CABINET Minister Mo Mowlam yesterday gave a keynote speech emphasising the Government's bid to help people who have had their lives damaged by drugs and homelessness.
The Redcar MP addressed delegates at the Rebuilding Lives conference, which was organised by the Phoenix House charity.
Dr Mowlam, who is leading a team of ministers delivering programmes to reduce social exclusion, said: "Perhaps the most visible expression of social exclusion are those people entrenched in a life of sleeping rough on the streets.
"And it has been estimated that at least 30 per cent of all rough sleepers have problems with drug misuses.
"We so often focus on dealing with the crisis after it has happened, but preventing the crisis in the first place and providing help afterwards are of equal importance and demand equal attention."
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