Andy Burnham has launched a £442 million national drive to get people who are sleeping rough off England’s streets by Christmas.
It is called Everyone In for Christmas, because government initiatives now require the sort of title previously reserved for charity singles and regional pantomimes.
The package combines £340 million announced in July for settled accommodation and long-term support with another £102 million for emergency housing, healthcare and addiction services this winter.
The government says the money is fully funded.
Burnham says the ambition is to offer everybody who is sleeping rough a route off the streets by Christmas.
Notice the language carefully.
Not necessarily a permanent home.
Not a legal obligation requiring councils to accommodate everyone.
And not a measurable target for how many people must actually be housed.
Presumably with diversions, replacement buses and a final destination to be confirmed.
The scale of the problem is not imaginary. Official figures estimated that 3,461 people were sleeping rough on a single night in March. Across the whole month, services encountered 7,541 people sleeping outside.
More than 3,000 were classed as long-term rough sleepers—a figure nine per cent higher than the previous year.
These are people who may need far more than a temporary bed. Mental-health treatment, addiction support, identification, benefits assistance and somewhere affordable to live are not optional extras. They are the difference between getting somebody indoors for a photograph and helping them remain there after the decorations come down.
Burnham has pointed to the pandemic’s Everyone In programme, when hotels and emergency accommodation were rapidly found for thousands of people.
It proved that government can act quickly when it decides the situation is an emergency.
It also proved that moving somebody inside is not the same as ending homelessness.
Without permanent housing and continuing support, a hotel room is an interruption—not a solution.
The Christmas deadline is politically convenient. It provides urgency, public sympathy and some excellent footage of ministers carrying boxes while wearing scarves.
Unfortunately, the housing crisis has not agreed to suspend operations for the festive period.
There is much here worth supporting. The additional money is real. Healthcare and addiction support are essential. Treating rough sleeping as an emergency is considerably better than treating it as part of the street furniture.
But government must be honest about what success means.
If every person is offered accommodation, but thousands remain trapped in hostels and temporary rooms, rough sleeping has not been ended. It has been moved indoors and given a deadline.
A bed for Christmas would be an act of compassion.
A secure home in February would be a policy.
Let us hope the government understands the difference.
Lionel Carter
Beyond Parliament