Why Housing
Shane with dog Kimmy in Rotherham
Coyle with Mirror in debate yesterday WILL QUINCE URGES EXTENSION OF HOUSING FIRST SCHEME THE Mirror’s call for action on homelessness was backed by MPs across the political spectrum in Parliament yesterday.
They said the Government’s strategy to get people off the streets is not ambitious enough, and falls well behind the public’s desire to solve the issue.
Tory MP Will Quince backed our demand for an extension to the Housing First scheme, which provides mental health and addiction support as well as housing. He said: “If we don’t address the underlying causes of homelessness then getting someone a home may not solve the problem.”
Labour MP Neil Coyle displayed yesterday’s Mirror front page telling of “Britain’s shame” as he spoke in the debate. He said our “fantastic campaign deserves credit for humanising what can be a bit of a statistical debate, when PLEA Tory MP Will Quince actually these are real people’s lives in devastating circumstances”.
MPs agreed the Government lacked ambition with its target to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027.
That timeframe is “too long” and it must be “far more ambitious”, said Mr Quince, who co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness with Mr Coyle.
And Labour’s Lyn Brown said even that target will not be met at the current rate of progress. Rough sleeping fell by 2% last year but rose in big cities
If we don’t address the causes then getting somepme a home may not solve it
WHY is society so slow to adopt Housing First to beat homelessness?
There is huge evidence, with individual stories and large-scale trials, to show that it works.
The biggest challenge is changing people’s perceptions about long-term homeless people, that they need some supervision or must prove they are “housing-ready”. There is also often a