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Urgent call to protect rough sleepers from ‘dangerous, cold winter’
The MP for Bristol West says the Prime Minister’s call for people to stay home will “ring hollow” for those without a roof over their heads.
Thangam Debbonaire has accused the Government of failing to provide the leadership or funding to ensure everyone has a safe place to stay as she called for the urgent reinstatement of the ‘everyone in’ scheme implemented during the first lockdown in March.
It comes amid warnings the country faces a “perfect storm of awfulness” with many people forced to return to the streets and thousands more facing homelessness as the social and economic impact of the pandemic hit hard.
is needed now More than ever
In Bristol, mayor Marvin Rees said 1,181 people have moved into private rental, social or supported housing, while 372 remain in emergency hostels or hotels and 418 have secured their own permanent home.
But an estimated 75 people are currently sleeping rough in the city – a big increase from the first lockdown, when all bar a few were put up in emergency accommodation.
Hundreds of people were found emergency accommodation under the first lockdown – photo courtesy of Caring in Bristol
The mayor said during a press briefing on Wednesday that the city is doing well in tackling homelessness due to the efforts of the council and voluntary sector, but he argued continued investment from Government is needed.
Rees added: “There is still an absence of clarity over what Government are going to do to ensure we have the resources to ensure we can support people at the scale we did last time.”
Shadow housing secretary Debbonaire has written to the Government to ask for the ‘everyone in’ scheme to be urgently restarted for the winter lockdown.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, she said: “The Prime Minister’s order to stay home will ring hollow for people with no home.
“In March, the Government told councils and charities to bring rough sleepers in and the extraordinary efforts prevented thousands of infections, over a thousand hospital admissions and 266 deaths but now the rough sleeping tsar is no longer in post and warns we are facing a perfect storm of awfulness.”
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Debbonaire said many of those brought in off the streets during the first lockdown have returned, while thousands more are newly homeless. She said there has been a 50 per cent increase in young people sleeping rough since last year in London alone.
“Government has provided neither the leadership nor the funding to ensure all rough people have a safe place,” said the MP for Bristol West.
She added: “The homelessness crisis is a result of ten years of Tory failure. Will the minister now commit to abolishing section 21 evictions as the Government said it would to prevent a further rise in homelessness and to invest in the support and social housing that we need so we can genuinely end rough sleeping for good?”
In response, Kelly Tolhurst, the undersecretary of state for rough sleeping and housing, said the Government has set out “unprecedented support”, saying more than £700m has been committed to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping.
Read more: Bristol’s homelessness crisis: what next?
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