Homelessness: Coronavirus

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 27 November 2020.

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Photo of Matthew Offord Matthew Offord Conservative, Hendon

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure all people who were homeless before the covid-19 outbreak and subsequently accommodated continue to receive housing support.

Photo of Kelly Tolhurst Kelly Tolhurst Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

By September our ongoing ‘Everyone In’ campaign had supported over 29,000 vulnerable people, with over 10,000 in emergency accommodation and nearly 19,000 provided with settled accommodation or move on support. Launched in the summer, the Government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme makes available the financial resources needed to support local authorities and their partners to prevent those accommodated during the pandemic from returning to the streets. We announced allocations of £91.5 million to local authorities on 17 September to pay for immediate?support?to ensure that as many people as possible do not return to the streets. On 29 October, we announced allocations of more than £150 million to local partners to deliver more than 3,300 new long-term homes for rough sleepers across the country.

Backed by a further £15 million, the ‘Protect Programme’ forms part of the ongoing targeted support to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our communities from COVID-19. This is on top of the previously announced £10 million Cold Weather Fund for all councils to help keep rough sleepers safe this winter. This takes the total we are spending to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in 2020/21 to over £700 million.

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