According to official figures released, life-changing interventions have supported the ending of entrenched rough sleeping in Greater Manchester, despite the pressure that local services face.
With investment being allocated to the efforts to end rough sleeping, the number of people seen on the streets of Greater Manchester on a single night is still 44% less than the peak in 2017. Despite this, snapshot figures have increased significantly.
Four years’ worth of reductions in the number of people that have been counted rough sleeping across the city region are now at risk, however, thanks to the acceleration of asylum application processing and the reduction in notice periods for people leaving accommodation. Combining these factors with a chronic shortage of affordable, decent homes in the area, the combined authority has commented that national asylum and housing policy decisions are continuing to put significant pressure on local authorities.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham commented:
“We have a clear mission in Greater Manchester: to build a coalition across the city region to prevent and end homelessness and rough sleeping for the long term. Every night spent on the street is a night too many, and I’m pleased to see our approach to tackling long-term rough sleeping is paying dividends.
“We have known for months that the unsustainable pace at which people are receiving asylum decisions and being evicted from Home Office accommodation is contributing to rising rough sleeping across the UK and placing pressure on local services, far beyond our control. The impact of those choices, coupled with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the squeeze on local budgets, is borne out in the figures we see today.
“That’s why we are calling on the government to pause evictions and invest in a proper programme of prevention and integration. We urgently need to move away from this dysfunctional system to the kind of collaborative approach that we know can help us end rough sleeping once and for all.”
In order to reduce some of the pressure on the combined authority, leaders from across Greater Manchester unanimously called for the government to pause evictions into homelessness from asylum accommodation until the system recovers. Mayor Andy Burnham has also written to the Home Secretary and the Housing Secretary to hammer home the message that leaders in Greater Manchester have serious concerns, whilst requesting a meeting to explore how the dilemma can move forward.
A joined-up approach to further tackling rough sleeping has been urged, with this including:
- Targeted investment in local authorities to respond to rough sleeping
- Extend the notice periods for eviction from asylum accommodation to 56 days
- Notify local authorities of negative asylum decisions
- Address wider policy choices that are negatively impacting housing access
- Delvier a long-term, national Housing Strategy to prioritise investment in affordable social housing.
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