Emergency homes crisis to ‘get worse’
TOWN HALL TO PLOUGH EXTRA £3M INTO ITS STRUGGLING HOMELESSNESS SERVICE
THIRTY new households a week are currently being placed in emergency accommodation as Manchester’s destitution crisis spirals – but the picture is about to get even worse.
The town hall is to plough more than £3m extra into its struggling homelessness service from April as it warns Universal Credit and changes to legislation will see demand soar even further.
In the next three years it expects a 60 per cent increase in people needing help to avoid becoming homeless, plus a 20pc rise in the number of people the council has a legal duty to re-house.
New figures released last month revealed rough sleeping in the city had rocketed 13-fold since 2010.
At the same time the numbers of people on the brink of homelessness – including those needing temporary accommodation – have also shot up.
The council’s budget report reveals a 319pc rise in people living in emergency housing during that time, with between 25 and 30 new households now being placed there each week.
There has also been a 150pc increase both in people asking for help and in those owed a legal re-housing duty.
Now the council is warning of a ‘significant’ further rise.
From April the new Homelessness Reduction Act will expect town halls to do more than at present, including providing help to people without a direct connection to the area, should they present themselves. As a big city that draws in many people from other places, Manchester council could find itself under particular pressure thanks to the rule change. At the same time more in-depth homelessness assessments will be required, along with a more rigorous approach to people who may be ‘threatened’ with homelessness. By April the council expects 6,000 households to need help, it says, adding: “There will be a significant increase in demand over the next three years.” Meanwhile, 56,000 new households in Manchester are eventually due to transfer on to Universal Credit – which brings with it a fiveweek delay in benefit payments. “This delay in receiving money is likely to place more households at risk of homelessness,” it says, due to the resulting rise in rental arrears. Manchester council is buying up 15 new family properties in Wythenshawe in a bid to ease the crisis, while social landlords are setting aside 100 homes. It is also adding £3.4m more into its homelessness budget – on top of its existing pot of around £20m. Overall, the town hall plans to put up council tax by 4.99pc in April and use a range of other resources – including a £9m increase in its airport ownership dividend and £7m from on-street car parking charges – in order to set a balanced budget for next year.