TOM CLARK
Sleeping bags, tents and shivering bodies are increasingly evident on our streets. Tallying up people who have, almost by defi nition, fallen through the system is inherently imprecise. But offi cial fi gures point to a 170 per cent rise in rough sleeping since austerity bit—reversing a decade of progress before the recession. The numbers were calculated diff erently then, but the trend was the opposite—sharply downwards.
Properly targeted policies can make a big diff erence to rough sleeping, because the absolute numbers involved are modest. Rough sleeping is only ever the visible tip of a homelessness iceberg, which also includes many others who rely on forms of temporary shelter—pay-by-theevening hostels, friends’ sofas or emergency digs provided by councils.