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14/10/14


New service to help homeless people sleeping rough across South Essex


A new service aims to help people who are sleeping rough across South Essex.


The nine local authorities of Rochford, Southend-on-Sea, Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Epping Forest, Harlow, and Thurrock have commissioned the service to improve outcomes for single homeless people across the region.


Last year’s annual rough sleeper estimate reported 19 people were sleeping rough in Southend-on-Sea alone. From recent referrals via the national referral line StreetLink, about 38 people were estimated to be sleeping rough across the South Essex area.


If members of the public are concerned about anyone sleeping rough, they can contact the national 24 hour rough sleeping referral line StreetLink on 0300 500 0914 or online at www.streetlink.org.uk. This referral will then link with the South Essex service. People will also be referred in through Housing services direct to the St Mungo’s Broadway team.


The authorities are now working with homelessness organisation St Mungo’s Broadway to provide outreach and a ‘No Second Night Out’ (NSNO) service to rough sleepers, through funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).


The NSNO element aims to quickly help anyone new to sleeping rough off the streets and into accommodation, with a more traditional ‘outreach’ service helping people who may have slept rough on and off for some time because of a range of complicated factors around housing or health issues.


The South Essex Homelessness Assessment and Reconnection Team (SEHART) service will have three outreach workers partnering with volunteers recruited from among the public, as well as peer volunteers with an experience of moving on from homelessness themselves.


The SEHART service will work closely with partner agencies and council housing teams across the region, and is looking to establish bases in Chelmsford, Southend-on-Sea and Basildon and with local hostel providers, GPs, police, drug and alcohol services and community groups, as needed.


Petra Salva, St Mungo’s Broadway Director of Outreach Services, said: “The starting point for our work is that rough sleeping is harmful and dangerous, and that no one should have to sleep rough in this day and age. We’ll be working with people to find out why they became homeless and to connect them with services to get them back on track, as needed, into housing, into health services and into work opportunities. We look forward to running this first service in the area, with local partners across the region.”


Rochford District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Community, Councillor Jo McPherson, said: “It truly is disturbing to think that 38 people are believed to be sleeping rough across the South Essex area, and we really need to do all we can to help these people get their lives back on track. We are pleased to commission this service as it will provide practical support to these vulnerable people, by supporting them as individuals and looking at the root causes behind their homelessness. The hope is that, by working together in partnership, we can make a lasting change in people’s lives.”




For further information or images, please contact Gemma Hollingshead, St Mungo’s Broadway, on 020 8762 5570 or email gemma.hollingshead@mungosbroadway.org.uk 


St Mungo’s Broadway which provides a bed and support to more than 2,500 people a night who are either homeless or at risk, and works to prevent homelessness, helping about 25,000 people a year. We support men and women through projects including emergency, hostel and supportive housing projects, advice services, specialist physical health, mental health and skills and work services. We work across London and the south of England including in Bristol, Reading, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Sussex, as well as managing projects including StreetLink and the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN).