Up to 400 rough sleepers across Greater Manchester to be housed under new scheme
The 'Housing First' scheme will help up to 400 people into their own homes with support over the next three years.
There are hopes a ground-breaking scheme can deliver hundreds of new homes for people sleeping rough across Greater Manchester.
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
The Housing First scheme will help up to 400 people into their own homes with support over the next three years, backed by £7.6 million of Government funding.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority will work with Great Places Housing Group to provide more safer places to live for people who need the most help.
The announcement comes as the figures for rough sleepers show more than 1,400 have been helped indoors since the start of November, with help from the Bed Every Night scheme.
Over 300 have already been helped to move through the system and into more secure arrangements away from the streets.
'This is a crisis situation – much needs to be done and quickly. Let’s get to work.'
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.
Great Places will begin its work later in the year. Housing First places will be delivered in every one of the city-region’s 10 boroughs.
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.
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 to help rough sleepers with complex needs to begin recovery and move away from homelessness.
Housing First England state 70-90% of residents are able to remain housed – with evidence showing improvements to people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.
It's already being used 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.