MPs call for more money for rapid-housing scheme

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness has called for more government funding for a scheme to quickly house long-term homeless people in England.

The Housing First programme puts eligible people straight into long-term housing, without making them first seek help in temporary accommodation. The pilots in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands began in May 2018 after they received £28m in government funding.

MPs on the APPG have called for the funding to continue beyond next year, when it is due to finish, seeking £451 million over the next three years to expand the scheme. The group says that places under the scheme remain ‘far below the scale of the demand’, and are still largely concentrated in the pilot areas.

The Housing First scheme works by targeting the offer of long-term housing to people with complex needs such as mental health problems, drug dependency or a history of being abused. Unlike the approach more traditionally used by councils, a long-term home is offered to people without conditions attached. The aim is to give homeless people more stability, with support then offered on an open-ended basis.

Around 2,000 places are available in England, delivered by 90 organisations including charities, with around half funded through government pilots. Research in the APPG report, funded by housing charity Crisis, estimated up to 16,450 Housing First places were needed across England.

The APPG is a cross-party group with nine Labour MPs and peers, seven Conservatives, and one MP each from Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats.