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There seems to be a big increase in the number of people sleeping rough. Cannot some of the many unoccupied houses in London be used to provide temporary accomodation and hostels.

I suspect it's getting worse. The gentrification of London via things like off-plan sales amounts to social cleansing. Some who are pressured to move away will return to the places they know & end up homeless in the places they know. Homelessness can kill.

Rough Sleeping in London on the whole is a mental health issue, and should be dealt with primarily by those charities and others who have direct understanding of these complexities.

It's a lot worse. I recently counted 15 rough sleepers along the Strand and 5 in the area around Victoria Station on the same night.

In my experience, rough sleeping is as bad now as it was in the latter Thatcher years. ASBOs seem to have gone the way of the dodo. Yes, I agree that a lot of rough sleepers. are dealing with mental health issues, but there are also a lot of drug (including alcohol) user issues creating rough sleeping. The fact is that multiple governments have refused to re-examine some of the main causes of rough sleeping, such as a more reasonable and sympathetic approach to drug users; treatment rather than punishment; and more, much much more social housing.

This is a very opportune survey, I discovered a few days ago that a friend of over 40 years was sleeping rough, well over pension age. I managed to make contact and they are now staying with me. I have tried an initial private meeting with the local council, I will after all be discussing his personal data, but no I must attend an open session which as a disabled man is hard to do in the first place, but I did not know who to contact about someone that originally lived in the next constituency.
This needs to be delicately handled and I have not been impressed by RUT response. I cannot conduct it over my home phone, in front of my guest who has pride, the cause of their problems, local social services, who I might have contacted, hide behind locked doors and only speak via the phone, again not possible.
It hurts me to remain seated/standing for long periods, making the journey itself is painful. The ability to be able to actually see someone and discuss the matter, privately, is paramount and so far this council have been less than helpful, if this is the London wide attitude when it comes to helping anyone that has had a period of depression after loosing their partner and as a result of that their home then I dispair that we will ever help them. It needs a major sea change in the attitude of permanent managers and directors who have devised and implemented these contact arrangements, perhaps they should try being on the other side for a month and maybe they will change systems and proceedures to start treating people that really badly need help. To add to it I am probably jeopodising my own tenancy by have, a non paying, long term guest until such time as I can help him get back on his feet, I couldn't be callous a leave a 68 year old, wearing a terminator style harness while waiting for an hip operation appointment, how long?, to correct a prior bodged operation, on the streets. Every part of his previous council along with the NHS have just piled on the agony.

The questions about begging were not open enough, when I gave some money to an homeless guy, it wasn't because he was begging, it was because I knew of his history, not related to my other post today. His wife divorced him, kept the house and he was on the streets, he did his best to keep himself well presented, but at a cost to his poverty level benefit and I just happened to see him one night, got chatting and dropped into the conversation about eating that Sunday, he casually replied no so I gave him a £10 to get himself something, he wasn't one the the alcho's which wouldn't have got it, he was just a pleasant young man that through no fault of his own was deemed fit enough enough to look after himself, having just had his life totally wrecked with no support from anyone, but as a man he can get on with it, very sexist and unfair treatment, there but for the grace of god go I.
The situation is far more complex than ticking boxes and formulaic interviews with a supercilious interviewer, who becomes not just unsupportive but obstructive to helping them out of the mess they find themselves in.
I accept there is an hard core of alcholic, drug users, and old style tramps they cannot or do not want any help, so lets help the ones that do need it even if pride and personal dignity (I personally know a lot about that view) which stops them asking.

The number of homeless people are on the increase mainly because of the shortage of social housing as private rental is so expensive and beyond the means of people who are on the street for whatever reason. Its frustrating that there are so many empty properties that could be used. There is a large office block on the North Circular road that has been empty for at least fifteen years why can't this be knocked down and flats built? You could get a lot of properties on that footprint and house a lot of people but it seems it better to leave it empty and let it get vandalised.
There should be some sort of process that if any properties( both residential and commercial) have been empty for a considerable amount of time then they local authority should have the power to compulsory purchase and convert it to social or affordable housing

I don't believe there are many genuine homeless people. Most just choose this way of living or came from another country and didn't get everything they were promised.

Its getting worse. They aren't just drunks in soho... its people with jobs sleeping in cars and tents as rents are more than take home pay, debt, relationship break ups, evictions so many reasons. Can anyone blame them for ending up with dependancy issues when having to exist on the streets? Then there are the young people. Thank the gods for charitys like crisis and centrepoint etc. Rough sleepers are out in zone 4 where I live and they don't beg and are always gracious. In central touristy london its hard to know who is genuine and who is from a professional gang.

Yes, it has become worse again. There was a lull for a few years, but there now seem to be a lot of street beggars and rough sleepers on the streets, especially close to the entrance to Charing Cross Tube, close to St Martin's Church.

The number of people sleeping on the streets has increased enormously. We need more social housing, more mental health care and jobs that pay a real living wage to combat it.

I've noticed an increase in rough sleeping in recent years in Central London. Lack of social housing and high rents are the major factors in play. Many people are only a month or two's pay cheque away from being homeless. An inadequate and hostile benefit system designed to punish rather than help quickly pushes people over the edge into depression and anxiety after they've lost their job and are scared about their housing situation. It's difficult to get mental health care as providers are overwhelmed as are the services that are supposed to be able to stop people from becoming homeless.

While more needs to be done to address the need for rough sleeping, there's the issue of the homeless who aren't actually sleeping on the streets (yet). Sofa surfing and living in somebody's spare room without their landlord knowing is on the increase. These people can't claim benefits or vote because of their housing situation and some can't even get a bank account.

According to the Shelter website, 1 in 25 are homeless in Westminster. There are so many luxury apartments being built that only the very rich can afford. Developers are now claiming they can't make much of a profit so that they dodge the requirement to include social housing.

The system is seriously broken and will only get worse without a major change to the status quo.

When walking through central London and the west end on my way to work each morning large amounts of rough sleepers gather at certain points, these being feeding stations set up by well meaning organizations.
I strongly believe that these be stopped as it is encouraging and prolonging the problem.
London is a tough place to live with little or no money but is also a magnet, London offers opportunity for everybody but we must be careful not to encourage a situation where these practices are deemed acceptable, anybody that has to clear away the debris and filth left behind some of these people each morning before opening for business will agree.
If you travel across Europe this is not as big an issue even though housing costs are comparable, what are we doing wrong

Rough sleeping is a major problem in London, but it needs a holistic approach, not just provision of more social housing. Rough sleeping and homelessness is generally caused and then exacerbated by one or more of the following: mental health problems, financial problems, drugs/alcohol/addiction, relationship breakdown, and institutionalisation. Providing the physical roof over someone's head will not solve the problem per se: support to address underlying issues (mental health, physical health, relationships, employment etc) is needed alongside it. Providing somewhere dry, safe (and preferably clean and private - hostels are often not pleasant places and many rough sleepers would prefer to be on the streets) creates a context where these underlying issues can more easily be addressed, which in turn makes it more likely that someone will successfully find and stay in permanent accommodation.

It's a big problem still and will remain so until Government grasp the nettle. There needs to be far more mental health help, and far more social housing. Employment law is probably in the mix too as some people become homeless as a result of losing jobs.

In my opinion it is not a big problem yet, but it's getting worse.

have noticed a dramatic increase over the past couple of years

A big problem, and it seems to be getting worse - a lot worse. Am now getting begging on the Tube and TFL Overground as a regular thing... I sympathise, but really do not want to get this... The benefits reductions and sanctions seem to have caused quite a lot, and there also appear to be a lot of ex-Forces homeless. Would suggest that the military need to have better resettlement plans, and make sure that they're caring for people leaving the Forces, for starters... Would also suggest that some empty homes/offices are used as temporary (or not so temporary) hostels.

Worse.
Because we have unregulated Migration from the EU - not the same as Free Movement of Workers (not People) under EU Rules - persons simply enter the UK either to escape conditions in their home country or to do casual work for cash and regard the UK as a country that is tolerant of homeless people

I do not donate to rough sleepers on the street as I would be concerned that they might spend the money on alcohol or drugs.
If there were a London wide voucher scheme with hostels, that each rough sleeper could be given a code for, that members of the public could make a donation to via text, so that they could have a bed for the night, I would be happy to donate.

There is an alarmingly increasing number of foreign beggars in Westminster borough. They pretend to be rough sleepers and take up large chunks of pavements and open spaces. They beg aggressively and also pry for pickpocketing or other thefts when possible. They lurk for vulnerable older people . They blatantly steal at local supermarkets . They are pushing away the traditional genuine rough sleepers , there have been even arguments and fights witnessed. These beggars are part of a criminal gang who imprts them from Romania and other places and then dispatches them across London with vans ever morning. They are collected again in the evening so they dont sleep rough , and they have to report their loot and gains to the gang masters. All that is happening in Central London . Begging is forbidden by law but no arrests seem to be made , at least not enough. Time to put things in order and enforce the laws.

I just completed the survey about housing strategy and half of all questions were about rough sleeping.

There are many underlying issues to make people sleep rough (drugs, mental heslth, criminality, illegal status etc) and I very much doubt that lack of housing is the main cause.

Why does rough sleeping even show as reason in a housing strategy ????

There was a recent campaign in support of a young mother of two small kids who was made homeless by Lambeth council because she was in rent arrears as a result of complications in the payment of her welfare benefits. Apparently the changes in the benefits system has caused cases like this to become more and more common. Shocking.