Parliamentarians Launch New report Calling for Urgent Action to End Homelessness

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness (APPGEH) has today launched a new report: Homes, Support, Prevention – Our Foundations for Ending Homelessness, setting out how the UK Government’s forthcoming cross-departmental strategy can end homelessness for good.

The report comes against a backdrop of rising numbers of people forced to sleep rough and more than 130,000 households, including nearly 170,000 children, experiencing  temporary accommodation.

It draws on powerful testimony from people with lived experience of homelessness, frontline workers, academics, and local government leaders.

This year, over the course of four events, the APPG has heard that homelessness is not inevitable. Rather, that our systems often trap people in cycles of instability.

We can change this. The report identifies three key pillars that must sit at the heart of any national approach:

• Homes – Rapidly rehousing people in safe, settled, and genuinely affordable homes.
• Support – Improving support for people experiencing the most acute forms of homelessness.
• Prevention – Preventing homelessness wherever possible across public services.

The APPGEH is urging ministers to seize the historic opportunity presented by the new investment in social rent homes and embed the report recommendations into the forthcoming cross-government strategy for homelessness and rough sleeping  to ensure everyone has a safe place to call home.

The APPG is also calling for the new strategy to set a target of tnding roughing sleeping and halving the use of temporary accommodation over the next 10-years. This is achievable with this roadmap and the right political will. We look forward to working with Government to achieve these changes over the course of this Parliament.

Read the full report here.