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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make permanent housing and support, including the Housing First model, the default option for people with complex needs who had previously been sleeping rough and who have been supported under the Everyone In initiative.

More than 5,400?rough?sleepers?– over 90% of those on the streets?at the beginning of the crisis?known to local authorities have now been made offers of safe accommodation – ensuring some of the most vulnerable in society are protected from the pandemic. This includes those rough sleeping or who have been living in accommodation with communal sleeping spaces such as night shelters.

The Government allocated £28 million to pilot Housing First at scale in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and West Midlands combined authorities in May 2018. Our independent contractors for the evaluation, ICF, are making progress and the first interim process report is due to be published later this year. We will use this to inform any potential future decisions on roll out.

This funding is alongside significant investment including £112m across England in 2020/21 for the Rough Sleeping Initiative to help around 270 areas tackle rough sleeping across 2020/21. The funding is a 30% increase on the previous year and will be used to introduce and expand a range of measures, including housing support and housing-led solutions, as well as specialist support workers.