World Homeless Day - St Mungo’s street count

Today is World Homeless Day, which is about advocating for improved policies to prevent homelessness and to raise awareness about the needs of people who currently experience homelessness. A couple of weeks ago I joined our charity partner St Mungo's for one of their regular street counts in Bristol. This blog is a bit about my experience and what I learnt doing that alongside an experienced team, which I hope will help to raise awareness of St Mungo's essential work. 

St Mungo's is one of the largest providers of outreach services for people sleeping rough in England. They work in nine different places around the UK, including Bristol, and provide around 160 different services supporting 23,827 people who were experiencing or at risk of homelessness across the year. These services range from training and gardening programmes to emergency accommodation and mental health projects. In Bristol, St Mungo's offers 18 services to support individuals at each stage of homelessness. 

On Friday 13 September, I volunteered with St Mungo's to help with one of their street counts via their outreach service. The street count takes place in Bristol every two months. The street count is part of their rough sleeping prevention programme, which experienced outreach workers lead to get a snapshot of the numbers sleeping rough on the street. 

The count involves between 20 – 25 staff and volunteers to make it happen, and St Mungo's lead on it in Bristol. Practices vary across the country – some local authorities manage the count, which can be outreach like St Mungo's or more 'desk-based' exercises using local intel – particularly for places with smaller numbers or broader, more rural areas to cover.  

On the day of the count, we met at St Mungo's office in the early hours of Friday morning - around 4:30 am. We were split into groups of nine. There were different routes across all parts of the city. Mine focused on Easton, Stapleton, and Eastville. The locations were chosen as they covered known locations where rough sleepers were previously identified or were likely to be. 

When we found someone sleeping rough, the experienced St Mungo's teams reached out to offer support and talk to them about the different St Mungo's services that they could access or use. Sometimes, the offer of help is taken up; sometimes, it takes significant time to build up trust to get the person sleeping rough to reach out and access support.  

The important data that St Mungo's collects at every street count is crucial. It is used to corroborate existing records and cross-reference St Mungo's results with other charities working in the sector. This count in Bristol feeds into the national figures of people who are rough sleeping 'on one given night. It's a vital process that helps in understanding and addressing the issue of homelessness. 

The street count identified 90 people in total that night sleeping rough in Bristol including 14 women, 74 men, one non-binary person and one unknown. Rough sleeping is rising across the country, particularly in Bristol, so the team has been particularly busy recently. In the most recent government stats, the number of people sleeping rough has risen 27%. 

The street count is a concentrated version of what the St Mungo’s team does daily. This means a team starts at 6am every weekday and at 7am most weekends.  They also run late shifts – every shift is busy and requires lots of follow-up from the team to provide the individual support that is needed. Their dedication and hard work is really inspiring. 

St Mungo's ethos is that everyone deserves a place to call home. They offer a support system to those who are not fortunate to have one, where individuals can focus on fulfilling their ambitions in a safe environment. They provide a bed and support to more than 3,150 people a night who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. Their services provide hope and comfort, from the first night on the street to the first day at a new job, all while ensuring stable accommodation.

If you want to find out more or donate - go to the St Mungo’s website.

Also, if you see someone who you think is sleeping rough and want to connect them to support services like St Mungo’s you can use Street Link.