Welsh Government considers Housing First scheme to tackle homelessness

The move comes despite Wales introducing a pioneering homelessness prevention programme as recently as 2015, a model which is set to be adopted in England.

Inside Housing’s Cathy at 50 campaign has been calling for policymakers across the UK to adopt the Housing First strategy, which involves giving individuals permanent housing immediately and then providing support.

Responding to questions in the Welsh Assembly on Wednesday, Carl Sargeant, communities and children secretary for Wales, said that “now is the time” for a review of homelessness prevention in the region.

“We recognise that, although our Welsh legislation is preventing homelessness, there are still people sleeping on our streets for a variety of reasons,” Mr Sargeant told Inside Housing.

“I am reviewing our policies regarding rough sleeping and the support available to tackle this problem. We are talking to organisations to explore Housing First-style initiatives.

“We are also looking at more flexible uses of funding to help people into their own accommodation as well as improving the data we gather on rough sleeping to inform the development of a set of national principles which I will expect local authorities to adopt.”

A national rough sleeper count conducted across Wales in November 2016 found that the number of people bedding down outside had increased dramatically despite the Welsh Government introducing its prevention programme the year before.

Mr Sargeant met with homelessness charities Shelter and Crisis on Wednesday to discuss the Welsh Government’s strategy for tackling the problem.

Jennie Bibbings, campaigns manager at Shelter Cymru, said: “It is nice to see him saying positive things about Housing First. It is the strongest signal I have seen that this is something the Welsh Government is seriously looking at.

“But the next step is starting to propose something that can provide extra security to people in mainstream private rented accommodation as well.”

Communities secretary Sajid Javid recently backed a feasibility study on the introduction of Housing First schemes in England. It has huge success in countries such as Finland where it has all but eradicated rough sleeping.