Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities on the effects of the covid 19 outbreak on LGBTQ+ homeless youth.

This is a public health crisis more than anything and so requires a health response. We have worked across the public sector in order to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping for all throughout the crisis.

To enable this, our priority is to bring people inside so they can self-isolate and stop the virus spreading. This Government has provided funding to assist local authorities to provide accommodation and support to vulnerable people who are at risk of, or who have been diagnosed with, coronavirus. This may include people identifying as LGBT, as well as those who identify as having another protected characteristic. We will continue to work closely with local authorities to ensure that they have the resources and guidance they need to protect all people who are currently, or at risk of, sleeping rough or becoming homeless. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to make their own decisions about vulnerability when providing services.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, charities across the country including LGBT charities were able to bid for funding through the VCSE fund which is £6 million of emergency funding as part of a £750 million package of government support for UK charities who may have been impacted by the pandemic. This Coronavirus (COVID-19) Homelessness Response Fund was delivered by Homeless Link and applications closed on Wednesday 27 May. This work is to support rough sleepers into long-term accommodation, with more than 15,000 helped off the streets during the pandemic.

We have also put in place bespoke support for local authorities through our Homelessness Advice and Support Team, which includes dedicated youth homelessness advisor roles that have a commitment to work with local authorities to proactively promote positive joint working across housing authorities and children’s services, offering training, advice and support to all local authorities.

£3.2 billion of additional funding?was provided to local authorities to enable them to respond to other COVID-19 pressures across all the services they deliver. This is in addition to £3.2 million in targeted funding to ensure that we minimise the risk to those rough sleepers unable to self-isolate. On 24 June we?announced that we are?providing local authorities with?a further?£105 million?to enable them?to?best?support the 15,000 people placed into emergency accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic.