Preventing rough sleeping

People begin sleeping rough for many reasons: relationship breakdown or social isolation, eviction, drug and alcohol use, prison and debt. Identifying people who are at risk of homelessness and working with them to prevent rough sleeping is crucial to stop the 'flow' of new rough sleepers onto the street.

Understanding preventable rough sleeping

The Prevention Opportunities Mapping Toolkit (PrOPMT) can help you understand common pathways into rough sleeping in your area, and the effectiveness of interventions at key points. The toolkit enables local authorities and their partners to gather information from rough sleepers and use it to review current provision.

Services that prevent homelessness

Many people lose their home in ways that could have been prevented, if they had been able to access advice and support at the right time. People need access to services including Housing Options, housing advice, debt, drug and alcohol, floating support, and  mediation, and these services need to be well-publicised in community settings such as schools, GP surgeries, jobcentres, and local newspapers.

The Communities and Local Government National Youth Homelessness Scheme has a section on prevention that includes early information and mediation.

Floating Support services  can provide regular tenancy sustainment support to households that are the most vulnerable to homelessness. In 2008 CLG published Research into the Effectiveness of Floating Support Services funded under the Supporting People programme.

One group that are particularly vulnerable to repeat rough sleeping are people who have previously been homeless and are living in homeless hostels, supported housing or in independent housing. Homeless Link's Resettlement Handbook provides good practice in resettling homeless people into sustainable independent tenancies. Homeless Link is currently undertaking a three year research and change programme into eviction and abandonment from hostels in London.

Further Details

Homeless Link's main pages on prevention include further details on prevention including legal duties, emergency accommodation, local authority advice and assistance and PrOMPT