Authorities minimally addressing homelessness issues, charities issue cautions
The UK government has announced an investment of £34.6 million to provide 4,300 additional beds and over 600 more support staff across 84 areas in England. This announcement, made by Felicity Buchan, the homelessness minister, comes less than 15 months until the Conservative manifesto promises to end rough sleeping by the end of 2024.
The new funding is on top of the £500 million already proposed to fund the Rough Sleeping Initiative over three years. However, the charity Crisis has not acknowledged this investment in their statement, nor have they mentioned the £2 billion rough sleeping strategy or the over 14,000 beds for homeless people and 3,000 staff to provide tailored support that have been funded so far.
The charity Crisis's statement did not address the recent announcement of the additional funding either, focusing instead on the challenges faced by the homelessness sector. They claim that the Westminster government’s funding for people sleeping rough is only the bare minimum required, as all forms of homelessness are increasing.
Rich Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, stated that any support for the homelessness sector is welcome, but the current funding is not enough to plug the gap caused by a decrease in funding for 25% of homelessness accommodation providers since 2021. Homeless Link's research found that many providers have had to scale back or close down due to the funding decrease.
Last week, Homeless Link discovered almost a quarter of homelessness accommodation providers in England had seen a decrease in funding since 2021. The combination of rising living costs, soaring rents, and high demand for properties is leaving households across Britain unable to find or keep an affordable home, according to Matt Downie, chief executive of the charity Crisis.
Evidence of the government helping to get people off the streets still remains to be seen. More than 3,000 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night last autumn, marking a 26% increase from the previous year. Crisis announced last month that offices in Rotherham and Coventry would be closed due to reduced income and rising costs.
The UK government has also planned to create more shared housing (Wohngemeinschaften) for low-income people to prevent homelessness, but there is no specific date mentioned in the search results for when this plan was made. Henderson suggested that authorities should focus on providing more affordable social homes to prevent people on low incomes from having to sleep on the streets.
As the government works towards its goal of ending rough sleeping by the end of 2024, concerns remain about the effectiveness of the current strategies and the sustainability of the funding for homelessness services.
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