Following a united campaign with other organisations across the sector, a number of plans to criminalise homelessness have been dropped from the Criminal Justice Bill.
In response to the amendments, Sean Palmer, Executive Director of Transformation said:
“We welcome the government removing some of the most harmful proposals in the Criminal Justice Bill following pressure from a range of organisations and cross-party MPs to do so.
The Bill still does too much to vilify and criminalise people who rough sleep and the Government’s approach does too little to tackle the causes of homelessness.
The dramatic increases in the number of people who are rough sleeping, the pressure on local authority budgets and the funding cliff edge that we face for the Rough Sleeping Initiative, mean the support services that the proposed guidance will require people to be directed to are already overwhelmed and risk, in some areas, not existing unless the government takes action to protect and increase funding. We need that commitment now to turn the tide on the current crisis.”
