Homelessness: Homewards Initiative Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Lord Watts
Main Page: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Watts's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
The right reverend Prelate is right; Sheffield City Council has been allocated over £4 million through the rough sleeping initiatives, which will run from 2022 to 2025, to help end rough sleeping in the city. It has also been allocated £2.4 million through the rough sleeping accommodation programme, again until 2025. So these are not annual nor short-term amounts of money. The right reverend Prelate is right; these things cannot be done by government alone. We know that individual local authority areas have specific problems and that is why we are asking them to deal with these issues. I will also say that the third sector, in particular churches and community groups, are absolutely necessary in a city such as Sheffield.
Lord Watts (Lab)
During Covid, there was a massive reduction in the number of homeless people on the streets. Why does the Minister think that this has been reversed?
Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
I think that over Covid, the issue was that people were frightened, scared and did not want to stay out. Since Covid, we have gone into a further economic downturn, particularly because of the dreadful war in Ukraine—