Plan of action announced by Mayor to tackle rough sleeping

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May 21, 2025
3 min read

Plan of action announced by Mayor to tackle rough sleeping

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched a new plan of action on rough sleeping, which promises to “break the ‘vicious cycle’ of street homelessness.” In the “bold new approach,” the Mayor will commit to ending the current requirement for Londoners to be seen “bedded down” on the streets before they can access support and ensure that those at the highest risk of rough sleeping are given help early based on their specific needs.

Despite a record level of investment from the Mayor, many people in London are not given the help when they most need it. This leads to many struggling Londoners forced onto the streets before services can step in to hep.

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Khan’s new plan of action hopes to change that, focusing on prevention and increasing the availability of rapid and sustainable “routes away from the streets.” This includes specialist services that recognise the needs of particular groups including those who face further barriers accessing services.

As part of the plan of action, the Mayor will

expand his Homes off the Streets programme by refurbishing up to 500 empty homes, helping hundreds of people at immediate risk of rough sleeping;
deliver a new network of Ending Homelessness Hubs across the capital;
establish a new rough sleeping prevention phone line [2];
put more support workers and volunteers in community settings such as day centres and food banks, so support plans can be established for people to prevent them being forced to sleep on the streets.

This strategy will be backed with £17 million in capital funding secured from the UK government to open a new Ending Homelessness Hub and expand the Mayor’s “Homes off the Streets” programme through the refurbishment of up to 500 empty homes. This hopes to help hundreds of people at an immediate risk of being homeless. The investment hopes to increase the availability of housing-led routes which, according to the Mayor’s plan, is the most effective way to support people off the streets.

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