Transcript

Emma Haddad is a member of the Kerslake Commission and chief executive of some Mungo’s homeless charity and joins us. Good afternoon. The commission, which we should explain it was named Kerslake and for Sir Bob Kerslake who who died a few months ago. It has been looking at this idea of what we could have learned from the pandemic. What were the findings of.

Given the situation now where actually rough sleeping is going up?

Yeah. The Kerslake commission was set up in response to the pandemic response, which was called everyone in and to try and capture the lessons and learn what worked brilliantly and what worked brilliantly was this shared purpose, this absolute shared mission of getting everyone off the streets and into safety, into somewhere safe and secure and away from there. The health emergency.

And when when you’ve got people in inside in some way safe and warm, you can start to build trust in a relationship. You can see what’s driven them onto the streets in the first place. You can get individualized support to people and importantly, health support for people. And there was the shared purpose. There was a shared sense that this was universal.

This was for everybody, no matter who. And there was dedicated funding. And sadly, that dedicated funding no longer exists. And we’ve seen the shared purpose start to dissipate really because of this cost of living crisis that is driving more and more people to lose their housing and face homelessness. And this is really driven not just by spiraling costs, but by an absolutely huge lack of housing and in particular lack of affordable housing with the right support for people wrapped around it.

Okay. Now, there was this admirable ambition to end rough sleeping. They do a snapshot every year in autumn. Last year, it showed the numbers going up. We are presumably about to have the next one. Is it going to be worse as a result of the financial challenges people have had the last?

Yeah, I think most of us across the sector fear exactly that. We saw a 26% increase in the last annual count of people sleeping rough on the on the previous year. That was an absolutely dramatic increase in the space of one year. And what we’re seeing in our services that we’ve seen in some Mungo’s, but colleagues across the sector are seeing where we support people in hostels and other temporary accommodation services is more and more demand, seeing more and more people present with even greater complexities of need and a lack of statutory services that they need to support them.

And then we’re seeing people getting stuck in temporary accommodation. So even when we can get them off the streets and into some kind of safety and help them recover, it’s been really hard for people to move on because there is this lack of accommodation, lack of appropriate accommodation and lack of affordable accommodation. I mean, all.

The challenges that you present, I mean, the sound almost insurmountable. You’re talking about, you know, at a time when prices have been rising, the pressures on people. There’s a loss of funding. There’s a lack of housing. These are I mean, these are such huge problems. It doesn’t sound like even with if you could have shared purpose, a sense of shared purpose, that we’re anywhere near returning to that.

Well, there is one thing that the government could do that would make a massive difference very, very quickly, and that is to raise housing benefit housing benefit rates have been frozen since 2019 at a time when rents, particularly in the private rented sector, have continued to rise year on, year on year. And that means that the gap between what people can afford, particularly those on the lowest incomes and housing benefit, has widened between what’s actually asked for when you try and go and secure somewhere to live.

Now, if we if the government were to restore local local housing allowance so that so that people can afford the lowest rents, that would stop people falling into homelessness. It would help people get out of homelessness because they would be able to afford more properties. At the moment, those people on that lowest income bracket, there’s only about 5% on average houses in their private rented sector that are affordable, even less than 5% in some areas of the country.

Emma Haddad, thanks very much.

Transcript

Emma Haddad is the chief of St Mungo’s, which is a homeless charity and joins me now. Emma, good to talk to you today. The government had this aim of ending rough sleeping by 2024. Do you think that was just too ambitious?

Good afternoon. Well, whether it’s ambitious or not, it’s simply not going to happen, unfortunately. That’s the conclusion of the report of the Kerslake Advisory Board that’s been published today, that that commission is made up of experts across the homelessness and the housing and the health sectors. And it’s really worth a read and listening to the voices. And it’s a collection of really what we’re seeing across the sector and what’s causing it.

And that is a massive, massive increase in homelessness and people in temporary accommodation and people sleeping rough. And that is due to a huge shortage in accommodation and housing, but a shortage most noticeably in affordable housing, coupled with the cost of living crisis that is pushing more and more people, sadly, onto the streets.

That have made it worse. What has helped, what has worked in the last few months and years? Because there will be success stories there. What are the what are the channels that work?

Well, it’s worth remembering that the Kerslake commission was established in response to the pandemic. The everyone in campaign and what we saw during the pandemic was a real shared purpose of getting everybody in to safe, warm accommodation where they could be supported, where their support could be tailored, where they had dedicated health support. And that was a universal offer to everybody, no matter their status, no matter who they were, no matter what, where they come from and what what pushed them into homelessness or onto the streets.

