Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about rough sleeping.
I firmly believe that just one person without a roof over their head is one too many, and it is important that the most vulnerable people in society are helped to get their lives back on track. That is why I am pleased over £1.2 billion has been provided to homelessness and rough sleeping through to this financial year, and that a further £422 million was announced for 2020-21.
St Mungo’s does excellent work helping rough sleepers, and is a member of the government-backed rough sleeping advisory panel set up in 2018. More dedicated support is needed to help the most entrenched rough sleepers, and range of measures, such as Housing First pilots and the Rapid Rehousing Pathway, are in place to stable accommodation and intensive care. A promising recent study showed that in 2018 alone, the Rough Sleeping Initiative helped reduce the number of rough sleepers by over a third in funded areas, and I am glad that £112 million has been announced for the Initiative to provide 6,000 beds in 270 areas across England in 2020-21.
While the number of rough sleepers declined in 2018 compared to 2017, more needs to be done to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping by ensuring there is enough housing. I understand this is why the Government is boosting the building of more homes of all tenures, including affordable homes and properties for social rent, helping reach the target of 300,000 new properties each year by the mid-2020s.
I am confident that these measures will reduce homelessness across our country and help end rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament, and that the upcoming Spending Review will consider the best way forward in funding homelessness prevention and reducing rough sleeping.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Mel Stride MP
MP for Central Devon
