Dear Colleague
ANALYSIS SHOWS GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS REDUCING ROUGH SLEEPING AND ADDITIONAL WINTER FUNDING
Today we published a report that showed that our trailblazing Rough Sleeping Initiative has reduced the number of vulnerable people sleeping rough on the streets – meaning hundreds more people are in warm, safe housing tonight as a direct result of government funding.
The internal evaluation looked at the impact of the initiative from its launch in March 2018 until autumn that year. The results show a 32% reduction in the overall number of people sleeping rough in those areas funded by the Rough Sleeping Initiative, when compared to what it would have been had the initiative not been in place.
The findings came from the first year of funding for the programme, where £30 million was allocated to the 83 areas with the highest levels of rough sleeping as per the 2017 annual snapshot statistics.
This year, the government has allocated a further £46 million – including £12 million for councils not previously funded – to build on the programme’s work and help even more people off the streets and to move forward with their lives.
The evaluation, which was independently peer reviewed, accounted for a number of external factors and confirmed that any changes from an estimate to a count process in the annual rough sleeping statistics were not of significant influence.
There is still a long way to go in our journey to end rough sleeping, but these findings show that we have taken a step in the right direction. They confirm that the hard work of local authorities and their partners, backed by our Rough Sleeping Initiative funding, is having a real effect on people’s lives and reducing rough sleeping.
The full evaluation has been published on Gov.uk at the link below, which you can follow for details on the analysis and our Rough Sleeping Initiative project: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-initiative-20…
As you know, in the Government’s manifesto we committed to addressing rough sleeping head on. That is why we have provided over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period to 2019-20 and have just announced a further £422 million of funding for 2020-21. These increased resources, which underpin our Rough Sleeping Strategy, demonstrate how serious the government is about tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.
I am pleased to announce that we will be providing a further £10 million Cold Weather Fund this year to enable local authorities, combined authorities and their partners to provide swift interventions to rough sleepers in their area over the winter period, as well as enhancing existing services. This follows the success of last year’s Cold Weather Fund, which provided over 1,000 additional bed spaces.
The Cold Weather Fund will be used by authorities to provide additional accommodation, for example through the private rented sector, providing spaces in existing supported housing projects and funding interventions such as B&B accommodation and emergency shelters. This aims to quickly reduce the number of people sleeping rough while longer-term interventions come into effect. It will be made available to all authorities to provide a robust, local response to support rough sleepers off the streets over the winter and ensure that they have the tools they need to deliver this.
Learning from last year’s funding and in order to reach as many rough sleepers as possible, this year we will be making up to £1 million of this fund available to providers and services that are not commissioned by local authorities. This element of the fund will be administered by Homeless Link who will ensure that the interventions are effective in supporting as many people as possible off the streets.
To ensure the Cold Weather Fund has a rapid impact, we will be providing funding on an underwritten basis. Authorities will be asked to bid and agree proposals with MHCLG, mobilising programmes as they see fit, and invoicing MHCLG for final amounts spent.
We also recognise that there are challenges around responding to certain non-UK national rough sleepers who are ineligible for mainstream support, and these are particularly acute in certain areas of the country. The latest MHCLG Rough Sleeping statistics for Autumn 2018 showed an overall 2% decrease in rough sleepers, but this coincided with a 38% rise in EEA nationals sleeping rough. This trend is particularly prevalent in London, which saw an increase of 87% in the same period.
We have consulted with our partners and providers in the sector on this and it is clear that the limited options available for EEA rough sleepers has led to them rough sleeping for far longer than any of us would like and putting themselves at risk. This is something that we have been working on for some time with colleagues across government and is not related to our exit from the European Union.
It is for those reasons above that the government will be temporarily extending very limited powers to the most affected local authorities to support certain EEA nationals for a maximum of 6 months from 30 September 2019. In practice this will mean that local authorities in certain circumstances will be able to offer up to three months of basic emergency accommodation alongside support to work-ready EEA rough sleepers to help them into employment. These changes will not extend to access to benefits. This is why we have expanded this year’s Cold Weather Fund to £10 million, so that those areas with these powers will be supported.
Further information on our Rough Sleeping Strategy and the suite of ambitious programmes we are undertaking to combat both rough sleeping and broader homelessness can also be
found on Gov.uk. I hope you share my pride in the work that is being delivered both here at MHCLG and by hardworking local authorities and partner providers across the country.
I am absolutely committed to helping rough sleepers off the street. I recognise this will require a sustained effort right across the system, but I am confident that, together, the initiatives we are delivering will pave the way for a country where no one is left to sleep rough.
RT HON ROBERT JENRICK MP