And sadly, that that dedicated funding and shared purpose has come to an end. There is no universal offer anymore, and it’s harder and harder to get people off the streets, particularly those with unclear or limited insight to be in the UK. And more and more people are coming onto the streets and when we get them off, it’s more is harder to to move people on because people are getting stuck in hostels or temporary accommodation without the availability of supported or social housing that would meet their needs and enable them to stay off the streets.

So if you break it down into into the different stages of homelessness, what where do you think responsibility lies in preventing homelessness in the first place?

Well, this is the message, really, of the Kerslake commission report published today to the current government and to any incoming administration of the next general election. They are pouring money in. There is money going into the sector, but it’s simply not enough. And B, it’s responding to people who are already at risk of or actually finding themselves in homelessness or even rough sleeping.

And that is responding to the crisis. We are all responding to people who have already fallen out of the system or fallen into such complex needs that it is much more of a humanitarian disaster almost and certainly not cost efficient to be looking after people once they’ve reached that point. So what the report is saying is you’ve got to completely re-engineer the the direction of the support and the funding that goes with it, push it upstream and push it into prevention so that people are supported before they reach that crisis point, before they fall off the brink and into homelessness.

And that means more support in mental health services and drug and alcohol addiction, helping people who are at risk of losing their tenancy, their home before it happens to them, helping people at risk of experiencing domestic violence. All of those kind of things would absolutely help us catch people before they fall.

The report also calls for better cross-sector support. Why is that not happening? Because all the different organizations talking to each other is something that, you know, that doesn’t cost money communication.

No. And actually, the partnership working in the cross-sector working is very, very good. And everybody is is working together with that shared aim of, you know, ending ending homelessness and ending rough sleeping for good. We are calling for much more joined up working across government. There are so many different ministries, different departments who have a stake in homelessness, whether it’s stopping, you know, people leaving prison from having nowhere to go on a Friday evening, which hopefully the new legislation will will reduce, or whether it’s just to start discharging people from hospital onto the streets, whether it’s care leavers who find themselves on the streets, whether it’s women who need that support, fleeing fleeing domestic violence or domestic abuse, that that all of that needs a cross-departmental, cross-governmental response. And it’s not just the responsibility of one single department.

Strong partnership working and a shared purpose made a massive reduction to rough sleeping during the pandemic, but we are now beyond ways of working. The current Government and next administration must take urgent action to address the rapidly rising rates of homelessness and rough sleeping, which stem from a severe shortage in affordable housing, a lack of statutory support services, and a cost of living crisis that is pushing more and more people into homelessness. This is the recommendation of the latest report of The Kerslake Commission, established to learn the lessons from Everyone In, a report which is a blueprint for tackling homelessness and rough sleeping and a tribute to its former Chair, Lord Bob Kerslake.

Latest national official figures show a 26% increase in rough sleeping and the highest rates of people living in temporary accommodation on record. As political parties prepare for their party conferences, the Commission recommends three key principles that should guide the next administration’s approach to end homelessness and rough sleeping for good:

• Prevent people from getting to the brink of homelessness – We need to be preventing people from reaching crisis point and becoming homeless or at risk of homelessness
• No one should need to arrive on to the streets to get help – Where people are at risk of rough sleeping, there should be a cross sector effort to make timely and effective interventions that prevent an episode of rough sleeping
• Everyone should have a route out of rough sleeping – For anyone who is rough sleeping, there needs to be a meaningful and tailored offer which will take them away from the streets for good.

The report is clear that the Government will not meet its goal to end rough sleeping by 2024. In fact, rough sleeping is on the increase and at the heart of it are chronic and unresolved systemic issues, which have left the country vulnerable to new pressures. The report warns that many of the problems outlined would be resolved if there was more supply of social rented housing and supported housing and likens the scale of the challenges to early 20th century Britain.

Read the full report, Turning the Tide on Rising Homelessness and Rough Sleeping here.

Drawing on evidence from local authorities, homelessness service providers and people with lived experience, the Kerslake Commission strongly advocates that prevention and system change must form the basis of a robust response, rather than solely responding to people in crisis. In the interim, the Commission is urgently calling on the Government to increase housing benefit so that it covers local affordable rents.

Responding to the report, St Mungo’s Chief Executive, Emma Haddad, said: “The dedication of people working throughout the homelessness sector shines through the report, but it sets out starkly that we are working against the tide. The chronic shortage of affordable housing and appropriate support services means we are just responding to people already in crisis rather than preventing them from reaching that point in the first place. The recommendations give a clear set of actions to both the current Government and the next administration that would make a big difference to tackling rough sleeping and homelessness. They would do well to listen to the expert voices contained in the report.

