Councils have welcomed the £3.2 million worth of additional funding to support rough sleepers, as well as the £3.2 billion to help councils through this period. However, they need a commitment that the extraordinary costs incurred by all services to date – as well as the costs from delivering “business as usual” services with reduced income flows – will be met. Without this, the sustainability of council services, including homeless services, will be jeopardised in the short and medium-term.
Key messages
- Councils have made a monumental effort to ensure that people sleeping rough or in high-risk accommodation are safely accommodated during the crisis. According to Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) data, councils have now accommodated over 90 per cent of people who were sleeping rough.
- Councils – including through commissioned services – are providing people with accommodation, support services. This includes for substance dependency and mental health, and additional support such as food, transport, supporting with claiming benefits, and personal items such as clothing.
- Councils are continuing to face intense pressure, including from people presenting as newly homeless during the lockdown. This is likely to increase as the social distancing measures continue.
- It is crucial from a public health perspective to ensure people do not enter acute forms of homelessness such as rough sleeping. Councils therefore need support from national government to ensure that they can continue to safely accommodate people. This should include continued support to encourage hotels and other accommodation providers to open for local authority bookings, and clear and consistent communications from government departments about which funding streams are available to meet accommodation needs (including and especially for individuals with no recourse to public funds).
- Councils also require further guidance from Government on a range of immediate issues, including enforcement, housing assessments and duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act, and on personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Councils have welcomed the £3.2 million worth of additional funding to support rough sleepers, as well as the £3.2 billion to help councils through this period. However, they need a commitment that the extraordinary costs incurred by all services to date – as well as the costs from delivering “business as usual” services with reduced income flows – will be met. Without this, the sustainability of council services, including homeless services, will be jeopardised in the short and medium-term.
- The Government should urgently outline a clear strategy for how they will support people currently being accommodated on an emergency basis to move into safe housing with appropriate support after the current measures have been lifted. This is needed so that councils can effectively plan their local provision.
- Successfully addressing the worst forms of homelessness requires appropriate, settled accommodation, as a foundation for a stable and thriving life. Councils have a key role to play in tackling homelessness and are ambitious to do more. Local government has raised concerns about a number of income and cost pressures resulting from Covid-19. These may affect the future financial sustainability of Housing Revenue Accounts.
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