Newham Council Rough Sleeping Street Count: 25 May 2021

 

Last night I took part again in the latest count of people "rough sleeping" in Newham. Council Officers, members, outreach workers and volunteers, turned up at the former Council staff restaurant area in Newham Dockside building at 11pm for a coffee then briefing. At 11.45pm we went out in teams of 2 to visit different parts of the borough in order to observe and count the number of "rough sleepers". 

One of the reasons to do this is to show funders of measures to support rough sleepers and help get them off the streets that we make a difference. 

Due to Covid the count team is scaled down from the past. I went out with Kris from Thamesreach to visit Stratford town centre. 

We found two people sleeping separately in shop doorways. One of whom was unknown to outreach. This information was fed back to the early morning outreach shift, who would contact both of them and offer support. 

While we found evidence of more people sleeping rough in the past (abandoned mattresses and clothing), it is amazing what a difference our outreach teams, local volunteers and other agencies have made. 

I can remember previous counts in Stratford when we would see over 100 people sleeping rough. While having to close Stratford shopping centre overnight due to Covid made a huge difference, the joined up compassionate but pro active response has made a huge difference. Well done to everyone involved including former rough sleepers with lived experience. 

This "success" also shows that you can deal with street homelessness if you have the will and the resources. However, at the moment many rough sleepers are being housed in hotels and other forms of temporary accommodation. Some of these hotels are now wanting to cater again to the business and tourist market while the government is clearly either getting rid or reducing the financial support they had promised local authorities to get everyone off the streets. 

Newham Rough Sleeper (Mini) Street Count June 2020

Pictures from last night's Newham Rough Sleeping (mini) Street count with Councillors, Council officers and 3rd sector partners going out during the night to count how many rough sleepers there are. Usually this is done every two months.

Due to COVID19 only 4 teams of 2 people were sent out however, we visited 43 sites that have recent reports or historically associated with rough sleeping in Newham (and also there were central staff doing safety checks and gathering stats).

We met up in a local hotel that the Council has block booked to house and support rough sleepers. We took bottled water and sun cream to hand out (it has been very hot lately)

My team toured Manor Park and East Ham and "only" met 1 person sleeping on the streets! (S/he is well known to outreach workers and they are trying to support).

I am not sure if we can publish the actual figures yet from last nights count but it is no secret that it will be definitely and dramatically down from Pre covid times and the decision by the government to get "everyone in" into accommodation and off the streets

This shows what can he done if you have the will and the resources but we need our Government to commit further money & humane changes to the "No Recourse to Public Funds" (NRPF) rules to get rid of the blight in our society of vulnerable people sleeping on our streets. 

Visit to ThamesReach Martha Jones House

This morning I went on a visit to Martha Jones House, which is a 50 bed high needs hostel in Vauxhall, run by Thamesreach, a London based charity helping homeless and vulnerable people. I had been invited with my fellow Deputy Mayor (Tower Hamlets not Newham), Cllr Rachel Blake (see photo top middle).

Martha Jones House, is an impressive, purpose built hostel, just over a year old. I once went to a UNISON branch meeting in the nearby old hostel a few years ago and Martha Jones is much better.

We had a tour of the building and spoke to residents and staff about the facility and what they offer. Many of the residents are former rough sleepers who are referred by assessments centres. All must have a Lambeth "local connection". The hostel is supported financially by Lambeth Council. What I found particularly impressive is that they have no absolute "exclusion" policy and will potentially accept residents with the most challenging needs or behaviour. Residents are normally expected to stay for a maximum of 9 months.

After the tour we had a really useful and constructive "brain storming" session with staff about homelessness, rough sleeping, temporary and permanent accommodation. What do charities such as Thamesreach want local authorities to do and what can charities do to assist local authorities?

My takeaway from this is as well as specialist hostel provision you need effective floating support in suitable permanent accommodation is get people off the streets.

Adequate funding is also essential. You cannot deal with rough sleeping on the cheap.

Many thanks to Thamesreach Chief Executive, Bill Tidnam, Catherine Parsons, Director of Operations (the fantastic manager of the hostel, whose name I have rudely forgotten) and to residents C and N for their insights. 

Tackling Rough Sleeping at Newham Stepping Stones

Today I went on a visit with Cllr Zulfiqar Ali and Cllr Shaban Mohammed to our newly opened Newham temporary assessment centre for Rough Sleepers. The centre is called "Stepping Stones" and is staffed 24/7 and can house up to 20 people and another 5 when it gets very cold.

