Sleeping Rough: Coronavirus

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 25 January 2021.

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Photo of Taiwo Owatemi Taiwo Owatemi Labour, Coventry North West

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason his Department has not reissued the guidance to local authorities that initiated the Everybody In scheme, including the sections that covered people who have No Recourse To Public Funds.

Photo of Eddie Hughes Eddie Hughes Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

This Government has taken unprecedented steps to protect rough sleepers during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.

Given the new variant of COVID-19, and the new national lockdown, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure that people who sleep rough are kept as safe as possible and that we do everything we can to protect the NHS. This is backed by £10 million to protect rough sleepers and ensure their wider health needs are addressed.

We have written to all local authorities, to ensure that even more rough sleepers are safely accommodated, and to ask that this opportunity is actively used to make sure that all rough sleepers are registered with a GP where they are not already and are factored into local area vaccination plans, in line with JCVI prioritisation for COVID vaccinations.

As we set out in that letter the law on eligibility relating to immigration status, including for those with No Recourse to Public Funds, remains in place. Local authorities must use their judgement in assessing what support they may lawfully give to those who might otherwise be ineligible for support as a result of immigration status. This should be carried out on an individual basis, considering that person’s specific circumstances and support needs. Local authorities already make similar judgements on accommodating otherwise ineligible individuals during extreme weather, for example, where there is a risk to life.

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