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Government must provide funding quickly to prevent ‘slip back’ to pre-coronavirus homelessness levels, says Conservative mayor
The Conservative mayor of the West Midlands has called on the government to provide local authorities with homelessness funding quickly in order to support the “on-the-ground” work to prevent rough sleepers from returning to the streets.
In a joint interview with Labour Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham for homelessness charity Crisis, Andy Street said the government has to ensure the funding it has made available to support local authorities with rough sleepers will “flow quickly”.
He said: “We’ve got to be absolutely certain that we’re determined not to slip back. Now that’s very easy to say, hard to do and so the next part of the chain has to be what further cash is coming forward to help our local authorities with the enormous challenge they have to move people on.”
The government has made over £250m available in funding to support the roughly 15,000 homeless people who have been housed in emergency accommodation during the COVID-19 crisis. Of this, £161m will be spent on providing 3,300 additional supported homes this year.
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Both Mr Street and Mr Burnham agreed that the government’s post-coronavirus economic recovery plan must include the building of “genuinely” affordable housing.
Mr Street said: “We are looking at this whole acceleration of ‘build, build, build’. We’re very clear housing is the fastest way to reflate the economy, but we have to make sure there’s a balance to provide genuinely affordable accommodation within that.”
The mayors also agreed that the Local Housing Allowance rate, which was increased to cover the cheapest 30% of homes in a local area at the start of the pandemic, must not return to its pre-COVID levels.
When asked what further changes must be made to ensure people do not return to the streets, Mr Burnham mentioned the government’s no recourse to public funds policy (NRPF) that prevents many homeless people from accessing benefits due to their immigration status.
He said the NRPF policy is “incompatible” with the goal of ending rough sleeping, adding that the rules mean “there will always be some people out on the streets”.
