I believe that, in a civilized society, it is unacceptable that people should be faced with the fear of homelessness. It is vitally important to help the most vulnerable in society get their lives back on track and as the MP of a city which faces a particular problem with homelessness, I want to see real progress being made.
Since 2010, over £500 million has been made available to give councils and the voluntary sector the tools needed to prevent homelessness. This has prevented nearly 1 million people from becoming homeless, but I know that more can be done.
I am glad that the Government is maintaining homelessness prevention funding for local authorities and increasing central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million. £40 million is also being provided to refurbish hostels and to provide low cost shared accommodation for young people at risk of homelessness. I welcome the £5 million fund which has been announced for the 25 local authorities facing the greatest pressures in moving people out of temporary accommodation and into a home.
At the Budget, the Government announced that it would invest £100 million to deliver low-cost 'second stage' accommodation for rough sleepers leaving hostel accommodation and domestic abuse victims and their families moving on from refuges. Funding for the Rough Sleeping Social Impact Bond is being doubled to £10 million to find ways to tackle entrenched rough sleeping. A further £10 million will also support innovative ways to prevent and reduce rough sleeping over two years, particularly in London, building on the success of the No Second Night Out initiative.
I would like to thank Genesis Trust and Julian House for all their work to tackle this issue and I look forward to working with them on how Government money can be spent locally.
Additionally, I recently raised this issue in the House of Commons with the Minister for Local Government. A transcript can be found below
Ben Howlett: I, too, welcome the Chancellor’s announcement of an extra £110 million to help to tackle rough sleeping, a problem that is evident in my constituency because of the large number of tourists in our city. How will my hon. Friend ensure that charities such as Genesis Trust and Julian House, which benefited from the Chancellor’s measures in the last Parliament, will be able to benefit from the new fund as well?
Marcus Jones: I was delighted to hear my hon. Friend welcome the changes that were made in the Budget to support the homeless and rough sleepers, and I was also pleased to hear about the work that is being done by Julian House and the Genesis Trust. I can assure him that we will work with the homelessness sector and local authorities to design the £110,000 million to help people who are on the streets to come off the streets.