A new charter has been launched by Sadiq Khan aimed at ending rough sleeping across the capital. In Enfield and Haringey the charity All People All Places' winter 2023 homelessness campaign focusses on the impact of evictions, using billboards and social media.
The London Charter to End Rough Sleeping has been developed by a coalition which includes more than 100 businesses, charities, faith groups and people who have lived experience, with the aim of enshrining the principles and actions that are necessary to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in London.
Launching the charter, London mayor Sadiq Khan said:
“I am proud to launch the first ever London Rough Sleeping Charter alongside our partners – a rallying point for Londoners, businesses, charities and communities to join together to end rough sleeping.”
Across 2022-23 outreach teams in the capital saw more than 10,000 people sleeping rough, with boroughs in London providing them with vital support to help them get off the streets.
Cllr Darren Rodwell from the London boroughs umbrella group London Councils said:
“The charter is a shining example of London’s commitment to working together to end rough sleeping for good.
“Rough sleeping is dangerous and dehumanising. With homelessness pressures worsening in the capital, it is the most visible manifestation of a broken housing system.
“Strong partnerships and coordinated action are needed now more than ever before. Boroughs have a pivotal role to play, and I feel privileged to sign up to the Charter.”
“I am proud to launch the first ever London Rough Sleeping Charter alongside our partners – a rallying point for Londoners, businesses, charities and communities to join together to end rough sleeping.”
Evictions fuelling the homelessness crisis
Focussing in on our part of north London, the charity All People All Places (APAP) last week launched its 2023 winter campaign, under the title Eviction Survival.
George Dunstall from APAP says that this year has seen a significant worsening of the situation:
"This crisis in homelessness is no longer limited to single person households being priced out of the market. It is whole families moving from one short-term tenancy to the next until they simply cannot afford to pay any more. This year was a turning point. For the first time, a long-standing housing crisis developed into an evictions crisis."
As they did in 2022, APAP are using the real stories of real people they have helped, this time in the face of eviction from their homes.
A billboard advertisement for the All People All Places 2023 campaign, Eviction Survival, in Seven Sisters Road
