A homeless charity in Barnet said a £100 million Government strategy might not be enough to get people off the streets.

The Government yesterday announced its strategy to end rough sleeping by 2027.

The funding includes £30 million support for mental health and addiction services as well as £50 million on homes outside London to help house homeless people.

Homeless Action in Barnet (HAB) helps around 800 homeless people a year.

It provides homeless people with support and helps them to find accommodation as well as other education and training they are entitled to help them secure employment.

It welcomed the move but Jenaro Ty, senior support officer at the charity, said: “It’s better than nothing but it might not be enough.

“The best thing that can be done to tackle rough sleeping is promote the issues.

“To reduce rough sleeping, we need to get more knowledge of the problem out there.”

The charity also works to support people in tackling issues around mental health and addiction.

Around half of the £100 million will go towards homes outside of London for those who are ready to move on from hostels and around £30 million is due to be spent on mental health help and treatment for substance misuse.

Mr Ty said that drug use and mental health issues were problems he often saw working with homeless people at HAB – and said they needed a pathway to becoming productive members of society.

He said: “Homeless people often have drug and alcohol related problems, and this is contributes to mental health issues.”

“They can begin when someone loses their job and becomes stressed and depressed and then develops anxiety.

“We need to help them be independent and help them to get a job, if they have lost their jobs we need to create jobs and get them back to work.”

Homelessness charity Streets of London says around 4,750 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on any given night in England in 2017.

Tom Copley, the Labour London Assembly housing spokesperson, criticised the way the Government had been dealing with homelessness.

He said that the funding would be “insufficient” to deal with rough sleeping.

Mr Copley said: “The money announced today will be used to try to fire fight the dreadful and predictable consequences of the government’s welfare cuts, which have been the one of the drivers of rising homelessness.”

Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff said he is “pleased” the Government is taking the issue seriously and will help to tackle the “root causes” of rough sleeping.

He said: “One person without a roof over their head is one person too many so it is entirely right that the Government has committed to end rough sleeping by 2027.”