Four Things The Government Can Do To End Homelessness

Angela Rayner will lead a cross-government taskforce to tackle record-high homelessness. Here are four things the group must do immediately, according to Homeless Link’s Rick Henderson in the Big Issue.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have announced that Rushanara Ali has taken on the homelessness brief, meanwhile Angela Rayner announced she will chair an Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping. With over 150,000 children currently trapped living in temporary accommodation and rough sleeping rising at a truly alarming rate, this clarity in responsibilities and direction is hugely welcome. Despite the current bleak picture, ending homelessness in England is possible with the right steps.

Ensure access to genuinely affordable housing

Ensuring people on low incomes have access to truly affordable housing is the single biggest step we can take to prevent homelessness, both now and in the future. The government has already made encouraging promises on this, with Angela Rayner promising a ‘council house revolution’. Alongside this, its planned Renters’ Rights Bill must finally end section 21 evictions, one of the major causes of homelessness in recent years, providing real security for the ever-growing number of people forced to live in the private rental sector.

Meanwhile, the local housing allowance rate, which governs how much housing benefit people can claim, is set to be re-frozen again in April. Reversing this and making sure it at least covers the lowest 30th percentile of market rents will be key to helping people on low incomes find affordable places to live.

Introduce a homelessness funding system that works

Homelessness services work in communities across the country, providing accommodation and/or expert, holistic support to people who often struggle with issues such as substance misuse, mental health issues and offending behaviour.

In 2021, the previous government announced three years of homelessness funding for local authorities to fund responses to homelessness. This ends in just over six months, with homelessness services across the country facing the deep uncertainty of a funding cliff edge. To stop the risk of a total collapse of the homelessness system, in the upcoming Autumn Budget, we’re calling for the government to rollover the existing funding for 2025/26, factoring in an uplift in line with the prolonged period of high inflation service providers had to operate in.

But the homelessness sector has faced crisis for years. Our research found that the number of bed spaces for people experiencing homelessness have fallen by nearly a quarter since 2010, while homelessness has soared. Current spending on homelessness is hugely expensive and insufficient. Severe cuts to support funding have forced providers to rely on enhanced housing benefit to remain viable, with the previous government admitting having lost control of housing benefit spending. Meanwhile, contracts for service providers are often very short-term, giving little scope for services to plan for the future.

The new government must urgently regain control through a systematic review of all homelessness-related spending, both within and beyond MHCLG. Spring’s spending review offers the perfect opportunity to commit to developing a new ring-fenced homelessness funding system which runs at least until the end of this Parliament.

Stop the flow of homelessness from institutions

The number of people leaving institutions homeless has been growing steadily over the last five years, increasing by 126%. We know that transition from institutions can put people at greater risk of homelessness and that means we should be targeting our help to prevent this wherever possible.

Yet the latest statutory homelessness data, for January to March 2024, showed the number of households owed a homelessness relief duty by local authorities after leaving accommodation provided by the Home Office increased by 348% compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of people approaching councils as homeless after leaving prison also jumped significantly.

These statistics demonstrate how a siloed approach to homelessness is a huge barrier to ending it. The sudden rise in people experiencing homelessness after leaving Home Office accommodation was a result of the previous government changing the eviction procedure, reducing the time newly recognised refugees had to find longer-term accommodation. The new homelessness taskforce must learn from this and make sure government departments collaborate closely to not inadvertently drive homelessness up. The current prisons crisis represents a key first test of this approach.

Create a national Housing First programme

The Housing First approach to homelessness is focused towards people with multiple and complex needs such as entrenched rough sleeping, substance misuse, mental health issues and criminal behaviour. It’s based on a set of seven key principles and posits that people should be given their own home and unconditional intensive support alongside this, giving them the stability and assistance to address the underlying causes of their homelessness.

Whilst dealing with the housing supply is important for this to be successful, Housing First goes much further than just bricks and mortar, helping people with histories of complex trauma and instability to build a sense of home, agency and self-worth. It should form a key part of a homelessness system that offers a diverse array of services. Research has shown that not only does Housing First work extremely effectively in ending people’s homelessness but it also helps to address health and social care needs, and reduce offending behaviour, and in doing so saves public money in the long-term, with £1.56 saved for every £1 spent.

The previous government funded three Housing First pilots in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region. But elsewhere the short-term nature of homelessness funding makes it difficult for local authorities to commission a service that is meant to provide open-ended support to people.

Creating a national Housing First programme, which delivers funding specifically to communities based on estimated level of need, with a programme director who works collaboratively with organisations to ensure fidelity to the approach’s core principles, would go a long way to expanding the provision of Housing First across the country.