§ Mr. HobanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of homeless people who are drug addicts. [85709]
§ Mr. Bob Ainsworth[holding answer 9 December 2002]: An assessment of the link is made regularly with updated research conducted through various sources. The Government's Rough Sleepers Unit has succeeded in reducing the numbers sleeping rough on any one night by two-thirds. This has however resulted in the percentage of those who are hardest to help—drug-using homeless people—rising, due to drug-using homeless being left on the streets whilst others can be more easily accommodated.
By July 2002, research by the charity Crisis, supported by the Home Office, found that 83 per cent of single homeless people were drug users. Other studies confirm that among those remaining single rough sleepers, drug misuse problems are of this level of magnitude—between 50 and 80 per cent.
In awareness of this linkage, much work has been done to improve the delivery of drug services to homeless people. On 4 December 2002 the Home Office and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister jointly published new guidance entitled "Drug Services for Homeless People: a good practice handbook" (published on the Government website www.drugs.gov.uk) which is aimed at addressing these figures through mainstream and specialised drug services.