New research from Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, shows the horrifying reality of sleeping rough on the streets.

A survey of 458 recent or current rough sleepers in England and Wales shows how almost eight out of 10 have suffered some sort of violence, abuse or anti-social behaviour in the past year – often committed by a member of the public – while nearly seven in 10 (66%) report that life on the street is getting worse.

The report shows that for current or recent rough sleepers:

• More than one in three have been deliberately hit or kicked or experienced some other form of violence whilst homeless (35%)
• More than one in three have had things thrown at them whilst homeless (34%)
• Almost one in 10 have been urinated on whilst homeless (9%)
• More than one in 20 have been the victim of a sexual assault whilst homeless (7%)
• Almost half have been intimidated or threatened with violence whilst homeless (48%)
• Almost six in 10 have had been verbally abused or harassed whilst homeless (59%).

Some of those questioned had horrific stories to tell. Simon said: “It was some guy. He said, ‘Are you homeless?’  I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he just kicked me in the head.  I was sat on the floor reading my book.”

Jeremy told researchers: “I was beaten up once, that was a couple of weeks ago, by the same people I think that burnt my bedding up. I was in my sleeping bag because it comes around up over the shoulders, do you know what I mean? And three of them, and I was sleeping, they came over and started jumping on me, kicking me like.”

“We don’t know if we’re going to get burnt alive or anything, it’s too dangerous out there,” commented Philip. “I’m glad that we have got each other out there because I don’t know how people cope on their own, I really don’t.”

Crisis also says that urgent action must be taken to prevent people from having to face the horrors of life on the street in the first place. The Homelessness Reduction Bill, which is now going through parliament, would help to make sure potentially homeless people can get support at an early stage, hopefully before they lose their home.

Chief executive of Crisis, Jon Sparkes, said: “For anyone sleeping on the street, life can be a struggle just to survive. As our research shows, rough sleepers are far more likely to be victims of crime, including violent assault, abuse and intimidation, compared to the general public. This is a horrifying state of affairs and shows why we need to prevent people ending up in this situation in the first place.”

You can download the report ‘It’s No Life At All – Rough sleepers’ experiences of violence on the streets of England and Wales’ by Ben Sanders and Francesca Albanese, from the Crisis website www.crisis.org.uk

New Start is pleased to announce that following a recent Ofsted inspection all their Residential Childcare Services continue to remain ‘Good’ in all areas with “outstanding” features.

The Ofsted inspection framework focuses on the most important aspects of New Start’s work. Inspectors make judgments about the effectiveness of the department’s leadership and management. They also make a judgment about the departments overall effectiveness.

Ofsted uses a four-point scale to make qualitative judgments during inspections. Detailed descriptions are provided for each grade to ensure that inspectors make consistent judgments. These grade/judgments encourage companies like New Start to strive for further improvements.

New Start boss, Neil Baynes, said: “In the early years, we provided services for just a small number of vulnerable adults, but now, in our 18^th year of work in the social care sector, we have grown into a well-established and successful organisation.”

New Start employ a committed workforce of nearly 100 members of staff, who provide a broad range of residential and social care services designed to meet the diverse needs of over 300 vulnerable men, women, children and young people across Merseyside.

The continued growth of New Start has been the direct result of their commitment to continually reinvest their revenue wisely into the development of activities and services that directly relate to the organisation’s aspirations. This ethos has enabled them to expand the diversity of the services we offer and have a positive impact on the communities they serve.

Neil added: “The New Start Childcare team always maintain the highest levels of standards and safety in order to provide the young people with the best service. This has been exemplified by the fantastic results they achieved in the most recent inspection.”

“All the developments we have undertaken are motivated by New Start’s mission statement that is socially focused, and we are committed to ensuring these values will continue to be at the heart of our work going forward.”

Great news, Neil, and congratulations to everyone at New Start. Well done!

Now here’s a great idea – a coat that converts into a sleeping bag that could make a night on the streets a little less horrendous.

The coat is the brainchild of an American charity, The Empowerment Plan (TEP), a not-for-profit organisation based in Detroit, Michigan. Not only that – the company also helps homeless people with employment and housing support by hiring people from local homeless shelters. So, as well as giving their employees a stable income, TEP helps them to find secure housing and regain their independence.

A spokesperson for TEP said: “Since founding in 2012, we have provided employment to 30 people, assisted all our employees in permanently moving out of the shelter, distributed over 15,000 coats to homeless individuals across 39 US states and seven Canadian provinces, and impacted 75 children now growing up in stable incomes.”

