Pressure on to get homeless people off streets and into work.

The end of rough sleeping must not result in homeless people entering into long periods of benefit dependency.The government made it crystal clear last week that No one left out, the strategy to end rough sleeping by 2012, must be accompanied by employment opportunities for everyone it helps.

In fact, its stated goal is for ‘the majority of adults who have slept rough to move into work within a year of them coming off the streets’.

Alongside extending and flagging up existing good practice, regional Jobcentre Plus managers will be told to link more homelessness organisations into their work programmes.This means options such as work trials and access to ‘pre-employment training’ should become more readily available to rough sleepers.

Hostels will also be encouraged to be much more proactive in helping homeless people find work – again, working alongside Jobcentre Plus staff. The plan states that at the moment many hostel residents are simply ‘unaware of in-work support’.

‘We want to test new approaches and pathways, including development of a new style of hostel geared towards supporting and stabilising people in employment,’ it continues.

‘These hostels should be a stepping stone, enabling residents to move on from rough sleeping into work or into alternative housing pathways.’

The plan will also encourage employers to take on people who have slept rough.

But several homelessness charities have warned that the strategy could have some major problems.

Grant Everitt, who runs Shelter’s street homelessness project, said there was a ‘danger that there is too much pressure to get people into work’. ‘For most people, going into work right now is not a realistic option,’ he said.

Mark Grant, deputy chief executive of homelessness charity Broadway, agreed. Many rough sleepers would need a lot of support before they were able to take up full employment opportunities, he suggested.

About 85 per cent want to work, but the rest are a long way from working,’ he said.

The current economic downturn might also make things much more difficult, he added. ‘When we get to an economic recession where do you put your focus? Those who take longer to get back to work? And the picture might be worse for migrants who find themselves unemployed and sleeping rough, some suggested.

A spokesperson for Westminster Council said the plan failed to address the ‘plight of new migrants and other groups such as failed asylum seekers, who have no recourse to public funds’.

Such groups made up a third of the people sleeping rough on its streets each night, he said.

But Communities and Local Government department rough sleeping advisor Neil Moreland said the strategy made it clear the government would not ‘just rely on counts’ but use the information collected to tackle wider issues – like unemployment and access to services. ‘The right kind of data will inform what we do,’ he said. Http://Hislovestreethotel.com/