To: Eddie Hughes
Increase and maintain the support for the homeless after COVID
We would like Eddie Hughes MP to ensure that funding and support is continued once the coronavirus pandemic has gone. In both England and Wales there were Ministerial statements in March 2020 that all rough sleepers should be accommodated, through £161million out of a £433m four-year budget. With an underestimate amount of rough sleepers and COVID restrictions becoming lessened, where do the homeless go when they leave temporary accommodation? There needs to be clear plans and support for those who are homeless in order to reduce the rate at which people return to the streets. We have started to address these issues, and we must keep this momentum before the numbers begin to rise.
Why is this important?
The COVID pandemic has meant that the issues regarding homelessness have been in the spotlight, and therefore, it has been more important to address them during a time of need. The problem is that it has taken such a pandemic to take action, once COVID has become apart of the past what is it to say that homelessness will lose its funding and attention. Both the unemployed and homeless people face the return back to the streets of the UK when there is less priority to keep those vulnerable safe from such virus. This is why it is important to sustain the level of support that has been given over the past year, and to possibly increase it in order to meet the 2024 goals of eradicating homelessness.
