I'm a Labour MP. We must be bolder if we want to turn around the state's failures on homelessness

As co-chair for the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for ending homelessness I welcome the long-awaited publication of the cross-government strategy to end homelessness. Our APPG, supported by Crisis, the secretariat, worked closely with the wider homelessness sector, and those with lived experience, to formulate an idea of what we believed the strategy should look like in our report: Homes, Support, Prevention – Our Foundations for Ending Homelessness. To that end I do welcome much of the framework and aims of the strategy, but sadly believe the detail is lacking.   

There are clear targets on halving long-term rough sleeping, ending the illegal use of B&Bs as long-term housing for families, preventing more people from becoming homeless from public institutions, including by halving homelessness on release from prisons and ending homelessness on discharge from hospitals, as well as requirements for councils to engage local people to design inclusive services. These all reflect our recommendations and are deeply welcome.  

However, whilst these are positive measures, they still leave a lot of questions. Where is the accommodation for people sleeping rough coming from? What about specialised provision for those fleeing domestic abuse? Where will families in temporary accommodation be going after the six weeks? We have been waiting on this strategy for 18 months now, yet somehow it still looks as if it’s been rushed out. It falls far short of what the sector has consistently been calling for throughout this time. 

The country is in the midst of an unprecedented housing and homelessness crisis – more than 380,000 people in England will be spending the festive season homeless, including 175,000 children. That is a complete and utter failing of our state. If we were to have any hope in turning this around, we needed to be bold. 

If the government had truly listened to the sector about what works, as an immediate measure they would have unfrozen local housing allowance (LHA). In my constituency of Liverpool Wavertree, LHA does not cover the cost of rent for over 55% of cases. Without this we will see more people made homeless due to unaffordable rents in the meantime.  

As a long-term measure, a national rollout of Housing First should have been a core component of the strategy. Instead, it has only been included as a suggested approach for local authorities to undertake themselves. Housing First is proven to work for people with multiple needs. Recent MHCLG pilots provided with this service saw 92% living in a stable home after one year and it was repeatedly raised as best practice in the evidence we gathered as part of our work on the APPG report.  

It has also proven to have high levels of success for those fleeing domestic abuse. This week I hosted a roundtable with Solace and others from the sector. What was made abundantly clear was that strengthening the housing response breaks the cycle of abuse and homelessness, offering instead long-term recovery and stability. 

Read more:

• Labour aims to halve number of rough sleepers by 2029 with new £3.5bn homelessness strategy
• Is Labour really going to end homelessness?
• ‘The only reason I got a place is I was set on fire’: The voices behind Labour’s homelessness plan

For the majority of women, fleeing abuse still means finding somewhere new to live. They have made the brave and difficult decisions to leave their abusers but often are left with a struggle to get temporary accommodation and longer-term housing. 

When I visited Greater Manchester a couple of years ago, I saw firsthand how Housing First can transform the lives of people fleeing abuse. I met women who had been given a safe home and wraparound support – women who were suddenly able to take charge of their own destiny, to begin again with dignity and with hope. These schemes work. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel – we need to scale it up. Housing First recognises that healing and rebuilding takes more than a roof overhead. And we know it works.  

Ultimately, there is a depressing lack of meat on the bones of this strategy, which is incredibly disappointing after waiting 18 months for it. Rather than bold, co-ordinated and comprehensive action, the government has chosen a far more piecemeal approach. From my experience this is a mistake that will likely end up having a far higher price – economically, yes, but also in terms of human cost. 

Paula Barker is the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree and co-chair for the APPG for Ending Homelessness.

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