“We made so much progress on rough sleeping during the pandemic, which clearly demonstrated what can be done when we work together with a shared purpose and dedicated funding. It’s time we applied the same energy to stop this homelessness and rough sleeping crisis spiralling further.

“When Bob Kerslake died in July 2023, we lost a staunch ally of the homelessness sector. This report is a tribute to him and his life’s work.”

The Kerslake family said: “After over 40 years as a public servant, many of which were spent on delivering quality homes and environments, Bob was saddened and dismayed by the rise of homelessness across our country. He was proud to chair the commission and totally committed to its findings. He would have been vociferous in publishing its conclusions and recommendations.

“His main focus would have been persuading those who have the power to make positive changes to read this report in depth, then work together to meet those recommendations. As his family, we firmly believe that this would be a fitting tribute to a great man who worked tirelessly for the betterment of others.”

The Kerslake Commission was steered and directed by Lord Bob Kerslake until his untimely passing in July 2023 and this report has been built from his legacy.

Key stats from the report September 2023 

Rising homelessness and rough sleeping

• The 2022 national official figures showing a 26% increase in rough sleeping
• London CHAIN data shows that in the 2022/23 financial year, 6,391 people in London were recorded as sleeping rough for the first time, a 26% increase on that figure from the previous financial year (2021/22)
• Statutory homelessness figures show the percentage of households successfully accommodated at the end of a prevention duty dropped to 45%, its lowest level since 2018
• At the end of 2022, over 100,000 households were living in temporary accommodation, up 5% from the same period the year before and the highest on record
• Tragically the average age of death for a person registered as homeless is just 45 years old.

Housing affordability crisis

• Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows private rents in the UK increased by 5.1% in the 12 months to June 2023, representing the largest annual percentage change since the UK data series began in January 2016
• Analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that by the first quarter of 2023, just 5% of properties in the private rented sector were affordable at LHA rates
• Research published in March 2022 showed low-income households were facing an average £372 deficit between their Local Housing Allowance and the cost of the cheapest monthly rents in their local areas
• The Government estimates that restoring LHA rates to the 30th percentile for 2023/24 would cost £700 million. While this is a significant investment, it is much lower than the growing cost of providing temporary accommodation, which cost at least £1.6 billion in 2021/22.

Social and supported housing

• The National Housing Federation estimates that around 8.5 million people in England are in housing need
• In the year to March 2021, there were only 246,000 new social housing lettings, a decrease of 20% or 60,000 lets from the previous year
• 92% of homelessness providers surveyed by Homeless Link said they were concerned the rising cost of living would impact their ability to maintain service and support standards
• Supported housing helps ease the pressure on the NHS and care services with the National Housing Federation estimating it saves the public purse around £940 per resident per year
• Research funded by the National Housing Federation projects that by 2024-25, there will be a national shortfall of 46,771 supported, sheltered and extra care housing places.

That is the warning today, (21 September) from an influential group of experts from the housing, homelessness, health and political sectors.

The Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping has published a new report entitled ‘A New Way of Working: Ending Rough Sleeping Together – Progress Report September 2022 which assesses the steps made towards ending rough sleeping in England and considers the impact of the current economic crisis.

The Commission – chaired by the former Head of the Civil Service Lord Bob Kerslake – is an independent group of 36 experts from the health, housing and homelessness sectors, including people with lived experience, as well as representatives from local and national government. The secretariat function is provided by leading homelessness charity St Mungo’s.

In its latest report The Commission tracks the progress against its original recommendations made last September, grading them as green, amber or red – as well as providing an updated set of recommendations reflecting the present cost of living emergency.

These include:

• Reintroducing a temporary ban on evictions, as seen during the pandemic, to ensure that no one is made homeless as a result of the cost of living crisis – mirroring what was announced in Scotland earlier this month.
• Increasing the benefit cap and bringing benefits in line with inflation immediately – not in April 2023 as planned.
• Raising local housing allowances so that so they are in line with the bottom 30% of the market

In total, 27% of The Commission’s original recommendations were rated ‘green’, meaning that they have been achieved.

Commission Chair Lord Kerslake said: “This Commission was formed in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis and we have seen much progress and excellent work done since as detailed in this report including some significant policy changes from the Government, and the publication of its new Rough Sleeping Strategy earlier this month.

“However, two years on from the pandemic we are facing a new crisis. The cause may be different by it the response must be equally urgent.

“The new Prime Minister has already announced plans to cap average household energy bills at £2,500 a year from next month. And this, while welcome, is not enough.

“Even with this help thousands of people are still facing the very real prospect of losing their homes because they are struggling to manage. The devastating effect this is having can be clearly seen in the testimonies of people who so kindly shared their personal experience with The Commission.

