Homelessness charities have told Rishi Sunak they are deeply concerned the government will fail to meet its target of ending rough sleeping in England by 2024.
In a letter to the prime minister, the organisations said the data shows “we are going backwards in terms of meeting the goal”.
In September, the government published its Ending Rough Sleeping For Good strategy, which restated its 2019 manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping by the end of this parliament.
More than 30 organisations including St Mungo’s and the National Housing Federation have signed the letter, which was co-ordinated by Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness organisations.
Figures released by the government in February showed that a snapshot of a single night in autumn last year found 3,069 people sleeping rough, up 626 (26 per cent) on the equivalent total for 2021 and nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) above the level in 2010 when the figures began.
Figures specific to London – from the latest Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) report – showed that between January and March a total of 3,107 people were recorded by outreach teams as sleeping rough in the capital – a 14 per cent increase on the same period last year.
The organisations welcomed funding announced in the Spring Statement and the introduction of the long-awaited Renters’ Reform Bill to Parliament last month with the pledge to end Section 21 so-called no-fault evictions – but said more must be done.
These are not just numbers, but people, let down by systems that should protect them
The letter said: “But, despite these positives, we remain deeply concerned about the financial position of homelessness services across the country. Very few local authorities have the resources to uplift commissioned homelessness contracts in line with inflation, meaning some homelessness providers are currently trying to manage annual shortfalls in the hundreds of thousands of pounds for commissioned services.
“Polling of the homelessness sector from the charity Homeless Link found that nearly half of the 356 organisations who responded agreed that the rising cost of living means their organisations risk service closures. Clearly the £100m the chancellor outlined in the Spring Budget, which is due to be spread across the whole of the third sector, is simply not enough.”
The groups said they know of some homelessness services scaling back their work to cut costs, saying if that continues and services have to close, people will not have safe and trusted providers of support and accommodation to turn to and some might have to “face the trauma of returning to the streets”.
The letter added: “These are not just numbers, but people, let down by systems that should protect them. It could be a young person who’s recently left the care system, a woman fleeing an abusive partner or someone who simply couldn’t keep up with rising rents no matter how hard they tried.”
It called on Mr Sunak to “take the necessary action” to meet the target, “including giving local authorities the resources to uplift commissioned homelessness contracts to reflect inflation so services like us can provide the best possible support to people who need it”.
A government spokesperson said they remain “absolutely committed to ending rough sleeping”, highlighting the £2 billion Rough Sleeping Strategy to help people off the streets which includes investment of up to £500 million in funding to local authorities across England from April 2022 to March 2025.
