Sadiq Khan is ‘tackling’ homelessness with charity football game

Sadiq Kahn says he’s 'tackling' London homelessness at charity football gamePA Media

Transcript

00:00You've got politicians here from Labour, from the Conservatives, from the Lib Dems, from Greens.

00:05You've got journalists, you've got those who work in the charity sector, those who work in the homelessness sector,

00:11coming together, not just to raise money for fantastic charities like Crisis at Christmas,

00:17but also everyone who's playing today is volunteering to do a shift.

00:20And I'm encouraging all Londoners to support us this Christmas.

00:25If you see somebody sleeping rough on the streets, go to the StreetLink website and let us know where they are.

00:29You can donate either on the website or go to one of our tap points across London.

00:35You can pop in to Crisis at Christmas or other charities and volunteer to support those of us tackling rough sleeping across our great city.

00:42It's heartbreaking to see across our country rough sleeping, homelessness on the rise.

00:47It's gone up hugely over the last 14 years. I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better.

00:55We've made huge progress in London over the course of the last eight years.

00:58We've taken off our streets more than 17,600 rough sleepers.

01:03More than three quarters have stayed off our streets, which is really encouraging.

01:07But we know there are a variety of reasons where people end up on the streets.

01:10We're working closely with the new government.

01:12I'm really pleased this new government has a target to reduce by half the amount of sleeping rough by the end of this decade.

01:19We've shown in the past, both during the pandemic and during the noughties, we can end rough sleeping.

01:24And I'm determined to first reduce and then end rough sleeping.