First Minister, as you may be well aware, the combined
homelessness and information network, CHAIN, commissioned and
funded by the Greater London Authority, is a database of
information recording people seen rough-sleeping by outreach
teams in London. Services that record information on CHAIN
include outreach teams, accommodation projects, day centres and
specialist projects, such as the commissioned No Second Night Out
project. The real benefits of the network are that it is updated
every day and provides a far more detailed understanding of
rough-sleeping in a particular area, compared to the national
count. It also captures far more detail about an individual's
situation, such as how long they have been sleeping rough, and it
helps agencies such as the Salvation
Army, who do such an incredible job of helping homeless
people, with any support needs that they have. With this in mind,
First Minister, will you consider introducing a comprehensive
multi-agency database, along the lines of the CHAIN system
operating in London, in Wales in order to improve the planning
and delivery of services for people experiencing street
homelessness? Thank you.
(First Minister of Wales)
Llywydd, I'm aware of the CHAIN system and it does, undoubtedly,
have many merits in a city the size and scale of London, but I
don't believe that the difficulty faced in homelessness services
in Wales is one of a lack of information. We have monthly reports
from all our local authorities about the number of people who are
street homeless; they are directly in touch with all of them on a
very, very regular basis. What our system lacks is the funding
necessary to be able to respond to people who find themselves in
that situation. It's not a deficit of information, Llywydd, it is
the challenge of responding to a problem that has been growing
every year since the COVID pandemic.
