Greater Manchester's drive to tackle homelessness accelerates with Housing First announcement

• Andy Burnham names Great Places as organisation commissioned to deliver on the ground
• Housing First accommodation to be up and running later in the year
• Backed by significant Government funding; £7.6 million
• Builds on existing progress made, Social Impact Bond and 1,400+ helped by A Bed Every Night scheme

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has revealed the organisation commissioned to lead on delivering hundreds of new homes for people previously sleeping rough as the city-region’s ground-breaking Housing First scheme gets under way.

Andy Burnham has announced that Great Places Housing Group – a housing association based in Manchester with affordable homes, social housing and supported housing in the North West and Yorkshire – will lead a consortium assisting up to 400 people into their own homes with support over the next three years, backed by £7.6 million of Government funding.

Great Places will work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and a host of other partner organisations to deliver quality, secure safe places to live across the city-region for individuals with multiple and complex needs who are either homeless or in precarious circumstances regarding their accommodation.

The announcement comes as the figures for rough sleepers assisted by the Mayor’s A Bed Every Night scheme – a pledge to provide warm, safe and supported accommodation for those sleeping on the streets in the city-region every night of this winter – show more than 1,400 have been helped indoors since the start of November. Of those, over 300 have already been helped to move through the system and into more secure arrangements away from the streets.

Additionally, Housing First builds upon the existing Social Impact Bond (SIB) which has so far secured independent living spaces for 223 of the city-region’s previously most entrenched rough sleepers.

The Mayor has pledged to end the need for rough sleeping in the city-region by May 2020. He said: “This is the latest step on our journey. Housing First is a proven successful model. Delivering a sustainable and impactful Housing First service across Greater Manchester will be crucial if we are to make good on our promise to address the humanitarian crisis that is homelessness, and rough sleeping in particular.

“Great Places have an ambitious approach and their bold aims match ours – in this day and age no-one should be without a home and in Greater Manchester we are doing things differently, choosing to prioritise tackling homelessness as a matter of urgency.

“Alongside the tremendous progress made by our A Bed Every Night and Social Impact Bond programmes, Housing First will ensure hundreds of people who currently live precarious lives will be helped to begin their recoveries and move away from homelessness. But this is a crisis situation – much needs to be done and quickly. Let’s get to work.”

Great Places will begin its work later in the year. Reflecting the success of A Bed Every Night in delivering night shelter provision across all of Greater Manchester, Housing First places will be delivered in every one of the city-region’s 10 boroughs. Over time it is anticipated that the partnership will grow with more organisations bringing online further accommodation in years two and three.

CEO of the housing association, Matthew Harrison, said: “This is really good news for the region and for all the partners involved in the delivery of this project over the next three years. This is a consortium that brings significant experience, expertise, passion and commitment and is cross sectorial, bringing together housing, health, people with lived experience and the community and voluntary sector.

“It is important that we all work together across the region and tackle the scourge of homelessness in our cities and our towns.”

Supporting Great Places to achieve a significant and sustainable impact with Greater Manchester’s Housing First model will be a number of key partner organisations sharing many years’ experience in the sector. The Greater Manchester Housing First project is endorsed by the Greater Manchester Housing Partners and is a consortium of eight partners: Riverside; Regenda Homes; Jigsaw; Stockport Homes Group; Greater Manchester Mental Health; The Bond Board; One Manchester and Great Places.

Greater Manchester’s Housing First model is one of three regional pilots funded by central Government, with West Midlands’ already under way and Merseyside soon to launch.

The Housing First model uses independent, stable housing as a platform to enable individuals with multiple and complex needs to begin recovery and move away from homelessness.

Housing First England state that through the provision of intensive, flexible and person-centred support, 70-90% of Housing First residents are able to remain housed – having a place to call home also leads to improvements in people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.

The Housing First approach was first developed by Pathways to Housing in New York in the early-1990s. It has since been adopted in several major cities in the United States as well as in countries including Denmark, France and Finland.

The Finnish model has formed the basis of Greater Manchester’s planning – in Helsinki, the approach has cost the national government 300m euros (£260m) over the last decade. However, rough sleeping is now virtually non-existent in the capital city.

In Greater Manchester, Housing First will form a central part of a network of services and approaches delivering a co-ordinated and concerted effort to address rough sleeping and homelessness. Alongside A Bed Every Night, which at the moment is funded to run to the end of March, Housing First will run alongside the £1.8 million SIB as another innovative and successful approach to addressing the crisis of people living without a home.

A Bed Every Night is funded by the city-region’s local authorities and is supplemented by private donations from concerned individuals and businesses. For more information and donate visit www.bedeverynight.co.uk.

Article Published: 13/02/2019 14:04 PM