The prime minister's ambition to end rough sleeping by Christmas has received a boost with an additional £432 million in funding, but a charity boss has warned that eradicating the issue for good will be a 'long game'.
The extra cash almost doubles the amount of funding dedicated to the goal, bringing the total to £874 million. The new money is set to be outlined when Chancellor John Healey delivers his first Budget on Wednesday.
Charity welcomes funding but stresses complexity
Speaking to Metro, St Mungo's chief executive Emma Haddad said she felt an 'impetus and pace and energy' on the issue that she has not felt before during her time in the role. However, she emphasised that rough sleeping – and homelessness more broadly – is a complex issue that will require sustained attention.
She said: 'We know from our work, particularly in St Mungo's, where we work with people generally at the more complex needs type end of the spectrum – people who have multiple disadvantage, multiple complexity of need, often years of trauma. One offer of a route off the streets won't necessarily touch the sides.'
Beyond Christmas: A long-term commitment
Emma added: 'Yes, we can make offers to lots and lots of people by Christmas, but not everyone's going to accept that first offer by Christmas. And so this has to be seen as beyond Christmas, and we have to be in this for the long game, both with funding, but also very tailored support for people.'
The latest funding announcement is 'massively welcomed', she said, because it suggests the government is acknowledging the need for longer-term thinking. When the first wave of funding was set out a few weeks after Burnham entered No 10, there were concerns that it did not go beyond the end of the next financial year.
Emma said: 'We've been saying all along that the offer to get people off the street by Christmas is fantastic, let's start there. But what happens on Boxing Day? Well, if we've now got the funding and a bit more certainty that this is for a few years, not just for Christmas, then that's a game changer in my view.'
Summit and prevention focus
According to Downing Street, the new money will extend support through the lifetime of this Parliament, which is set to last until 2029 unless an early election is called. On Monday, the prime minister is set to host a wide range of charities, outreach organisations, philanthropists and private companies at Downing Street to discuss tackling rough sleeping.
Firms invited along include L'Oreal, which is launching a 'Social Salon' initiative in partnership with St Mungo's and Haircuts4Homeless, and Virgin Media, which provides support to help women and their children stay connected to services while experiencing homelessness. It is understood the first half of the summit will focus on the Christmas rough sleeping target, and the second half will look at ways of maintaining support into the future.
Emma said a key issue to raise at the meeting will be prevention – ending the conditions that force people to sleep rough in the first place. She explained: 'If we don't start to prevent people arriving on the streets in the first place, we're almost just you know taking thousands off and adding another few thousand. Those prevention levers need to be pulled really, really hard. Things like, increasing local housing allowance so people can actually afford more rent in the private rented sector. Things like stop churning people out of prisons and hospitals onto the street. Let's have a solution for those. That is utterly preventable homelessness.'
Andy Burnham said: 'Rough sleeping isn't a fact of life. It's a thing governments either choose to accept or don't. Well I don't accept it. That's why we're doubling funding so that people aren't just offered a safe route off the streets this winter but have that same support right through the rest of this Parliament too.'
