Labour Councillors have questioned the validity of the way rough sleepers are officially counted in York, saying a single annual count each November artificially suppresses numbers sleeping rough each year.
That assertion follows Rachael Maskell MP highlighting the potential impact of threats to funding to Salvation Army and its ability to undertake accurate counts of those sleeping on the streets of York.
Labour says the single annual count, carried out for official statistics in November, takes place intentionally at that time to artificially lower the average count, once cold weather provisions such as the ‘no second night out’ scheme have kicked in. This means for many months the actual numbers sleeping on York’s streets is far higher, but don’t get officially recorded.
Labour’s housing spokesperson, Cllr Michael Pavlovic said the massaging of official figures is a problem when it comes to tackling street homelessness, commenting:
“Both the Green Executive Member for Housing on the council and the Government buy into the charade of the annual street homeless count taking place once a year, when emergency housing provision must be made temporarily available. This helps to mislead the public on the real scale of the problem, a problem that is only likely to get worse during a cost-of-living crisis for huge numbers of people.
“Currently we are hearing the council say the city has three people sleeping on the streets. As the Press Reporter and Rachael Maskell MP learned when out at 5am with the Salvation Army recently, the count was actually at least 22. It’s an exercise in massaging the figures in York to influence public opinion away from tackling the problem. I fear the political direction of the council on homelessness is to pretend things are better than they are, and on an issue like rough sleeping, that’s morally wrong.
“Now it seems from reports that the Salvation Army may lose funding and staff, and its ability to count those sleeping rough could be cut back. They have been out every day, come rain or shine from 5am, making contacts with those on the streets, finding those hidden places across the city where cold, vulnerable and often frightened people huddle under cardboard sheets or in sleeping bags. Without them going out we could struggle to really understand the challenge and how the council and its partners can respond to it. I’d like to see the lead councillor for housing focussing more on ‘no house’, and less on passivhaus. The priorities of the council on housing currently fail to respond to the housing challenges the city faces”.
Cllr Pavlovic, himself a former probation officer and director of a charity for the homeless commented that people become homeless for all sorts of reasons, and often in completely unexpected ways. As the financial crisis and cost of living deepens, he fears many more may find themselves at risk of becoming homeless.
With help and support, homelessness and rough sleeping doesn’t have to be the only outcome and cuts to any service that does such valuable work in our community should be opposed at every level, he added. He went to comment about the positive impact council housing officers and organisations like the Salvation Army make in helping to turn lives around, where they are adequately funded to do this work.
The recently reported Nap Pads have been a one positive in helping those at the most extreme end of being homeless to find a safe place to sleep, providing short-term accommodation to 38 York residents in recent months.
But Cllr Pavlovic said he feared their removal to make way for development risks losing a last refuge for those who cannot stay in the city’s hostels:
“If we lose these nap pads and fail to find another location for them, the city is effectively abandoning a small, but significant and vulnerable group of York residents. I’d like the council to work pro-actively with its partners to find an alternative suitable nap pad location, and to update its homelessness strategy to respond to the actual numbers sleeping rough on the streets of our city as a priority”.