‘Buy hotels to provide refuge for homeless’
A TORY former Cabinet minister and a peer who was once homeless have called on the Government to buy up hotels to help rough sleepers.
Ex-business secretary Andrea Leadsom and Big Issue founder John Bird have joined forces to push for changes that will give people on the streets a “hand up, not a hand out”.
Ministers have put in place a raft of emergency measures to house those without a roof over their heads during the coronavirus crisis.
Around 2,000 rough sleepers England have been given rooms budget hotels.
Mrs Leadsom and Lord Bird, along with former homelessness minister Heather Wheeler and Robin Burgess, head of Northampton Hope Centre charity, have called for some of the properties to be bought up to provide permanent rehabilitation centres.
Lord Bird, who was left homeless when he was young, said: “We cannot allow rough sleeping to return to how it was before Covid-19.
“The Government needs a plan to help those who are on the streets into safe accommodation, to give them the support they need to recover and deal with the demons that got them there and then to help them back into society.
“We need to extend a hand – but a hand up, not a hand out.”
The group also called for the creation of Japanese-style pods that give a person a secure bed for the night, with locking doors and access to a toilet. Many rough sleepers fear violence or assault in shelters.
Mrs Leadsom’s husband Ben is chairman of the Hope Centre in Northampton and she has pressed for early intervention to prevent people ending up on the streets.
She said: “Societies are judged by how they treat their most vulnerable and there’s no doubt rough sleeping is a concern to all of us.”
Mrs Leadsom said better in in support for infants would prevent homelessness in later life.
Speaking ahead of Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, which starts on Monday, she said: “Doing this right can prevent all sorts of difficult life circumstances later on – including homelessness and mental health struggles.”