THERE has been a big drop in the number of rough sleepers in Sandwell over the last year, but the Dudley number has stayed the same.

Overall the latest government ‘snapshot’ of rough sleeping has shown a 62% reduction across the West Midlands.

Ironically, Covid has played a big part in the cut, but experts are worried things could get worse again as the economic effects of the pandemic work their way through.

From 115 rough sleepers in 2019, the figure for the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) dropped to 44 in 2020.

The biggest falls are in Birmingham, where rough sleepers from across the region are known to congregate. Here the fall was from from 52 to 19.

In Sandwell the number dropped from 10 to 4.

In Dudley the 2019 figure was just four, the lowest of the seven local council areas across the West Midlands, and it remained at that in 2020.

But Dudley is no longer the lowest. Solihull had just 1 rough sleeper in 2020, while Dudley was joined by Sandwell and Walsall on four.

The total of 44 across the region is the lowest number for 10 years.

The drive to bring down rough sleeping was helped in 2020 by the pandemic, which put a new focus on the problem and prompted new government money.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street pointed to £2.88m for the area from the government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative; plus £8.97m through initiatives such as the Next Steps Accommodation Programme, Protect Programme and Protect Plus Programme which aim to build on earlier work in the pandemic to provide longer term accommodation for former rough sleepers.

He praised partnership working across the region but Cllr Sharon Thompson, chair of the WMCA Homelessness Taskforce Members Advisory Group, warned: “We are acutely aware that we haven’t yet seen the full financial and housing impacts of Covid-19. We need a continued commitment from government to direct resources at preventing homelessness, so helping people long before they reach crisis or the streets.”

Residents can let local authorities know about anybody who they think may be rough sleeping by contacting StreetLink