Andy Burnham calls for homelessness commitment from party leaders

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, has called on party leaders to make commitments towards tackling homelessness during the 2019 general election campaign.

Last year, over 700 homeless people died in England and Wales, representing a 22% increase since 2017. However, Greater Manchester has seen homelessness fall over the last two winters, in contrast to the national trend, according to homelessness charity, Shelter. Andy Burnham has outlined the commitments he wants party leaders to sign up to in a letter. These include:

• Providing emergency funding to roll out Greater Manchester’s “A Bed Every Night” scheme across England this winter, and into 2020
• Ending the freeze of the Local Housing Allowance to ensure it keeps up with local rents
• Ending no-fault evictions
• Abolishing the policy of no recourse to public funds

Andy Burnham said:

More than 700 homeless people died last year, but this human tragedy has not had the attention it deserves in the General Election campaign.

“In this day and age British people should not be dying on our streets for want of a roof over their heads. So today, I have written to party leaders about immediate steps a new Prime Minister and government should take to save lives this winter.

“Thousands are volunteering their time to help homeless people and before casting their votes people need to know that the party leaders will take action to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

“Here in Greater Manchester, we have made great progress in reducing the numbers of people sleeping rough on our streets but much more needs to be done at national level.

“Homelessness shames our society and our duty to care for all citizens. We need a government that will listen to what is needed and deliver on commitments to end rough sleeping.”

Greater Manchester’s A Bed Every Night scheme has helped over 2,500 people into emergency accommodation in the last 12 months, and nearly 950 have found longer-term housing.