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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities recently (Saturday 3 September 2022) published a new rough sleeping strategy to drive forward its manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping for good.

Responding to announcement, Rick Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, the national membership charity for frontline homelessness organisations in England, recently said:

“Together with 28 other leading homelessness organisations, we recently wrote to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak asking that, if elected, their government publish a new strategy in its goal to end rough sleeping in England. Therefore, we are delighted that the Department for Levelling Up have published this blue-print today.

“We look forwards to reading the detail but it appears that from embedding long-term measures to help people leave homelessness for good, giving more resources to emergency interventions, and further focus on preventing people from becoming homelessness in the first place the strategy is a step in the right direction in the goal of ending rough sleeping within this Parliament.

“However, we must also be realistic that the cost-of-living crisis is going to force more people into homelessness. Our members across the country are already seeing increased demand for their services and increased running costs. We will be working with the Government and our member organisations to come with solutions to this issue, building on the funding and ideas within this strategy.”