Salisbury charity welcomes plans to remove law against rough sleeping
A two century old law making homelessness illegal is being repealed by the Government
A Wiltshire homeless charity is hailing plans to decriminalise rough sleeping as "fantastic news".
Salisbury-based organisation Alabaré told Greatest Hits Radio that people shouldn't be penalised simply because they've fallen on hard times.
"They shouldn't have a criminal record for the fact that they are having to sleep on the streets and they're trying just to keep themselves safe and alive," the charity's Faye Marsh told us.
Faye added: "It's not a reflection of where we are in society and the kind of support that's being offered to people."
The Vagrancy Act has been in place for more than 200 years, being introduced in 1824 in response to rising homelessness after the Napoleonic Wars and Industrial Revolution.
Use of the act has declined significantly over recent years as modern attitudes and understanding around the causes of homelessness improve, but it still remains enforceable by law.
The Government is removing the act to ensure it's not a criminal offence as it focuses on getting to the root causes of rough sleeping, with this to be backed by major funding.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has boosted funding for homelessness services by an extra £233 million this financial year, bringing total investment for 2025-26 to nearly £1 billion. This ambitious support will prevent more families from entering temporary accommodation and tackle rough sleeping head-on.
Faye told us the funding is critical because the root causes of homelessness can happen to anyone.
"It would only take employment loss or a relationship breakdown or even some poor health to mean that somebody goes from being in a stable accommodation to potentially having to live on the streets.
"It's not a massive chain of events that can cause this. It could be very small impacts on their lives that make a huge difference."
The cash injection will help not just with getting people somewhere to sleep that is safe and warm, but also with finding work and rebuilding independence.
Alabaré has a 'self-build' programme, where veterans who find themselves homeless join an apprentice style scheme in the construction industry.
They end up building a house that they will end up living in, while also learning crucial skills to find work.
"It's not just about purely providing them with a roof over their head, vital as that is, it's about making sure that the steps are there longer term to make sure they can live independently and they can move on into happy, healthy future lives that involve them being able to give back potentially and so that they can move forward and they're breaking that cycle of homelessness."
The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: "We are drawing a line under nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society, who deserve dignity and support.
"No one should ever be criminalised simply for sleeping rough and by scrapping this cruel and outdated law, we are making sure that can never happen again."
The Minister for Homelessness Rushanara Ali said: "Today marks a historic shift in how we're responding to the rough sleeping crisis, by repealing an archaic Act that is neither just nor fit for purpose.
"Scrapping the Vagrancy Act for good is another step forward in our mission to tackle homelessness in all its forms, by focusing our efforts on its root causes."