The Government’s claim that it has significantly reduced the number of people sleeping on the streets has been questioned by some of those who carried out the surveys into the extent of the problem.
Last week the Rough Sleepers’ Unit announced that the total had fallen by 71 per cent since the initiative was launched in 1998. The RSU says there are now around 530 sleeping rough with the largest number - 264 - in London. In England’s second city, Birmingham, the number was said to be just two.
The figures have been questioned by a number of charities and workers with the homeless who’ve questioned the counting methodology. Some people have also accused the RSU of manipulating the figures by targeting rough sleepers in the days leading up the final street count.
All the accusations have been rejected by Louise Casey, the head of the RSU. She blamed a few malcontents who were jealous of the RSU’s success.
But 35 outreach workers who actually took part in the street count in Central London have now used their union to make serious accusations against RSU staff who accompanied them on the night.
They’ve issued a statement through the local Transport and General Workers’ Union branch claiming that the figures for London had been "massaged down"
The statement claimed: "As the people responsible for working with London’s street homeless and for carrying out the counts, they (the outreach workers) were disgusted to be pressurised into collaborating with this shabby practice."
They claimed that RSU workers paid for rough sleepers to stay in bed and breakfast accommodation on the night of the count so they wouldn’t register in the final figures and that staff from the unit also pressured them into lowering their count numbers.
Other claims include allegations that outreach workers were told not to include certain rough sleepers if they were not bedded down - even if they were well known to them as living on the streets. Experienced outreach workers say they were also prevented from visiting areas they knew to be occupied by rough sleepers on the grounds of health and safety.
Some hostels were also said to have made special efforts to bring in rough sleepers on the night of the count, even to the extent of putting them up in beds in dining rooms and TV rooms.
The statement concluded: "...organisations receiving RSU funding, our employers, have done nothing to challenge these shameful practices and have in some cases actively complied."
Miss Casey again dismissed the claims as being based on "myth" and said the accusations cast a slur on hundreds of workers who’d made a real difference to the number of rough sleepers living on out streets.