According to a report in The Metro, the coat itself is water-resistant, durable, and fitted with special insulation materials donated by General Motors, which helps to make it warm and keep it dry during the cold, wet, winter months. But the real genius idea is that, when it’s not being worn, the coat can be rolled out into a sleeping bag and, when not in use for either purpose, it folds down into an over-the-shoulder bag.

The coats cost around $100 (around £80) each to make. These are then distributed to other homeless organisations at no cost to them. Although they mainly send their coats to US and Canadian organisations they do have plans to expand globally.

Brilliant!

Everton’s Under 23 Manager David Unsworth and his squad have launched a fundraising campaign to support young people on the brink of homelessness.

The campaign, ‘Home is Where the Heart Is’, will see them work throughout the season to reach a target of £230,000 to fund and develop a supported living initiative for young people in Liverpool, delivered by Everton in the Community. The funds raised will be used to purchase, and operate, a house close to Goodison Park that will offer 16-23-year-olds who have fallen on hard times, or have perhaps fallen out of the care system, a place to stay in Liverpool.

As well as offering the young adults somewhere to stay, the Club’s official charity will play a large part in their development by providing them with access to key services including health and
wellbeing support and assistance with education employment and training. They will also be encouraged to contribute to the local community through the National Citizenship Scheme and other progammes of volunteering.

“Modern day footballers are in an incredibly privileged position and are supported by their club with everything including dietary and fitness support and psychological matters,” Unsworth told the Liverpool Echo.

“‘Home is Where the Heart Is’ will us see offer that same level of support to the most needy across Liverpool and draw upon all areas of expertise within Everton in the Community to ensure that those young people accessing the facility will be given tangible life skills to set them on the right path in life.”

“That is why we are doing this – because we want to stop this. We want to give all those people on the streets of Liverpool a helping hand and get them off the streets and somewhere safe where they can get back on their feet again. Everybody should have a roof over their head and we are going to give our all to this campaign to ensure that we can help as many young people as possible.”

‘Home is Where the Heart Is’ will see Unsworth, his backroom staff and his full cohort of players host a variety of events and activities throughout the season to reach the fundraising target of £230,000.

There are plenty of ways for you to get involved and support their fundraising efforts. For more information, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/EvertonU23s>&gt or contact the charity on 0151 530 5253.

Three homeless people have died in the last 10 days – two men died in a fire while trying to keep warm at a derelict building in Manchester and last Tuesday a 30-year-old man froze to death in a Birmingham car park.

The annual count of rough sleepers, carried out by 44 English authorities and estimated by the other 282, finished last week. Sources at three cities told the Observer their figures, which are yet to be officially released, were double last year’s number.

But homeless charities say the counts only pick up the most visible – those sleeping in shop doorways, for example – and miss the majority hidden in derelict buildings or other makeshift shelters. Official government figures for the 2015 count were 3,569 people sleeping rough in England on a single night, more than double (up 102%) from 2010. But outreach workers in London dispute these figures. They reported seeing 8,000 people on the streets of the capital alone last year.

Howard Sinclair, chief executive of homelessness charity St Mungo’s, says the true figure is 10 times that. “Rough sleeping is increasing year-on-year – and so are the needs of those people, the complex issues, the range of problems,” he says. “The degree of need is much, much higher than it was even three years ago.”

“With all of this the numbers can only worsen, the housing crisis is not just about house prices and the shortage of social housing, but problems with private landlords. That’s the area we’re really seeing a rise in, people ending up on the streets after tenancy breakdowns.”

“What you see is that strata of people who really have nothing – no money, no front door key, no friend or family. That number is growing. And you can’t just pin it all on local authorities, the health service is failing people too – 90% of rough sleepers are discharged from hospitals back on to the streets.”

But Liverpool Mayor, Joe Anderson, told the BBC: “There is still a misconception that those who are sleeping rough are doing so because there is nowhere for them to go. We fund 750 beds a night in Liverpool but not everybody is accepting the offer of help despite the No Second Night Out gaining tremendous support from the public. We have to accept that some rough sleepers are refusing help and with a harsh winter ahead we need to find new ways to solve that problem.”

The Whitechapel Centre is coordinating the outreach response to rough sleeping in Liverpool as part of the No Second Night Out campaign. So if you have seen someone sleeping rough or are worried about someone who may be sleeping on the street tonight, give the Whitechapel Centre a call on 0300 123 2041(low cost).