Nottingham councillors have warned against giving rough sleepers money to help the council and charities effectively support people.
According to Nottingham City Council’s homelessness strategy, published towards the end of 2024, 739 different people were found rough sleeping in the city last year, while the annual street count shows an average of 56 people have been found sleeping rough each night.
However, those working to tackle the problem have previously said members of the public often incorrectly believe people who are begging and those who are rough sleeping are all part of one group.
Genuine rough sleepers often hide away for safety and warmth, while people can utilise begging – even if housed – for drug- and alcohol-related dependencies.
Giving money can therefore trap them in a cycle or put people at risk of manipulation and abuse by gangs.
A message to the public warning of the dangers was issued at a council Executive Board meeting on Tuesday (22 July).
Council leader Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab) said: “There are some people who genuinely are rough sleepers and mental health plays a part in things, but there are other people who pretend to be homeless, or rough sleeping, and they literally set up camp at 5–6am to fund addiction and things like that.
“What kind of message do we have for people like that – is money the best thing to give? At the train station, for example, there are people rough sleeping, and there are gangs around there.”
Cllr Jay Hayes (Lab), executive member for housing, said: “Where we have people who genuinely aren’t homeless and do have accommodation, we are trying to figure out why they are coming out – whether that is addiction, then we need to look at that.
“My message to people is not to give homeless people any money. There are a number of charities, there are street homeless points across the city that people can donate to, and there is also the Framework Outreach Team that people can call.”
Contactless payment points were set up across the city as part of the Nottingham Street Aid initiative in 2023, as a way to give people a more reliable, simple and safe way of donating money directly to people in need of support.
Under the project, led by Nottingham Street Aid, contactless payment points have since been set up across the city and West Bridgford, including at the Victoria Centre and Theatre Royal.
The money donated goes into a fund managed by the Notts Community Foundation, which is then made available for charities across Nottingham, which can submit bids to the fund.
The message comes as the council accepted £3,152,521 from the Government’s Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to help tackle homelessness.
During the meeting, a further £2.6 million was accepted for rough sleeping prevention, and £444,000 in Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme funding.
