Weather disruption
Winter weather is causing disruption to services in some parts of the county. Find out what services may be affected in your area.
If you are sleeping rough
If you are sleeping rough and have access to a phone, you can call our rough sleeper outreach team, which is run by Julian House. They will ask you for details to help them to find you and discuss your options.
You can call the team on 01305 236585 (24 hours answerphone).
As they provide an outreach service, the team is not always in the office but they will listen to your message and follow it up as soon as possible.
Concerned about someone sleeping rough
If you think the person you are concerned about is under 18, needs urgent care, or is in immediate danger, call 999.
If you are concerned about a rough sleeper, tell StreetLink.
StreetLink can alert us to people sleeping rough in the local area. They will pass on the information you provide to Julian House, who run our rough sleeper outreach service.
Alternatively, you can contact Julian House:
- email: dorset-outreach@julianhouse.org.uk
- phone: 01305 236585 (24 hours answerphone)
How our outreach service can help
The Julian House outreach service aims to reduce rough sleeping and the problems associated with rough sleeping. The team work across the Dorset Council area, providing services including street outreach, to people who are street homeless to ensure that rough sleepers are:
- provided with information, advice and support to access accommodation
- able to access emergency accommodation in severe weather
- re-connected to their own community if they do not have a local connection to Dorset
- encouraged to access services and support for health and wellbeing
- linked to services which can support their own and others' safety
Protecting rough sleepers in extreme weather
During extreme weather, for example, a heatwave or extremely cold conditions, we follow our Severe Weather Emergency Protocol.
This means that in winter, we offer temporary shelter to people sleeping rough if the Met Office predict temperatures of zero or below for 3 days in a row.
In summer, we may do more regular checks on people sleeping rough, to monitor their health and provide fresh water and sunscreen.
We want to make sure that people sleeping rough have the support they need during extreme weather conditions. It's also an opportunity for our outreach team to talk to rough sleepers about future housing options and support for them.