is on site from 09:00 to 00:00, with someone on call through the night.

In the seven years the charity has had the cottages, Eastman says just five people have returned to the streets.

In June, the charity also took the keys to eight one-bedroom modular "pods", which were gifted by the Hill Group, an Essex-based developer.

Eastman says she is "very excited" that ending rough sleeping is on Burnham's aims but is concerned those with "complex needs and chaotic lifestyles" need more than is being offered.

"They need more than organisations like us and what we're offering now. We don't have the resources.

"You need mental health nurses – they need mental health support, they need so much more.

"It's not just about putting a roof over someone's head."

The government pledged £442m, external additional cash over the next three years to help end rough sleeping in England.

It said the money would provide "emergency accommodation to end the need for rough sleeping", as well as "practical help with housing, health and other needs, helping people build a more stable future".

The new commitment would, it added, "offer everyone a route off the streets this Christmas".

Harlow's Labour MP, Chris Vince, also worked for Streets2Homes as a project outreach worker.

He says Burnham's target is ambitious but is "absolutely a target we can do".

"We saw during the pandemic it is possible to get people off the streets and in accommodation very quickly."

But he adds he has told Housing Secretary Angela Rayner that the scheme must come with "additional support".

"It's absolutely about that housing-first approach of getting people housed, but it's also about that support we provide as well."

BBC Politics East is on BBC One at 08:30 BST on Sunday, 13 September and programmes are available after broadcast on the BBC iPlayer.