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Labour considering pledge for national roll-out of Housing First
Labour is considering a manifesto pledge to tackle the UK’s homelessness crisis with a national expansion of Housing First, according to reports.
The party is working on plans for a national roll-out of the policy, which works by housing rough sleepers immediately as well as wrap-around support, according to news website Politics Home.
After delivering big results internationally, Housing First has been gaining momentum in the UK and the model has been trialled in Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands since 2019.
In January, a report on these government-funded pilots found the model was proving successful and that a year after entering Housing First, 92% of participants were living in long-term accommodation.
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Yet, despite the encouraging results, funding for these pilot programmes will run out in 2025, leaving the future of the policy uncertain.
According to Politics Home, Labour is mulling a national roll-out as its “big policy offer” on homelessness for the upcoming general election in July. The party has also costed plans to give local authorities additional funding to enable them to have localised data to prevent vulnerable people becoming homeless.
This comes amid a worsening homelessness crisis in the UK, with government figures this month showing the numbers for both homeless households and children living in temporary accommodation are now at the highest levels ever recorded.
In the homelessness sector, Housing First has had a growing presence in recent years and been described by charity Shelter as the “most important innovation… of the past few decades”.
The model is tailored for people with complex needs and focuses on first giving someone immediate access to a settled, secure home and support to achieve goals such as sobriety or abstinence.
Earlier this year, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published its report on outcomes of the Housing First regional pilots.
The report concludes that results after a year of Housing First are “very encouraging”, with a wide range of “statistically significant improvements” in the social connectedness and well-being of participants.
However, drug and alcohol use remained at similar levels, while most participants were no closer to work than when they entered the scheme.
A separate report by charity Homeless Link earlier this year also highlighted the wider benefits of the Housing First model, including its improvements in people’s physical and mental health and in reducing offending behaviour and substance use.
The report found that 50% of participants in Housing First showed reduction in their mental health needs after the first year in the scheme.
Responding to the news on social media platform X, Shelter said: “Rolling out Housing First nationwide would be a welcome radical change. But this must be done by investing in the social rent homes that we desperately need.
“We look forward to seeing more details of all parties’ plans to end homelessness and the housing emergency for good.”
Labour has been approached for comment.
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