Lewisham Council has set out its draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2026-2031, shifting focus from crisis management towards prevention.
Bench Outreach, a charity which has supported homeless people in Lewisham for more than 25 years, welcomed the approach, emphasising the need for early intervention, accessible advice and joined-up support.
CEO Belinda Wallace said: “What I like about the strategy is it’s more geared towards prevention.
“Prevention only works if people can access the right support early enough, and I think it’s not just support. It’s housing, it’s health, it’s welfare and benefits. It’s a whole joined-up system working together.”
The draft strategy claims a ‘homelessness emergency’ in Lewisham, estimating that one in every 53 Lewisham residents is either rough sleeping or living in temporary accommodation, with families with children accounting for 80 per cent of those affected.
Wallace said support needs to reach people earlier by identifying those at risk.
“Early intervention starts with communication in the right places and asking the right questions,” she said.
“I think it starts with maybe going to schools, speaking to schools, looking at families, looking at people that potentially might come up on your radar due to certain things that they might have been through as a family, and just really looking at tailoring support as opposed to a one-size-fits-all.”
Lewisham council’s strategy specifically identifies information and advice as key preventative measures. The draft states: “Homelessness legislation is complex, and homeless households are too often left without adequate information to understand their rights and make decisions about their housing options.”
That lack of information was familiar to James, 47, who asked for his surname to be withheld, and experienced homelessness before Bench Outreach helped him find housing.
He praised the charity for the relationships it builds with people experiencing homelessness.
“They’ve always been there when I’ve needed [them], when I’ve been in right trouble. They’ve never ever shut the door on me,” he said.
When asked what one thing he would change to tackle homelessness in Lewisham, James said he would make it easier for people to understand how to access housing.
“I’d make people aware of a procedure that you could follow to get into social housing. There’s no real recipe, I suppose, to move forward,” he said.
“The people that need it most are not really capable of finding out for themselves.”
His experience echoes concerns raised during the council’s consultation, with one respondent saying: “A lot of information about the homelessness system is passed around by word of mouth, between homeless people.
“Signposting is mostly a list of services, and a lot of them have closed or have the wrong information, staff don’t always know what services are out there.”
The consultation on Lewisham’s draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy closes on 22 September.
Featured image credit: Bench Outreach
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