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Dramatic Rise In Number Of People Sleeping On Streets In UK

The number of homeless people sleeping on the streets across England has doubled since 2010. 3,569 people are sleeping rough on any one night, which is a 30% increase compared to the last year’s figure, new data shows. Press TV reports: “Scandalous” and “shocking,” were how British charities described the figure urging the government for new measure to deal with the situation. “There are practical and immediate measures the government can take to tackle rough sleeping and other forms of homelessness”, said Crisis, a charity working for homeless. The situation in the British capital remains chaotic where a snapshot count last year found 940 people sleeping on the streets with the area around Westminster having the highest. In London, 43% of people sleeping rough are from the UK, 36% are from central and eastern Europe, with 18% of the total from Romania. The last figure includes people with mental health problems that have tripled in London from 711 in 2009-10 to 2,343, in 2014-15. It says that four in 10 rough sleepers now are mentally ill. In a recent survey conducted by the charity St Mungo, 62% of the homelessness professionals said they had noticed an increase in the number [...]