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Charities are keeping homeless eastern European migrants alive while the government dithers over what to do with them, a government homelessness advisor has admitted.

Michelle Binfield, specialist advisor on rough sleeping to the Communities and Local Government department, said that ‘A10’ migrants, who are from countries that joined the European Union in 2004, were a difficult problem for the government.

A street search carried out by Homeless Link last year suggested there were at least 126 A10 migrants sleeping rough in London.

A minority who had not managed to find work were living an alcohol-fuelled life on the streets, she said.

‘On the left, we’re told we should be doing more, why aren’t we spending more government money on helping people? But on the right, particularly in the teeth of quite a bad recession, we’re told, “this group is not a priority, this group should go home”,’ she explained. ‘I think we’re relying on the safety net provided by the voluntary sector, by charities and established voluntary sector projects, to keep people alive, while we decide what to do as a policy response.’

Ms Binfield spoke at a panel debate on rough sleeping last week, organised by Christian housing charity Housing Justice. The event marked the launch of Rough sleeping: compassion v coercion, a discussion paper compiled by the organisation.

Ms Binfield defended the use of enforcement measures such as hosing down patches used by rough sleepers with water to make them unusable, although she insisted it had to be accompanied by offers of support. She admitted that when enforcement is not done well she has doubts about the approach, but said that it can be a solution to ‘a complex problem’.

‘I hope you’ll take it from me, as somebody who has visited mortuaries, that rough sleeping is deadly.

‘As rough sleeping is so dangerous to people’s health, I find it hard to accept that we shouldn’t do everything we can to make it harder for them [to end up on the streets],’ she said.

But Reverend Simon Perry, minister at Bloomsbury Baptist Church, pleaded with the government to end its target-driven approach to rough sleeping. ‘The result [of targets] is that the real needs of real people are less important than the targets that are going to be met,’ he said.

‘My experience of enforcement is that there has not been an ounce of compassion involved,’ he added.

Jeremy Swain, chief executive of London homelessness charity Thames Reach, said faith groups did not always acknowledge the ‘strong moral imperative’ that drove homelessness charities.

Dominic Williamson, policy director at Homeless Link, said councils needed to renew their efforts to make sure that housing help is immediately there for people when they ask for it.

‘It’s not acceptable that the first time somebody asks for help [for housing], they get turned away,’ he added.