Somewhere safe to stay for rough sleepers

Following the news on Friday that we’d been successful in securing a second hotel to provide people sleeping rough with a safe place to stay, our outreach service has been busy in the city contacting people to help them move off the streets.

The outreach service, St Mungo’s, are working with Arch Healthcare to make sure everyone is checked for symptoms before allocating them an appropriate place to stay. 

Volunteers co-ordinated by the council with support from St Mungo’s, The Passage and Galvanise are also going out delivering more than 200 parcels of food and water every day for anyone still on the streets and those now accommodated.

So far, we’ve been able to help around 90 people move off the streets and anticipate there are around 50 more who need accommodation. We’re providing food and support for everyone in the accommodation.

Over the next few days, we’ll be prioritising efforts on getting all those people into safe accommodation.

If you see anyone rough sleeping, you can help us by contacting our street outreach service St Mungo’s by emailing BrightonSOS@mungos.org. The Streetlink service is currently very busy, so we’re asking people to contact St Mungo’s directly this week.

We’re also working very hard to make more accommodation available to increase and improve the support on offer. We hope to secure these extra rooms in the next few days.

It’s vital for us to work with partners to be able to provide safe accommodation, support and food and we’ve been reaching out to work with every service supporting rough sleepers in the city.

It’s been inspiring to see so many organisations come together to provide this incredible response so quickly.

I send my heartfelt thanks to everyone who is part of this coordinated, caring and compassionate response, especially all the volunteers. 

This co-operation and collaboration is making a huge difference. It is saving lives. 

Councillor Gill Williams

Chair of Housing