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Why the coronavirus crisis should spark the beginning of the end for homelessness

The COVID-19 pandemic has put rough sleepers in severe danger. As agencies have pulled together to protect them, Jon Sparkes argues this should point the way to ending homelessness for good 

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Why the coronavirus crisis should spark the beginning of the end for homelessness #ukhousing

“The circumstances are appalling, but the innovation and the resolve to get people to places of safety has been incredible,” writes @jon_sparkes of @Crisis_uk #ukhousing

“Every hard-working housing officer, homelessness charity worker, everyone facing the dangers of coronavirus and homelessness deserves nothing less than for the legacy to be the beginning of the end for homelessness,” writes @jon_sparkes #ukhousing

The past few weeks have been devastating in so many ways for families across the UK, with many deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, jobs lost, our public services stretched to the limit, and many of our charities facing huge income losses just when we need them the most.

It has also been an inspiring time: public services and charities have pulled together in ways we had only dreamed of, to protect people facing homelessness from the additional risk of coronavirus.

When the advice said the virus would hit people with underlying health conditions hardest, that we needed to wash our hands frequently and socially distance, and if we got the symptoms we should self-isolate, we knew that people relying on night shelters and hostels with shared facilities, and people who were sleeping rough, would be in severe danger.


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Across England, Scotland and Wales, local authorities, governments, health professionals and homelessness charities have come together to ensure that we get everyone in.

Many people in these dangerous situations are now being provided with self-contained accommodation and support to keep themselves safe. The circumstances are appalling, but the innovation and the resolve to get people to places of safety has been incredible.

I think of the man who found his way to the Crisis centre in Tower Hamlets, he hadn’t eaten for days and was rough sleeping. He was given food vouchers, a phone to keep in touch with essential services and was put in touch with StreetLink, which alerted outreach workers who then found him a hotel room.

“The circumstances are appalling, but the innovation and the resolve to get people to places of safety has been incredible”

These interventions by several charities and local authorities probably saved his life. This is repeated thousands of times across the UK.

The work continues – and there is still much to do. However, I pay tribute to the remarkable people providing these services and moving mountains to make and keep people safe.

But now is the time to be more ambitious. If we can move people from night shelters, hostels and the streets into self-contained accommodation and provide them with the support they need during a national emergency, we really can set ourselves the ambition of housing people facing homelessness – not just as an ‘exit strategy’ for when the hotel owners want their hotels back, but now.

After many years of campaigning, we have seen the UK government return housing benefit levels, the Local Housing Allowance, back up to the cheapest 30th percentile of local rental markets.

The change is monumental and could have a massive impact on homelessness. It is only for a year, but we will work harder than ever to convince government of the case for this being permanent.

This means that people who are currently relying on the housing benefit system to either get or keep a roof over their head, now have access to housing in the lowest 30% of the local housing market, instead of huge areas of the country being unaffordable.

Last week, my team counted 400 properties for rent in Edinburgh alone that could be afforded through the Local Housing Allowance.

Usually, it is about 30.

The impact of this policy change on an individual level is striking and best demonstrated by individual stories. Heres one: Duncan was living in temporary B&B accommodation in Edinburgh.

He has a number of health conditions, including emphysema, and was doing his best to self-isolate in his room, despite having no cooking or washing facilities. B&B staff had to bring him food and leave it at the door.

Before the outbreak, he had been referred to Crisis’ Help to Rent service seeking a private let but had struggled to find anything affordable.

He got back in touch to say that, for his own safety, he needed to access his own self-contained property. All at a time when many letting agencies were shutting up businesses during the lockdown.

Our Help to Rent team worked with the council to devise a safe way to continue lettings during this critical time. One of the agencies came forward and agreed to reduce the rent by £100 on an ideal property and a viewing was arranged using safe social distancing.

Duncan has now moved into his own home. He said: “To be in my own flat has boosted my health: it is clean, fresh, I can walk about, do my own cooking – it takes my mind off the coronavirus outbreak.”

This shows what is now possible with everyone pulling in the same direction, including the Local Housing Allowance system.

However, we should not stop at the private rented sector.

Social housing must be available, too. With fewer people moving house, there are vacant homes for social rent across the UK.

What better use could our great housing associations and councils put their vacant properties to than housing people who face both homelessness and the heightened risk of coronavirus that it brings.

Let’s challenge ourselves in every social housing provider and local authority to make 100% of our social housing allocations available for people who would otherwise be homeless.

“Every hard-working housing officer, every fearless homelessness charity worker, and everyone facing the dangers of coronavirus and homelessness deserves nothing less than for the legacy of this crisis to be the beginning of the end for homelessness”

Finally, we need more than housing providers in the private and social sectors getting on board by making their houses, flats and apartments available. We need the system of rapid rehousing bringing forward through our local authorities.

Rapid rehousing sounds like jargon, but it is a simple premise.

Solving homelessness for any individual is often about more than housing, but in every single case it is about housing.

The sooner and more directly we solve the housing problem, the sooner and more permanently we are able to solve their homelessness problem.

In Scotland, all local authorities are transitioning their systems to work on the basis of rapid rehousing, and in Wales the government has accepted the principle of rapid rehousing.

Across all parts of the UK, the combination of the Local Housing Allowance change and the imperative to ensure everyone is in self-contained accommodation mean that there has never been a better or more important time to embrace rapid rehousing.

It has happened for Duncan in Edinburgh – let’s make it happen for everyone facing homelessness.

Every hard-working housing officer, every fearless homelessness charity worker, and everyone facing the dangers of coronavirus and homelessness deserves nothing less than for the legacy of this crisis to be the beginning of the end for homelessness.

I don’t want us to wait for an exit strategy or worse, regret not having an exit strategy that works.

Let’s start ending homelessness now.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive, Crisis

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