It is basic but clean, warm, dry and much safer than the streets. Food is donated by a number of local stores and charity foodbanks. Local Charities are also arranging for hairdressers to attend while specialist housing, medical & advocacy services are being brought in.

Some of the residents were previously sleeping in tents at Stratford. We spoke to Council officers, centre staff (ThamesReach) and to residents. All of whom were positive about the centre.

"Stepping Stones" is a temporary fix and not a solution to Rough Sleeping but will make a big difference. Already it has achieved 4 positive "move on's" in the last 2 weeks of rough sleepers being brought from the street to the centre to other more suitable accommodation.

We need a permanent assessment centre in Newham. In the Newham Council budget consultation for the next 3 years there will be proposals for such a centre and appropriate specialist support for it. 

Newham Council Rough Sleeping Task Force & Bi Monthly Count

On Wednesday I went to the Newham Council Scrutiny Committee meeting with Homeless officers to present and take questions on where we are with the Rough Sleeping Task Force. We have over 120 people and organisations involved in the Task Force and its various work steams. A progress report will be sent to the next Cabinet meeting next month. Nothing is being ruled out or in except doing nothing is not an option and anything we do will be rooted in care and compassion.

The next day on Thursday evening just after 11pm, I went to Newham Dockside Building to take part in the bi monthly rough sleeper count. This is the 4th one I have taken part.

There was over 30 volunteers from a very wide range of organisations including my colleagues, Cllr John Whitworth and Cllr Shaban Mohammed. We were split up into 10 teams and from midnight to 3am we all drove and walked around Newham to count how many people were sleeping rough that night.

In my team I was a driver with 2 colleagues from the charity, Thames Reach. We were tasked with visiting all of Newham Council run parks to count any rough sleepers. We visited and walked around all our parks and did not find anyone that night. This does not mean that we did not miss anyone, since it was brought home to me that night just how many parks we have in Newham. My phone Sat Nav calculated that we walked that night for about 5 miles.

We did find an encampment with 5 rough sleepers hidden away in woodland alongside a busy dual carriageway. It took us over 10 minutes to walk through woods and bushes to find them. I remembered it from my first count in February. We did speak to some of them to find out what they need. They were quite friendly and forthcoming and said what they really wanted was help to find jobs in the locality.

It was agreed that a Thames Reach worker will come and see them and find out what can be done to help them.

I got back to Newham Dockside at about 3.20am booked out and went home. I had a 10am budget meeting the next morning.

The results of the count will be out soon. While I was pleased that we found no-one in our parks I am still shocked and horrified when I come across people living in such dreadful conditions. We need to do whatever we can to solve this modern day scourge.

LAPFF 2011: "More Soviet than City"

The 2nd presentation at the LAPFF conference on Thursday was "Owners and directors: challenges to board", chaired by John Plender, of the Financial Times.  Simon Laffin, formerly Finance Director Safeway, former Chair Mitchells & Butler spoke first about the failure of regulators to ensure that British billionaires shareholders behave properly.While Ken Olisa, formerly Non-Executive Director Eurasian Natural Resources Company (ENRS) entertained us with a colourful account of the failure to ensure his Kazakhstan billionaire shareholders behaved any better.  He ended up the first Non-Executive Director of a FTSE 100 company to be sacked at an AGM! In his case this is a badge of honour methinks.

Afterwards there was a Q&A. Anne Kvam, Norges Bank Investment Management (Norwegian Sovereign wealth fund) and Stuart Morgan, National Express joined the panel.  I asked a question whether having a employee representative on a company board could improve diversity and the necessary checks and balances? Many successful European companies have such representation and they seem to do very well?  Anne said she was concerned that there were only 2 firms of headhunters who appoint nearly all Non-Executive directors in the UK and that in Norway a 1/3 of the Board are employee representatives while in Germany it is 50%. Simon was opposed and argued that a company board needed to work as a team and trust each over (not sure what he meant by that?), Stuart didn't think it would be much of a problem, while Ken thought that an employee representative would only represent employees and not the interests of the shareholders. 

My response to Ken would have been that he was speaking to an audience comprised mainly of different employers, officers and employee representatives who sit together on pension committees and should be putting the interests of the pension fund beneficiaries ahead of any thing else.  All members of a board however they are elected should act in the same way for their shareholders.

I only realised today that by one of those bizarre coincidences that often makes life interesting, Ken Olisa is also the Chair of ThamesReach. This is a housing charity whose members belong to my UNISON branch (I am the branch secretary) who were on strike over pensions and had a picket line outside ThamesReach HQ in Aldgate on Wednesday.  It's a small world.