As I am out and about in Cheltenham, I have become increasingly concerned over recent months about the number of rough sleepers in our town. Earlier this month, an official survey found nine. A further two were known to be rough sleeping that night by key agencies. That might not sound like many, but each one is a human story. Each one is a living rebuke to us to do more.
In a civilized society, it is unacceptable that people should be faced with the fear of homelessness. It is vitally important to help the most vulnerable in society get their lives back on track.
Since 2010, councils have prevented over 1 million households from becoming homeless and the Government is now protecting homelessness prevention funding for councils. This will total £315 million by 2020. It has also increased central funding to tackle homelessness to £139 million over the next four years.
And whilst nationwide, homelessness acceptances are now less than half of what they were during their peak in 2003-04, I strongly believe we should do more. So this week I was proud to vote for the Homeless Reduction Bill, which is supported by the charity St Mungo’s and Crisis Expert Panel. Under current legislation for those who are not regarded as ‘priority need’ the council has a lesser duty to help them find accommodation. It means single people and couples without children can be left most vulnerable.
This Bill expands ‘priority need’, by changing the definition of ‘threatened with homelessness’ from 28 to 56 days and local councils will have to accept a valid eviction notice as evidence that the tenant is threatened with homelessness (currently authorities do not have to accept them as homeless until they are evicted).
People sometimes ask me what they should do to report rough sleeping. Streetlink is the primary method of alerting the authorities. The service began in 2012 and is funded by the Government. It is a website (http://www.streetlink.org.uk/) and app, and there is a referral line number too: 0300 500 0914. Any reports via streetlink will go directly to St Mungo’s, who are currently the assertive outreach provider for Gloucestershire.
We are privileged to have some brilliant organisations in Cheltenham that do phenomenal work in this field, from Cheltenham Open Door to Emmaus, CCP and YMCA. If you would like to know more, email me at alex.chalk.mp@parliament.uk and I would be delighted to help.