London’s homeless still need help after the Government's pandemic rescue

A homeless person outside Victoria station
PA Wire/PA Images
Seyi Obakin22 June 2020
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The Government did almost everything right when it came to getting rough sleepers off the streets amid the pandemic — it’s no mean feat to help 90 per cent find shelter over a long weekend, and they should be congratulated.

Now, amid rumours that the Everyone In initiative is being wound down, we need an exit strategy that matches the initial deployment.

Sadly, early indications suggest the Government has no intention of developing one.

That would be a disaster for the homeless young people who were rescued at the start of lockdown and have seized this opportunity to turn their lives around.

A particular concern is that the £643 million, announced in the Budget to help rough sleepers into permanent accommodation, is too small for all but the most basic support post-lockdown.

None of it may find its way to hostel providers who give beds to 11,000 people aged 18 to 25 in the UK.

Hostels are instrumental in helping rough sleepers escape the streets, but we seem to be off the radar.

Costs are mounting, particularly due to hiring expensive agency staff to cover sickness, and purchasing PPE in the first few weeks of the pandemic.

The financial outlook was poor before Covid. Over the last decade, annual government spending on homelessness has halved from £1.5 billion to £750 million.

At Centrepoint, maintaining the quality of our services has only been possible because of the public’s generous donations. These provide 60 per cent of our resources.

But coronavirus has brought traditional fundraising activity to a halt, leaving us vulnerable to the Government’s funding whims.

It is important that charities like us take the initiative: we are working with leading employers to offer apprenticeship schemes, and investing in modular homes that young people can afford as part of our Independent Living Programme.

With charities, central and local government, and businesses working together, we can get young people off the street, out of hostels and into their own homes and jobs.

Without a cohesive exit strategy from government that affords former rough sleepers the chance to work towards sustaining a tenancy, there’s a real risk that our vulnerable young people will simply fall out of the system and back into sleeping rough.

Centrepoint is championing a coherent, properly funded exit strategy so that we’re not left with another case study in what happens when government simply absolves itself of responsibility.

Seyi Obakin is CEO of Centrepoint

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