Skip to main content
Hello! We use cookies to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. Find out more.

To: Brighton & Hove City Council

Open Brighton's Homeless Shelters 365 days a year

01/02/18 - We Won!

On February the 1st, I presented full council with the 5,623 signatures of the ‘Open Brighton's Homeless Shelters 365 days a year’ petition and made an appeal to the room.

After some debate, there was then a vote on expanding the provision of services to those already homeless. In a stunning repeat of last year’s unanimous vote, the council have now agreed - without abstentions - to send an extra £25,000 for night shelters, bringing the total to £160,000. This is an amazing result, and you played a key part in it. I’m so proud of what we achieved, as you should be.

We the undersigned petition Brighton & Hove City Council to open homeless night shelters all year round (365 days).

In the meantime, we urge the council to conform to central government directions on opening SWEP shelters (Severe Weather Emergency Protocol). We understand this government requirement is not being met, with approximately £90,000 left unspent from previous years of SWEP budget.

Why is this important?

Rough sleeping has almost doubled in the last year, but, the number of supported beds for homeless people has plummeted. There is also not enough affordable accommodation for people to move on to, making matters worse.

As a result, despite the goal of no second night out, rough sleepers are waiting an average of 12 weeks before some form of accommodation is provided. We therefore urge BHCC to fund resources to expand the amount of support accommodation available for homeless people all year round, not just when temperatures hit 0c and ensure that the existing budget available is spent.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION BEFORE WEDNESDAY 31ST JAN 2018 so that we can take the signatures to the council at their next meeting.

Please share this with family, friends, work colleagues, school mates, members of your clubs etc - it really does have an impact.*

*My first petition to BHCC received 4,111 signatures. On the 6th April 2017 the Housing Committee passed the petition with 100% of the vote, which was then carried to the resources committee - who reserved £135,000 for night shelters. This funding has gone to finance a night shelter which the council opened on the 10th Dec 2017 in the Brighton Centre. Many thanks to all those who signed up, you made a big difference to some of the Brighton and Hove rough sleepers!
Brighton

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Updates

2018-04-03 16:20:43 +0100

Petition is successful with 5,659 signatures

2018-01-26 14:05:17 +0000

5,000 signatures reached

2017-12-19 10:00:15 +0000

1,000 signatures reached

2017-12-16 13:04:38 +0000

500 signatures reached

2017-12-15 15:38:20 +0000

100 signatures reached

2017-12-15 15:04:08 +0000

50 signatures reached

2017-12-15 14:56:34 +0000

25 signatures reached

2017-12-15 14:50:27 +0000

10 signatures reached