London street sleepers doubled over 5 years

A new report says the number of rough sleepers on London’s streets has more than doubled in five years.

The report by Homeless Charity Crisis say the trend has deteriorated mainly due to a QUOTE “toxic mix” of cuts, government failure and a lack of support for people arriving from EU countries.

According to the report, the number of people sleeping on the capital’s streets has risen to more than 7,500 in 2015, up from 3,673 in 2009-10. Meanwhile, th number of rough sleepers across England has also risen, though the problem is more acute in London.

The Homeless Charity Crisis urged for an immediate action at the national and EU level.

“Worryingly … the number of people who’ve previously slept rough and are returning to the streets is rising,” said Howard Sinclair, the chief executive of the homelessness charity St Mungo’s Broadway.

The report comes as London’s housing crisis has deepened in recent years.

Last week, a study revealed that homelessness was rising faster among minority ethnic communities in the UK. The study said those suffering from the problem are disproportionately from black and Asian communities.

Nearly 69-thousand of British families had to stay in bed-and-breakfast lodging and other temporary housing between July and September. That’s the highest number in a three-month period since the 2008 financial crash. Councils across Britain accepted about 15-thousand new applications for homelessness in the same time span, which is more than any time in the past eight years.

Earlier, the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn called the soaring homelessness in the country a disgrace and blamed the Tory government’s austerity policies for the deteriorating problem.