Homelessness ‘Not As Bad As It Was’ Says Homelessness Minister

The Minister for Homelessness, who earlier this year admitted she didn’t know why homelessness was rising, last week acknowledged the increase but said it was “not at the levels we saw 15 years ago”.

Heather Wheeler told the Modern Slavery and Homelessness conference in Birmingham last week of the “concerted effort” needed “across all government departments and beyond” to end rough sleeping. As reported by 24housing, Wheeler was swiftly and widely discredited earlier this year for not acknowledging welfare ‘reform’ and council cuts as a cause of rising homelessness. Wheeler said she didn’t know why homelessness was rising, having pledged to resign if she failed to meet the Tory manifesto commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 toward total eradication by 2027.

The conference address marked a subtle if slight shift in tone – but still no reference to the impact of cuts. Wheeler recognised there was work to do beyond fixing “systemic challenges” such as “meeting the complex needs of people who find themselves sleeping on streets”. She told the audience there was “no denying” homeless numbers have risen in recent years – but “we’re not at the levels of statutory homelessness we saw 15 years ago”.

She praised the Homeless Reduction Act as “transforming homelessness delivery, with local authorities giving extra support for more people, and crucially, at an earlier stage”. And she made a reference to over £1.2bn in funding offered by government to 2020 to address all forms of homelessness. But the ‘big wow’ was reserved for the new Rough Sleeping Initiative that “brings experts from across the sector together and focuses on authorities with high levels of rough sleeping”.

The point was made that Birmingham itself has received almost £1m of Rough Sleeping Initiative funding, with the West Midlands one of our first pilots of Housing First. West Midlands metro mayor Andy Street was praised for his “support and valuable contribution” to the Advisory Panel.

Promoting rapid re-housing, the Initiative was fundamental to the Tory vision of “a country where no one needs to sleep rough again”, Wheeler said.

“This is just the first step, ending rough sleeping requires concerted effort across all government departments and beyond,” she added.