The Need

Official street counts find that there are 250 rough sleepers on London streets on any one night. Over the course of a year 3,500 people will sleep rough in London. This is almost half of the national total.

Street counts can underestimate the figures. The rough sleeping population is transient and many hide themselves away so aren’t found on street counts. Policies adopted by other local authorities mean that numbers in boroughs south of the river are increased disproportionally. The Manna Centre, based near London Bridge and one of our main referring agencies, gave advice to 305 people between December 2008 and April 2009 and, on average, fed 200 people per day. This gives some idea of the need.

In 2008-09, the Robes Project hosted a total of 59 guests over the four months it was open. Twenty-seven of our guests were permanently accommodated as a result of the project. Robes continues to be the only cold weather night shelter of its kind south of the Thames until Croydon.