Charter launches to end rough sleeping in London
Yesterday, the Mayor of London launched the London Charter to End Rough Sleeping at an event in central London. This is a landmark moment whereby Londoners can join forces to end rough sleeping in the capital.
More than 100 organisations, including Your Place, have played a role in designing and developing the Charter, outlining a shared vision and purpose for addressing rough sleeping in London.
John Lowery, our Director of Frontline Services, attended the event, which was a momentous way of engaging with different communities in London and building a bigger movement towards ending rough sleeping.
The Rough Sleeping Charter outlines essential principles crucial for tackling homelessness and provides a roadmap for collective action. We encourage all who share our passion for ending homelessness to join us in sharing and signing the Charter, which you can do here. This can be signed as an individual, organisation or business, as we ensure that homelessness and rough sleeping are kept high on the public agenda.
Its key principles are:
Accepting people
Accepting that whilst people sleeping rough may have problems, they aren’t problem people.
Prevention
Ensuring help is in place to prevent people sleeping rough in the first place. We need to address the underlying causes and what traps people on the street.
Open-minded
Recognising that everyone rough sleeping is unique, and there should be meaningful options for all, regardless of immigration status.
Partnerships
Working with people who have experienced sleeping rough to develop and deliver solutions.
Helping people thrive
Putting in place the support, community links, and accommodation that people need to thrive.
Safety for everyone
Ensuring that people sleeping rough are safe from violence, abuse, theft and discrimination, and that they have the full protection of the law.
At Your Place, we hope to provide more details on how the Charter is actively working to end rough sleeping in due course.
