Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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RECENT TWEETS

Move-ons and street counts again

May 21 2009
Rough sleepers warned to leave the borough before the latest Westminster count An official street count in the Westminster area last month was apparently preceded by police warnings to rough sleepers to move out of the borough. This pattern, reported before in The Pavement, seems to emerge every time authorities count the number of people who sleep on the streets. In the middle of March, a reader who was sleeping in the West End said he was woken up by police officers at 1.30am; they told him to move out of the area until the next night. The man, who did not want to be named, told The Pavement: "There were a lot of people sleeping in the area, and they were all told to go and stay out during the night of the head count. They do this every time there is a head count." An industry source told The Pavement: "Perhaps this says a lot about the powerless situation homeless people find themselves in." Westminster City Council confirmed that the street count had been conducted on 19th March. A spokesperson said: "A provisional collation of this count shows that there are currently 89 rough sleepers and a further 22 A8/A2 nationals" and added that the figures, which would be confirmed later, were "a further reduction since the last count and the lowest figure recorded". A previous official count in Westminster last September was "disappointing", according to the spokesperson, with 105 people sleeping rough on the streets of Westminster, plus 15 more from A10 countries. The council said it would strive to reduce the number. Rough sleepers in Westminster are counted at least three times a year, and the figures are reported back to the Department Communities and Local Government. Last month, a street count was also carried out in the borough of Camden. A council spokesperson said: "The recent annual borough-wide rough sleeping count found four people sleeping rough. Three of these were unknown to the council's Safer Streets Team (SST), which will work with the individuals to ascertain their circumstances and decide how they can best be helped."
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