Last week at midnight (00.01 24.1.24) I joined Newham Councillors, outreach workers and officers to take part in the bi-monthly Street Count of homeless residents sleeping outdoors.
We met up at Newham Dockside building beforehand, had a briefing and were divided in teams of two - a driver and lead. We all had patches within Newham where it was believed we may find people sleeping outdoors (rough sleeping). A team was already out early to deal with an emergency.
I went with Cllr Jane Lofthouse and we toured parts of East Ham checking out known "hot spots". We came across two people sleeping in office doorways. The weather was not as cold as it has been the last few week but it had been raining beforehand and it was very windy (end of "Storm Jocelyn").
One was asleep but the other was awake and we able to have a chat and take some details so outreach workers will come down and see him in the early morning. Hopefully, they will be able to take him off the streets and help him find more suitable accommodation.After dropping off Jane at home and the documentation at Dockside, I was home for 2am. Will update on what the other teams found when I get the data.
UPDATE: Not on this Newham count but this report about biggest increase in rough sleeping late last year in London is alarming.
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