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19 May 2008 - Rough sleeping in Stockport

Rough sleeping in Stockport.

Over the last few months The Wellspring has noticed a rise in the number of people sleeping rough on our streets. The Wellspring estimates that around 30 - 50 people are currently rough sleeping in Stockport. This figure is much higher that the offical goverment figure for the area of 1. This could be due to the way in which rough sleeper statistics are collected. To be counted as a rough sleeper in the offical rough sleepers count a person must be asleep under the stars when the count comes round. So if you are rough sleeping in the bus station you cant be counted as you have some cover over your head. If your not asleep when the count comes round then you cant be counted as a rough sleeper. Most Homeless people who have a understanding and knowledge of the streets do not sleep in the town centre or anywhere near it, however rough sleeper counts only count people in the town centre ! As we all know our weather is not the best in the world either. If you had to sleep rough for a night when it was raining, would you find some kind of cover like a bridge, shop doorway ? if so then you would not be counted in the rough sleepers count.

Homeless people have been murdered on the streets of Stockport in recent times, others have got off lightly by being set on fire by people who find doing these kind of things amusing. The town centre can be a very dangerous place to sleep rough. See BBC news link

No offical figures take "sofa surfers" into account. Sofa surfing is a modern term for somebody who is sleeping on somebodys floor or sofa, these people are still Homeless in the same way as somebody sleeping in the bus station is.

The Wellspring activly engages with people who are rough sleeping on the streets of Stockport. As well as opening everyday of the year The Wellspring now offers an addtional service. From 10am every day the project workers are availble to give advice and support to anyone who needs it. The project workers will endevour to match a persons needs to a project that will provide support to meet those needs, for instance a person sleeping rough with a drug problem needs to be able to get some support to tackle the drug issue as well as providing them with housing.

Project workers at The Wellspring often engage with Homeless people directly on the streets. The Wellspring staff visit serveral known rough sleeper spots in Stockport reguarly. The Wellspring would like to reach out to the many Homeless people who do not use The Wellspring.

The Wellspring is committed to providing services to Homeless and Disadvantaged people in Stockport everyday of the year.

Once The Wellspring moves to new premises, the charity will need to look to the future and to what we would like to do next, one possibility is that The Wellspring will make the step up to provide its own accomodation to homeless people.