First there was the "Drug Tsar". Now Britain is set to get its very own "Streets Tsar". In a move to clear the doorways and pavements of Britain's cities of homeless men and women, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has announced a £145 million project - part old money, part new - to slash the homeless figures by two-thirds within four years. Mr Blair says the sight of someone sleeping rough, huddled in a doorway and wrapped up in a blanket (if they're lucky), is "one of the most potent symbols of social exclusion in Britain today. This is no cosmetic street cleaning but a real chance to deal with the problem once and for all. We can't tolerate a situation where the odds seem to be stacked against the most vulnerable."
The government's initiative comes after a report by Downing Street's Social Exclusion Unit which has estimated that as many as 10,000 people drift in and out of homelessness during the year, with an estimated 2,000 people sleeping rough on the streets of England every night.
The report's recommendations include appointing a streets tsar in London, which predictably has the highest concentration of homeless people, to bring the number below 100 by 2002, and co-ordinate a similar programme in Britain's other major cities in Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol. The homeless charity, Shelter, is overwhelmingly in favour of the project, welcoming the co-ordinated strategy as a step in the right direction.
"This project has Ministerial backing which is very welcome and the targets that have been set by the government are realistic and we believe we can meet them," according to Shelter's press office.
However, the line that has caused raised eyebrows at Shelter is the prospect of a change in the law to "coerce" the homeless off the streets if the government's targets are not met. This would leave the door open to allow police officers to load the homeless into the back of a van if they do not take up places in local hostels, but might prove a hard sell for any government.
This government says it does not have plans to change the law to make it an offence to sleep on the streets, but it has warned that anyone refusing to take up accommodation in a hostel could be forced off the streets. It has not worked in the past and it is not the way to tackle the problem, says Shelter. Louise Casey, Shelter's deputy director of housing, has also warned that coercion is not the preferred option: "Coercion doesn't work. People just hide in different doorways." The apparently tough line on the homeless problem has also alarmed the Conservatives. Their environment spokesman, Richard Ottoway, said this week there was a danger of exaggerating the problem: "We are against coercion. We don't think it is the right approach." The Conservatives have pointed to the largely successful Rough Sleepers Initiative, which was launched under their supervision and has resettled about 4,500 people throughout Britain.
The Labour Party's homeless project is also linked with the government's New Deal initiative on employment. Once the New Deal is in place, the government has put forward the proposal that participation in the programme, whereby the homeless will receive a Jobseekers Allowance of £39.85, might be a condition of taking up hostel accommodation. The wisdom of the idea has been questioned by the homeless charity, Crisis, which says the first priority for the homeless is finding somewhere to live and looking for a job is secondary to that.
The profile of the homeless is increasingly complex with ex-prisoners, soldiers and young men and women from broken homes making up the largest proportion of the figures. Only five per cent of homeless people live and sleep on the streets by choice. It is easy to see, however, that the numbers of men and women we pass on the way into the office, rummaging through dustbins or holding cardboard signs asking for a few pennies, have increased in recent years.
For prisoners approaching the end of their sentences, the probation service operates a resettlement programme designed to prepare the prisoner for life on the outside. The armed services also run a programme for soldiers, sailors and members of the RAF when they go back to Civvy Street, since about 25 per cent of those living on the streets are former members.
Whatever success the government initiative claims, there will still be people on the streets who want to stay there. Just as travellers don't want to live in neat little houses, many homeless people view the prospect of being forced to live in a hostel as a prison sentence.
As one homeless man said this week: "The hostels are dirty; there are three or four people in a room and the staff really look down on you. The rules are bad enough, but why should these people make you feel inferior just because you are homeless?"