Safer Leeds Street Support team comes together

Leeds City Council unveils new partnership approach to safeguarding and supporting those in need on the city’s streets as well as tackling antisocial behaviour often linked with street based lifestyles.

Like many other cities Leeds acknowledges that it needs to do more to support and safeguard those who find themselves on the streets. However this is a whole city issue – inappropriate street use can negatively impact on residents, businesses, visitors, commuters and most importantly street users themselves.

In response to these issues the council’s executive board will next week consider a report that sets out to establish a new Safer Leeds Street Support team. This team will bring together both new and existing resources to work more closely with and support those who rough sleep, beg and are involved in street based lifestyles and builds on the collaboration and good work that already exists.

The team will work with the most vulnerable street users to provide ongoing, tailored, wrap around, support to ensure they can move into accommodation where necessary and access appropriate services to enable them to move away from street life.

Cllr Debra Coupar, Executive Members for Communities said:

“As part of our commitment to being a compassionate city and building on existing service provision we are creating this multidisciplinary, team that will provide a range of services from mental health and addiction support to meeting housing and clinical health needs.

“We recognise that everyone is entitled to feel safe in the city centre, whether they’re shopping, visiting attractions, commuting to work or just hanging out with friends. The small but visible increase of vulnerable street users around the city centre is creating challenges to this that need a response”

The team will be based in the city centre from late September, however many aspects of the work to be undertaken by the team are already underway.

The full report can be found here: http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/mgChooseDocPack.aspx?ID=8192