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Government urged to review decision not to increase Everyone In funding
Ministers are being urged to provide increased funding to support rough sleepers during the latest COVID-19 lockdown, amid concerns that the government does not intend to reimplement its Everyone In scheme in full.
Various groups are warning that local authorities do not have enough funding to help homeless people in the same way that they did during the first lockdown last spring, when the government reported that more than 90% of rough sleepers had been offered self-contained accommodation to protect them from the virus.
Jon Sparkes, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, said the current funding being provided by the government is “restricted to specific regions and to people who are categorised as clinically vulnerable”.
“What we need to see is emergency accommodation provided to everyone who needs it without exception,” he added.
Yesterday Inside Housing revealed that housing and rough sleeping minister Kelly Tolhurst had told councils she believed they have enough funding to support rough sleepers throughout the winter in a letter sent to town halls on 30 December.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has insisted that Everyone In is “ongoing”.
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Since COVID-19 first hit the UK, the government introduced a number of new homelessness funding streams and has allocated £91.5m to councils in England to fund their individual plans over the coming months.
It also introduced a £15m Protect Programme for areas with the largest homeless populations to support those who are clinically vulnerable.
Steve Douglas, chief executive of St Mungo’s, said: “The principles of the Protect Programme are effective, but the scheme needs to be extended to cover the whole country as a matter of urgency and should encompass all people who are sleeping on the streets who are, by definition, vulnerable.
“At this moment we are facing a new emergency: the double threats of severely cold weather and a global pandemic. And we know that people who sleep rough are at increased risk of dying from both.”
Fiona Colley, director of social change at Homeless Link, said the organisation is “concerned that much of this funding is only short term and that it falls short of ensuring that everyone is supported with a safe place to stay in as the virus spreads”.
She added: “By enhancing and expanding the current winter Protect Programme and using the Everyone In principles that we know worked well in March of last year, government could support local areas to bring more people in and keep them safe.
“We urge the government to commit to directing and fully funding local authorities to do this as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, Lambeth Council leader Jack Hopkins urged the government to reinstate a “fully funded Everyone In programme” in response to the surge of coronavirus cases in England.
“To not restart a fully funded Everyone In programme now, when there is a new, more transmissible variant of COVID-19 sweeping through the capital, is an abdication of responsibility that will likely cost lives,” he wrote in a letter to housing secretary Robert Jenrick.
At the start of the first lockdown in March, the government’s former homelessness tsar Dame Louise Casey wrote to all councils in England ordering them to accommodate all rough sleepers in the space of a few days.
Since then, more than 29,000 people have been supported as a result of the Everyone In scheme.
But charities and councils have since complained over a lack of clarity from government on who it expects them to find accommodation for.
On Wednesday MHCLG said: “We will do everything in our power to prevent people from finding themselves sleeping rough or homeless this winter, and that remains the policy of the government.
“The ongoing Everyone In campaign is protecting thousands of lives. We’ve housed 29,000 vulnerable people, including supporting 19,000 into settled accommodation or with move-on support. We’re ensuring councils and voluntary organisations have the tools and funding they need.
“We’re spending over £700m on homelessness and rough sleeping this year alone, including the £15m Protect Programme which provides extra support to areas that need it most and our £10m Cold Weather Fund. We’re investing a further £750m next year and will set out further measures to protect rough sleepers as soon as we can.”
