The number of rough sleepers in one London borough has leapt by 647%. What’s gone improper?Walking back from the park early on Monday morning I counted three people sleeping in a hedge along the railway tracks that lead from Euston station,and quickly forgot about it. Five years ago the sight would have been very strange. Now, every morning on the way to work I walk past several people asleep beneath railway bridges, or zipped up in tents along the canal,packed inside cardboard boxes in shop doorways or hidden beneath damp, muddy duvets on park benches. It is so routine that I forget to be shocked.
Rough sleeping in the north London borough of Camden has increased by 647%, or according to government figures released on Thursday. The enormous rise is accounted for in part by an official underestimate of the problem final year,but no one who lives here will be surprised to see it confirmed that there has been a sharp jump in the numbers of people sleeping on the streets.
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Source: guardian.co.uk