Keir Starmer buys a poppy from the Royal British Legion. Image: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
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Hundreds of veterans could be made homeless as government funding for key accommodation faces an uncertain future, Big Issue has learned.
Leaders of veterans’ charities providing housing funded by Op FORTITUDE, which has helped more than 1,000 veterans avoid homelessness, say they do not know if they will receive cash for the accommodation beyond March and have warned rough sleeping could increase.
Keir Starmer promised the government will “house all veterans in housing need” in a speech at Labour Party Conference in September 2024, and put millions of pounds towards stopping veteran homelessness. Ahead of Remembrance Day, Big Issue is looking at how those promises have been shaking out.
We have discovered that one charity promoted as receiving Op FORTITUDE referrals never received government funds. And a failure to make changes to a ‘local connection’ rule is putting veterans off coming forward.
Andrew Lord, chief executive of Alabaré homelessness charity, said Op FORTITUDE funded 90 bed spaces for his organisation, which had helped keep 162 veterans off the streets last year. He told Big Issue that if they could not find money to replace £300,000 in potential lost cash, “the worst-case scenario will be that some of those homes will have to close. Once they’ve closed they’re unlikely ever to be recreated.” Lord added: “The risk is that rough sleeping will increase.”
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Op FORTITUDE was announced in 2023 by the Tory government, with funding for 900 housing units, and came with a promise to end veteran homelessness by the end of the year. It got more cash from Labour in November 2024 when Starmer announced £3.5 million in funding for homeless veterans. Funding for the Op FORTITUDE hotline itself and wider services is set to continue, but those providing the housing portion are in the dark over whether they will still get money to house veterans beyond 31 March.
Alabaré provides support for veterans, but is facing the threat of losing funding. Image: Alabaré
“In my head, it wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense funding a pathway for veteran support and not having any veteran supported housing. That would seem illogical. I’m hopeful that we will receive a settlement,” said Lee Buss-Blair, director of operations and group veteran lead of Riverside, the housing association which operates the Op FORTITUDE hotline.
“For Riverside, we would no longer be able to take any high needs referrals,” said Buss-Blair. “Trying to make services stack up without any revenue funding is virtually impossible. So certainly for Riverside, there’s a strong chance that we would have to look to exiting those services completely.”
While Starmer removed the “local connection” rule for veterans seeking social housing in his 2024 conference speech, the government has not made the same change for veterans approaching councils for a homelessness assessment.
The lack of a change was making homeless veterans reluctant to go to councils for support “because they know they’re just going to get turned away”, said Andy Powell, chief executive of Healthier Heroes.
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“If a veteran from London comes to Burnley and then presents as homeless, they won’t then house him. They will make a referral to us if we can’t house him. They won’t do it because he’s not from Burnley, so they would send him back to London or wherever he’s just come from.”
Buss-Blair said Riverside had been lobbying for the change and added: “We do have veterans where we’ll find a placement for them that they’ll refuse because, understandably, they don’t want to be uprooted from where they currently are.”
Veterans are not over-represented among the homeless population – but face specific obstacles related to their military service such as mental health issues and a reluctance to engage with mainstream services.
One organisation listed by the government as taking Op FORTITUDE referrals told Big Issue it had never received any cash.
“They just basically said they ran out of money. There wasn’t a lot in the pot to start with,” said Matthew Bell, chief executive of Entrain Space. “We now just get loads of homeless referrals for homeless veterans and absolutely no extra money.”
Bell added: “I’m absolutely disgusted with the whole thing. It was just an absolute kick in the teeth for us. We inspired the minister to get the idea and then actually we didn’t get the money.”
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The money on offer for housing veterans also differed to the profits to be made by private asylum accommodation providers, Bell said. “We’ve been approached by the Home Office providers for asylum accommodation, and we would get paid two to three times as much money if we just evicted all the veterans and went over to asylum accommodation,” he said.
“There’s a system for their support, but there’s nothing for veterans. And Op FORTITUDE should have been that thing but wasn’t and isn’t.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told Big Issue: “We are committed to ensuring veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness have access to the advice and support they need, including through Operation FORTITUDE as the single referral pathway for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
“This government has dedicated £3.5m to veteran homelessness services, including Operation FORTITUDE, and a further £50m to Valour, a new programme enhancing veterans’ access to support across the country.”
