The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has chosen not to grant us any additional winter funding this year. Despite this, we are confident we have a good winter offer in place for those who need it; in-borough, sub-regionally and making use of pan-London provision.
Winter Provisions
This winter, the Council will continue to fund the following support for Haringey residents who are rough sleeping:
Discretionary Accommodation: We will continue to offer discretionary emergency accommodation to people rough sleeping in Haringey with a connection to the borough. This will be in the one hotel we continue to occupy, where our staff are delivering on-site support. Access to emergency hotel accommodation is via the Haringey Street Outreach Team only.
Mulberry Junction: Mulberry Junction is open to all adults affected by or at risk of homelessness, Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm. Anyone who is rough sleeping can access healthcare, food, clothing and washing facilities at Mulberry Junction as well as specialist support from visiting services including HAGA, The Grove and Connected Communities. The service will close for the festive break this week (w/c 20th Dec) and will reopen on January 4th.
Haringey Homeless Health Inclusion Team (HHHID): The Council and the CCG jointly commissioned the multi-disciplinary mental and physical health service, HHHIT, in April 2020. Since then, the service has worked with hundreds of homeless patients providing a wide range of health interventions, Covid testing and vaccination, health promotion and awareness activity and case discussion support. The service works in hotels, at Mulberry Junction, Olive Morris Court and on the streets.
Immigration Advice: Our dedicated immigration advice service, provided by specialist organisation RAMFEL, is available to people rough sleeping or staying with us in emergency accommodation. The aim of this support is to help people resolve immigration issues which are currently preventing them from securing long-term accommodation and employment, such as complex EU Settled Status applications.
Hardship/Subsistence Support: For people who are rough sleeping or in emergency accommodation without access to income we are providing access to food, toiletries and clothing via the provision of clothes, vouchers, hot meals and signposting to local initiatives. This support is available via Mulberry Junction and our hotel accommodation only.
Food: The Housing-Related Support Service continues to fund Community Cook Up to provide food to people facing poverty and rough sleeping. We also have agreements with two local community groups, who make use of the kitchen at Mulberry Junction to prepare food for weekly street-based food and solidarity support. We also work with local organisation Feast and the Felix Project, who provide food for residents of our supported housing services, as well as support from the Pret Foundation who provide a daily supply of sandwiches and snacks.
The aim of these initiatives is both to help people remain safe from the immediate harms of Covid- 19 and to secure sustainable move-on accommodation that prevents them from returning to street homelessness. This range of provisions will offer people much needed respite from the weather and the risks of Covid-19, and importantly the time to offer holistic support around housing, health, immigration, employment and family and social networks.
SWEP
The Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) will be in operation as normal this Winter.
SWEP is triggered by the Greater London Authority (GLA) when the temperature is due to dip below 0 degrees Celsius. SWEP activation results in assertive efforts by our outreach team and Housing Needs service to ensure that everyone who is rough sleeping is offered emergency accommodation that night.
How People Can Access Accommodation and Support
Access to all our rough sleeping accommodation services is via the Haringey Street Outreach Team or the Homes for Haringey Housing Needs Service.
It is crucial that all of us – staff, stakeholders and members of the public – make use of Streetlink when we become aware of someone rough sleeping in the borough. This way we can make sure people are located, supported and offered accommodation as quickly as possible.
Streetlink
0300 500 0914
www.streetlink.org.uk
