Today the National Audit Office
(NAO) reports that through its 'Everyone In' campaign, the
Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government (the
Department) swiftly provided emergency housing for rough sleepers
during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the
response raised issues that need to be addressed if government is
to achieve its goal of ending rough sleeping by the end of this
Parliament.
Rough sleepers typically experience poorer
health than the rest of the population and are especially
vulnerable to respiratory illnesses. Those at risk of rough
sleeping may also occasionally sleep in communal shelters, where
they cannot self-isolate if they have symptoms of
COVID-19.
On 26 March 2020, the Department launched its
'Everyone In' campaign, asking local authorities to immediately
house rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping to
protect their health and stop wider transmission of COVID-19.
Local authorities expect to spend around £170
million this financial year rehousing rough sleepers in response
to the COVID-19 pandemic, paid for by a combination of emergency
government grants, existing homelessness funding streams, and
their own resources.
The Department swiftly reorganised to launch
Everyone In, despite not having a contingency plan for protecting
the rough sleeping population in the event of a pandemic. It
adopted a hands-on approach to work intensively with local
authorities, homelessness charities and hotel chains. By
mid-April 2020, 5,400 people had been made an offer of emergency
accommodation and by the end of November, over 33,000 people had
been helped through Everyone In. A total of 23,273 people had
been supported to move into the private rental sector or another
form of settled accommodation, and 9,866 people remained in
hotels and other emergency accommodation.
COVID-19 claimed relatively few lives among
the rough sleeping population in England in the first wave. Up to
June 2020,1 16 deaths among homeless people had been
linked to COVID-19. Evidence suggests that Everyone In may have
avoided more than 20,000 infections and 266 deaths
overall.2
The number of people accommodated under
Everyone In over several months far exceeded the number of people
recorded as rough sleeping in the government's annual national
‘snapshot' of the rough sleeping population. In the autumn of
2019, this snapshot estimated that there were 4,266 people
sleeping rough on any given night, compared to the over 33,000
people who were helped by Everyone In.
In May 2020, the Department announced that it
was moving to the next phase of the government's support for
rough sleepers during the pandemic. When Everyone In was first
launched, the Department encouraged local authorities to take all
those sleeping rough into emergency accommodation, irrespective
of their nationality or entitlement to benefits. On 28 May, it
reminded local authorities that legal restrictions on offering
support to people ineligible for benefits remained in force, and
that exceptions should only be made in the case of risk to life.
Some local authorities stopped taking those who were ineligible
for benefits into emergency accommodation and sought to move on
those already in such accommodation.
There was a continued flow of rough sleepers
onto the streets over the summer and autumn of 2020. For winter
2020-21, the government has launched the Protect Programme, which
will run alongside Everyone In and will provide additional
funding of £15 million to local authorities with high numbers of
rough sleepers. In addition, the Department has announced £12
million of funding to provide self-contained emergency
accommodation, and to help make night shelters safer to
use.
In January 2021, the Department announced that
it was making an extra £10 million available to support local
authorities to provide accommodation to people still sleeping
rough. It remains to be seen if the approach taken in winter
2020-21 will reduce the risk of the transmission of COVID-19
among rough sleepers as decisively as in spring 2020.
The government has an election manifesto
commitment to end rough sleeping by May 2024. In February 2020,
the Department was preparing to carry out a review of its Rough
Sleeping Strategy in light of the new target, but due to the
prioritisation given to Everyone In, this did not take place.
There is an ongoing need for a review of the strategy as it is
out of step with the government's target to end rough sleeping by
2024, and there are important lessons from Everyone In to
consider.
, the head of the NAO said:
"In partnership with local government,
and the voluntary and private sectors, the government acted
swiftly to house rough sleepers and keep transmission rates low
during the first wave. Despite this considerable achievement, the
response raised key issues for government to
address.
"For the first time, the scale of the
rough sleeping population in England has been made clear, and it
far exceeds the government's previous estimates. Understanding
the size of this population, and who needs specialist support, is
essential to achieve its ambition to end rough
sleeping."
Notes for
Editors
-
Statistics from the Office for National
Statistics on COVID-19 related deaths among the homeless
population are only available until June 2020.
-
Lewer et al., 'COVID-19 among people
experiencing homelessness in England: a modelling study', The
Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 23 September 2020.
