New North East homeless hub 'will help reduce crime' says PCSO
Bishop Auckland's neighbourhood policing team is working with Cornerstone
A County Durham Police Community Support Officer says a new homeless hub will help reduce crime.
The neighbourhood policing team (NPT) in Bishop Auckland patrols the town centre and directs rough sleepers to Cornerstone.
The charity helps to house them and works with other organisations like drug and alcohol support services.
PCSO Matt Foggin says it does work: "When I first came here in December, we engaged with a gentleman that was causing anti-social behaviour. We brought him into Cornerstone, as he had a round of mental health, substance misuse which can increase crime. We engaged with Cornerstone, housed him, and moved him out of the area, which dramatically dropped the crime and we've continued to do so ever since.
"We're getting people from all areas of County Durham who aren't known to this area, so sometimes along with drug and alcohol addictions and mental health, it tends to make people offend due to being homeless and it can cause quite a lot of issues on the streets.
"It's fantastic having all of the agencies around Bishop Auckland. For Bishop Auckland Neighbourhood Policing Team, we've housed personally 17 people since December and that doesn't even include people who haven't been involved in crime. With the agencies around, it's good that we have a wraparound service within the city centre and it's easily accessible as well.
"It's good that we can help these people. I see how many homeless people there were on the streets as you usually think it happens in big city centres like Liverpool, Manchester and London, but I just don't think people realise just how close to home it can be. We engage with them and hopefully we can reduce that and get people the support they need by referring them into Cornerstone.
"I think for me it's about personal engagement, getting down to their level and just talking to them, listening to people, and some people think just because we wear uniform and stuff like that, but we actually care. Once that trust has been built up, we see people in the streets who are recovering from mental health, addictions, or homelessness and they tend to come up to us and say hi.
"Sometimes you just need to give them that chance. You can't expect someone to either be drug-free, alcohol-free or dealing with a mental health issue, or crime-free, if they haven't got certain things in place, and that's what I feel from the NPT is paramount about getting the support in place when we can to these people who are homeless on the streets of Bishop Auckland."