Government urged to recognise ‘homelessness emergency’

Andy Burnham has called on the government to declare a homelessness emergency and embrace the city-region’s comprehensive plan to tackle rough sleeping as the predominant national strategy.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester is expected to use a speech marking two years since his first day as Mayor of the city-region, Burnham will outline a host of measures that demonstrate how Greater Manchester is leading the way in delivering the most comprehensive package of action to tackle homelessness anywhere in the country.

As part of his address he will call on the government to mirror the recent importance placed on the debate on climate change with a pledge to prioritise tackling rough sleeping by declaring it a homelessness emergency, in the wake of at least 449 deaths on UK streets last year.

Burnham is also determined that Greater Manchester’s A Bed Every Night scheme, which was established last autumn to support every person sleeping rough on the city-region’s streets, will be extended by 12 months. The Mayor is also expected to restate his manifesto commitment to end the need for rough sleeping in Greater Manchester by 2020, seven years ahead of the national government target, and will reveal his intention to continue to contribute 15 per cent of his salary to the cause.

Burnham is expected to say: “Last week Parliament voted, rightly, to declare a climate change emergency. But where is the declaration of a homelessness emergency? Surely, when hundreds are dying every year on British streets, that is exactly what is needed. People in doorways is in danger of being accepted as just an inevitable and unchangeable fact of modern life. It can’t be allowed to happen. This is a humanitarian crisis is of our own making – and entirely fixable. We need to approach it with a new mindset and a new urgency.”