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Labour brands minister ‘incompetent’ over suggestion rough sleepers return to friends and family
Labour has accused a minister of “incompetence” for his suggestion that councils should encourage rough sleepers given emergency accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic to move in with friends and family.
Inside Housing revealed on Wednesday that homelessness minister Luke Hall made the call in a letter to local authorities asking them to set out next-step support plans for people brought off the streets during the pandemic.
He said that when considering move-on accommodation options, councils should “seek to encourage people, where appropriate and possible, to return to friends and family”.
Thangam Debbonaire, Labour’s shadow housing secretary, claimed the “half-baked suggestion” shows that the government is “rowing back” on promises to end rough sleeping in the wake of COVID-19.
She added: “These comments smack of incompetence – Luke Hall has shown a woeful lack of understanding about the complex reasons why so many people sleep rough in this country. If rough sleepers were able to return to their friends and family, they would not be sleeping rough.
“They need somewhere safe to live and the support to make a go of it.
“The government should be working with councils to fulfil its commitment to end rough sleeping, not washing of its hands of the responsibility to house the homeless.”
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The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it was asking councils to carry out individual assessments and consider a range of options to ensure people’s needs are met, which could involve returning to friends and family in some cases.
Last month the government pledged to deliver 6,000 new long-term homes for rough sleepers and formed the Rough Sleeping COVID-19 Response Taskforce to find permanent housing for people brought indoors during the pandemic.
Announcing the 6,000 homes plan, housing secretary Robert Jenrick said: “This government wants to end rough sleeping for good, and we now have a real opportunity to deliver on this moral mission.”
Following instruction from the government, thousands of rough sleepers have been placed in hotels or other emergency accommodation by councils since March to help keep them safe from COVID-19.
Separately, Mr Hall was today forced to admit that “a significant proportion” of the 15,000 people previously described as rough sleepers helped “were not rough sleepers but have been housed in order to prevent any risk of them sleeping rough during the pandemic”.
A spokesperson for MHCLG said: “Our new rough sleeping taskforce has one overriding objective: to ensure as many people as possible who have been brought in off the streets in this pandemic do not return to sleeping rough.
“To help achieve this we have accelerated plans for new rough sleeping services – backed by £433m – which will ensure 6,000 new housing units will be put into the system, with 3,300 of these becoming available in the next 12 months. This is on top of the £3.2bn we have given councils to meet the immediate pressures they are facing since the beginning of the pandemic.
“We’ve been clear councils must continue to provide safe accommodation to vulnerable rough sleepers and support those moving on from emergency accommodation.”
