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GMCA to expand flagship rough sleeper scheme over winter
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) will expand its A Bed Every Night (ABEN) scheme, as part of a series of measures to protect rough sleepers.
GMCA will allocate ABEN a further £300,000 this winter, enabling 40 beds to be added to the scheme.
The scheme will continue to provide COVID-secure accommodation for rough sleepers in Greater Manchester, after the service transitioned from using dormitory-style shared accommodation at the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
ABEN was launched in 2017 and provides rough sleepers with short-term accommodation.
GMCA leaders agreed in June to commit an additional £4.75m to the scheme, increasing its capacity by up to 445 households.
Last week, local authorities in Greater Manchester recorded 115 people sleeping rough, compared to 268 in 2017 – a 57% reduction in rough sleeping since the scheme began.
The additional £300,000 will come from the Mayoral Priorities Fund and is separate to the £398,000 the GMCA received from the government’s annual Cold Weather Fund.
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GMCA leaders also approved a £663,000 Greater Manchester Young Person’s Homelessness Prevention Pathway programme last week.
The one-year pilot programme will work with up to 300 under-35s at risk of becoming homeless and is part of Greater Manchester’s Homelessness Prevention Strategy, due to be published in March.
GMCA mayor Andy Burnham said: “To see rough sleeping continue to decline across our city-region is incredibly heartening. It has been an incredibly tough year and so it is encouraging to see continued progress.
“Clearly, our continued focus on ending the need for rough sleeping, integrating our response, and working closely together across public, private, charity and faith sectors is making a very real difference to the lives of so many people.
“I want to pay tribute to the dedicated, hard work of all those who continue to work in our ABEN and other homelessness schemes.
“They are doing so during the midst of a pandemic and in a winter when many people are facing the very real and frightening prospect of homelessness. We will not shirk from our responsibilities as a city-region – we care about each other and do not walk on by. We are working hard to end the need for rough sleeping here in Greater Manchester.”
Paul Dennett, city mayor of Salford and GMCA lead on housing and homelessness, said: “The city-region’s coronavirus response has been inextricably linked to the challenges of people having safe, affordable accommodation available to them. One in three homeless people are clinically vulnerable or extremely clinically vulnerable.
“We are extremely proud of the Greater Manchester response so far, both through the first lockdown and in the months since. Reconfiguring ABEN to deliver COVID-secure emergency accommodation was no mean feat – it has meant that infection and hospitalisations for people with COVID who are experiencing homelessness remain at least as low as the population as a whole, if not lower.
“Local authorities’ homelessness and public health teams have worked hand-in-hand all year with providers, charity partners, the GMCA and a wide range of public services. Together, they assisted more than 2,000 people into single room accommodation in response to the ‘Everyone In’ directive between March and June.
“The transition back into COVID-safe ABEN accommodation is ongoing and will soon have more than 500 spaces available. This winter, Greater Manchester is determined to deliver again for the people who most need it.”
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