THE boss of a homeless charity has called for more projects to focus on prevention – to stop people ending up on the streets in the first place.

Andy Winter, chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust (BHT), said many worthy and well-motivated initiatives can hinder the process of getting people off the streets.

In a blog post he said: “We don’t need new initiatives, or new groups, or ways to make life a bit more bearable for those on the streets. We need to help them off the streets.”

He added: “Initiatives should focus on prevention in the first place – few services do much about preventing people ending up on the street and those that do have funding challenges.

“BHT’s Advice Centre in Queen’s Road is a good example – preventing 126 households becoming homeless between April and June and a further 158 between July and September. First Base prevented 61 and 65 individuals from losing their accommodation in the same periods.”

He was writing on the day a major new project, named Galvanise, was launched which aims to end homelessness in Brighton and Hove.

The project, which is supported by BHT, is calling on volunteers to go out at night and speak to rough sleepers and asses their needs.

In his blog post he added: “In reality, a lot is happening in the city. We provide, for example, through First Base Day Centre, the basics for survival and basic dignity – hot drinks and meals, showers, toilet facilities, clean and dry clothes and critically, with our partner organisations, we help several hundred people off the streets and into housing.”

In the post he made reference to the homeless man who died at the weekend, as reported in The Argus on Monday.

He said: “He wasn’t the first homeless person to die and he certainly won’t be the last...such is the tragedy of rough sleeping.

“How many more deaths will be needed before the country as a whole is shamed into saying no to rough sleeping?”

He also hit out at Caroline Lucas’s call for a debate on the introduction of so-called shooting galleries in the city.

He said: “There are some uncomfortable truths that need to be said, for example, the role of alcohol and drugs in keeping people on the streets and leading, tragically, to some deaths. We don’t need politicians calling for places where people can inject.

“We need politicians calling, unambiguously, for treatment services that will help people, not least homeless people, come off and stay off drugs.”