Yesterday saw an important and rare moment in the fight against homelessness. Yes, homelessness in England continues to rise – rough sleeping has doubled since 2010. And yes, people are still suffering – the average age of death for a homeless person is just 47.
But yesterday we saw the publication of ‘The homelessness legislation: an independent review of the legal duties owed to homeless people’.
Created by an independent panel of council members, lawyers and housing experts, this is a blueprint for a new English law to expand the help councils provide to homeless people. This is a real gamechanger because for the first time, it gives us detailed recommendations for a law to prevent more people from becoming homeless in the first place.
There are English councils that already do much of this work very well, but others will need to change the way they tackle homelessness. This work will not come for free, but preventing homelessness saves money as well as untold suffering. We are keen to work with council leaders directly to help make the change.
And we do not need to look far to see a similar legislation working. In Wales, the government enacted a law requiring councils to help prevent people from becoming homeless. According to the latest figures, where councils intervened to stop homelessness before it happened, they were successful in two thirds of cases. Alongside that, we have seen a drop of two thirds in the number of people formally accepted as homeless.
And in Scotland, different legislation which came into force in 2013 means there is now serious talk about the possibility of ending homelessness within a generation.
These examples from within the United Kingdom show there is nothing inevitable about homelessness. We can end it. But unfortunately, the law as it stands in England means that single homeless people who go to their councils for help are often turned away to sleep on the streets – cold, desperate and forgotten. When it comes to dealing with homelessness, England is lagging behind its neighbours.
If we are serious about tackling this issue, government must look at the recommendations in the report and change the law so that all homeless people can get the help they need. And we have hope that the government will do just that.
Make no mistake – even if this new law is enacted we will still have a significant task ahead of us. Many of the underlying causes of homelessness will remain: more and more people are struggling to pay their rent in an increasingly insecure market, while cuts to housing benefit and local council funding have left the safety net in tatters.
A change in the law is not a cure-all, but it will put England on a much better track and if the Welsh experience is replicated, we will prevent the need to rehouse thousands of people.
We know we can prevent homelessness on a much bigger scale. Let’s seize the opportunity to do so.
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Matthew Downie is director of policy and external affairs at Crisis. He tweets @matthew_downie
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