introduction
Camden Council has announced a novel approach to supporting people who have experienced rough sleeping: personal passports designed to help individuals navigate homelessness services more efficiently. As one of the London boroughs grappling with high rates of rough sleeping, Camden is piloting a system intended to streamline access to housing, medical care, and social support. The initiative aims to reduce bureaucratic barriers and ensure that people who have slept rough can receive consistent, person-centered help.
What is a rough sleeper passport?
The passport is a portable, person-centered record that rough sleepers can carry, documenting essential information about their needs, health, past encounters with services, and preferences for assistance. The concept is not a formal identification document but a tool to improve communication between service providers and individuals with lived experience of homelessness. By consolidating vital details in one place, the passport can help workers tailor support plans, expedite referrals, and avoid repetitive interviews.
Key features
- A summary of housing history and current needs
- Health concerns, including mental health and substance use support requirements
- Preferred contact methods and language considerations
- Consent for sharing information with authorized providers
- A timeline of past interactions with homelessness services to inform future care
Why Camden is pursuing this approach
Local authorities across the UK are rethinking how to serve people experiencing homelessness, prioritizing dignity, accessibility, and continuity of care. Camden notes that rough sleepers often face fragmented services, long waiting lists, and repeated explanations of complex histories. The passport aims to address these gaps by creating a quick, human-centered entry point for support teams. By reducing paperwork burdens on service users, staff can focus on delivering personalised care and stabilising living situations more rapidly.
Benefits for service users and providers
Advocates argue the passport could yield several positive outcomes: faster access to emergency accommodation, swifter medical assessments, better coordination between housing, social services, and addiction support, and improved overall wellbeing for individuals who frequently interact with multiple agencies. For Camden’s council and partner organizations, the passport could enhance data-sharing under strict privacy controls, enabling a more cohesive network of care while safeguarding confidentiality. Stakeholders emphasize that the passport should always remain voluntary and revocable, with robust safeguards to prevent misuse.
Challenges and safeguards
Experts warn that any new record-keeping system must prioritize consent, data minimization, and accessibility. Potential concerns include privacy, the risk of stigmatization, and the danger of relying on a single document to capture a person’s full needs. Camden has signaled that participation will be voluntary and that individuals must opt in to have information added and shared with service providers. Training for frontline staff on trauma-informed care, cultural sensitivity, and ethics will be critical to the passport’s success. The borough will also explore how to maintain up-to-date information while respecting the rights and autonomy of those with lived experience.
What comes next
Officials say the passport is in a pilot phase, with feedback from rough sleepers and service providers guiding refinements. If successful, Camden may expand the program to include more partner organizations, with potential integration into broader homelessness strategies and funding models. Community advocates stress that the passport should complement, not replace, direct engagement with trusted workers and peer support networks that play a crucial role in helping people move away from rough sleeping.
Conclusion
Camden’s rough sleeper passport initiative marks a pragmatic step toward simplifying access to essential services for people with lived experience of homelessness. By focusing on person-centered information, consent-based data sharing, and strong safeguards, the scheme seeks to empower individuals to navigate the system with dignity while enabling service providers to deliver timely, coordinated support. The coming months will reveal how this approach works in practice and whether it becomes a model for other councils facing similar challenges.
