Liverpool City Centre support project is helping people off the streets

A pioneering project that is helping to reduce the number of rough sleepers, street drinkers and people begging in Liverpool City Centre has been given the green light for another year. In its 1st year of operation, the Liverpool Street Lifestyles Pilot (SLP) has supported almost 40 people to achieve some very positive outcomes; reducing their rough sleeping by 80%, cut begging by 60 % and street drinking by 79%.

In 12 months the SLP has:-

► Worked with 39 people who were rough sleeping, drinking and begging.

► 31 of these were found to either be using the Labre House night hub or were rough sleeping.

► 35 people were helped to find accommodation.

► 32 of these remain in the accommodation provided for them.

Thanks to its success, the project will continue for another year.

The SLP began in July 2018 as a partnership between:- Liverpool City Council, Merseyside Police, The Whitechapel Centre (the rough sleeper support charity) and the:- 'Drugs and Alcohol Service Addaction.'

Chief Executive of The Whitechapel Centre, David Carter said:- "The success of SLP is the result of an effective partnership approach. We are working with Addaction, LCC and Police, taking services on to the street, delivering intensive support and access to treatment for some of the most excluded people on the streets. This approach is helping people achieve long term change."

Working with small groups of people who live 'street lifestyles' the multi agency team was set up to help get them off the streets into accommodation and to support those who need help in tackling drug and alcohol addictions.

The Council and its partners provide a wide range of support services for people facing homelessness and rough sleeping.

In Liverpool, the Council spends more than ₤11m each year on a range of services to prevent and tackle homelessness. The Housing Options Service supports up to 6,000 people and families each year to reduce their risk of homelessness. The Council also funds more than 700 temporary accommodation spaces and provides round-the-clock help for rough sleepers under the Always Room Inside banner.

Liverpool City Council Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Lynnie Hinnigan, said:- "The Street Lifestyles Pilot has been a real success story for the city of Liverpool and one that we are pleased to see continue. By working with small groups of vulnerable people the team has been able to build up trusting relationships and offer support tailored to people's individual needs. The Council and its partners have pledged that no 1 needs to sleep rough on the streets of Liverpool and through our Always Room Inside campaign we have delivered on this. For the future, we need to look at the ways we can work together to identify issues early enough to prevent people from rough sleeping in the 1st place. The continued work of the Street Lifestyles team over the next 12 months will be invaluable in achieving this."

However, there were concerns that a small number of people were still living on the streets and begging to fund a drug or alcohol addiction. All the people the SLP team has worked with had substance misuse issues and were offered support by the specialist addiction worker. During the 1st year of operation, the number of people getting support for their substance misuse issues has increased from 8% to 64%.

Merseyside Police's Area Commander for Liverpool, Superintendent Diane Pownall, said:- "For this project to be extended for another year is really good news for all of us who work in partnership to tackle some of the key issues on the streets of Liverpool City Centre. As winter approaches, this work will become even more vital in ensuring that there are sufficient measures in place to ensure that nobody needs to sleep on the streets of Liverpool. We will always look to support vulnerable people in Liverpool to turn their lives around and provide ways to support their welfare and health needs, and assist in providing accommodation organised by support services. LSP creates clearer pathways away from begging, homelessness and street drinking. But I must also emphasise that Merseyside Police will not tolerate any anti social behaviour or criminality, including aggressive begging and street drinking, which can and do cause concern to members of our residential and business communities."

Throughout the project, the team was supported by workers from Liverpool Street Scene Ltd. who work to clean up City Centre areas once the people living street lifestyles had accepted the help offered to them. The team removed more than 3,700 'sharps' (syringes) and 92 abandoned tents from the highway. Given the initial success of the project, the partners behind the Street Lifestyles Pilot have agreed to extend the work of the team for another 12 months.

Did you know?

► The Council's Labre House hub provides emergency overnight accommodation for anyone sleeping rough on the streets of the City.

► 1,286 people have been prevented from rough sleeping and kept safe in Labre House in 2018/19.

► This year the Council's outreach team identified 899 instances of rough sleeping.

► A total of 317 people who were rough sleeping have been brought inside.

► In 2018/19; 6,069 households contacted the Council's Housing Options Service a total of 7,049 times for housing support.

► 737 households were prevented from becoming homeless.

► The overall trend for homelessness is increasing with the Housing Options Service seeing a 34 % increase in contacts from residents.

ANOTHER key manufacturing milestone has been met in the build of the new trains for the Merseyrail network. The 1st new train has been making its way to a test track in Germany for dynamic testing, following successful static testing and 'sign off' at Stadler's factory on 2 October 2019.  This will see the train travel up to speeds of 75 mph, with all dynamic aspects such as braking point and electromagnetic radiation thoroughly tested.

Most of the testing is being undertaken at an established railway testing centre in Wildenrath to minimise the need for testing and any associated disruption on the Merseyrail network itself. The test track focus is on train on track performance which requires the operational and mechanical elements of the train to be fully functional, while some on-board cosmetic elements are yet to be completed.

The 1st unit should arrive in the UK in December and will be stabled at Kirkdale as a base for further testing and to allow for driver training. The trains will begin to be rolled out into passenger service from 2020.

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor for the Liverpool City Region, said:- "I'm pleased to see us moving another step closer to rolling out state of the art, accessible, publicly-owned trains on our network. The new trains are an important part of my plans to deliver a London style transport network for the Liverpool City Region and I can't wait to see them in service from next year."

David Powell, the Liverpool City Region's new Trains Programme Director, added:- "With each engineering milestone we're getting closer to seeing these trains on our network. These trains are not only being keenly awaited by people in our City Region, but also by rail experts, aware of how game changing these trains are for the industry."

Matthias Hämmerle, project manager for Stadler, commented:- "These trains for the Liverpool City Region, are not 'off the shelf,' but tailored to a very specific brief. Securing the acceptance of static testing for the 1st assembled train is a proud day for both our customer and everyone else involved. We look forward to continued working with our partners in Liverpool on the next stages of the project".

Andy Heath from Merseyrail added:- "This is a really significant stage in the process where trains are now ready to undergo testing before they start to make their way over to Liverpool. These trains, with pioneering technology and features throughout, will transform the rail offering in the Liverpool City Region and we look forward to our passengers experiencing these state of the art trains from 2020."