“We once again need to see the strong, decisive leadership from the Government we did during ‘Everyone In’, backed by resources and funding. But this time the focus must be two pronged. It is no longer just about getting people off the streets, it is about ensuring people who are currently at risk of homelessness don’t end up on them.

“Failure to act could see this become a homelessness as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic; with all the good achieved in reducing street homelessness since the pandemic lost, and any hope of the Government meeting its manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024 gone.”

Rebecca Sycamore, Interim Chief Executive of St Mungo’s said: “We are once again happy to support the excellent work of the Commission. When it was convened it was always intended to have longevity and not to produce reports that just sit on a shelf gathering dust but which provide practical and achievable recommendations to help to end rough sleeping.

 “As a leading provider of frontline homelessness services we see every day the very real and very harsh reality of this financial crisis.

“And with more price increases, and the colder weather coming, it is very likely many of those currently just scraping by will no longer be able to manage, and could be at real risk of losing their homes.

“In order to prevent this from becoming a homelessness crisis action is needed now – and we fully support the new recommendations made by the Commission and urge Liz Truss and her ministers to introduce these measures as a matter of urgency to prevent more people ending up homeless this winter.”

The report contains a number of personal testimonies from people who describe how the cost of living crisis is affecting them.

One St Mungo’s client who is living semi-independently and manages their own finances, said:

“I receive £308 a month Universal Credit. A typical food shop that used to be £20 is now £35. I buy all my toiletries from discount stores. I can’t save any money towards move on costs or unexpected emergencies. Three days after getting paid I will have spent all my money paying my rent arrears, food, essentials. I have a savings account but never been able to save more than £10 and often dip into these tiny savings because I have no choice.

“Living like this is making me more depressed and anxious all the time. Today I feel angry, really angry telling you what it’s like to live miserably on such a low income.

“It’s not fair I am trying everything I can to turn my life around but things that are beyond my control have an impact on my hopes, my dreams, my aspirations. I walk everywhere to save money on bus fares and keep track of how many steps I do.

“One day I had several appointments and by the end of the day had walked 46,000 steps when the average recommended steps are 10,000 a day. My legs were so sore and stiff by the end but I had no choice as I could not afford the bus fares.

“I have no control over the cost of living prices. Life feels hopeless and something drastically needs to change. I don’t want my mental health to get worse or to end up ill in hospital because life is getting so stressful.”

The Kerslake Commission convened in March 2021 to examine the lessons from the public health emergency response to rough sleeping during the pandemic, and to understand how the significant progress made can be embedded in the longer term.

It has previously published two reports one in July 2021 and one in September 2021.

The Commission will publish a second progress report in 2023.

Lord Bob Kerslake, Chair of the Kerslake Commission, said: “Steve brought so much to the world of housing of which this Commission was just one example. He brought great knowledge and understanding of the issues, a passion to learn and improve, and above all a human touch that brought people with the changes that needed to be made. He will be enormously missed by everyone who has been involved in the Commission. We owe it to Steve to see through the changes that we agreed to in the report”.

Steve joined St Mungo’s as Chief Executive on 1 July, 2020. Prior to joining St Mungo’s he was Group Chief Executive of Altair, a housing and regeneration consultancy group advising housing associations as well as central, regional and local government. Prior to that he held Director and Chief Executive positions in a number of housing related roles, which also included funding provision of homelessness services. He was Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation and Corporate Director of Neighbourhoods and Regeneration for the London Borough of Hackney which included responsibilities in relation to homelessness and temporary accommodation. Steve was also Chair of One Housing Group, who run Arlington, the homeless centre in Camden.

He led or supported many initiatives and activities including:

• First Chief Executive role at Spitalfields community based HA – based in East London
• Chief Executive of ASRA between 1996-2001 – a registered housing association, specialising in homes and services for Asian communities in London
• Overseeing £8.4bn investment programme, delivering 155,000 homes whilst Chief Executive at the Housing Corporation and regulating England’s 1,500 housing associations
• Vice Chair and Board Member at Amicus Horizon and then Optivo Housing Group for nine years
• Executive Regeneration Director at LB Hackney in the run up to Olympics 2012
• One of four founding Partners at Altair, the leading housing and regeneration consultancy
• Working closely with L&Q, Optivo and the BME London to set up the Leadership 2025 initiative – with the purpose of empowering senior BME professionals to become leaders of the future
• Steve was awarded a CBE in the 2019 Queen’s honours list for services to housing

The Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping has urged the Government to maintain the impetus for ending rough sleeping as the latest snapshot figures show the number of people who were street homeless has fallen to its lowest level since 2014.

The Annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot data for 2021 released today (24 February) reveal that 2,440 people were seen sleeping rough on a single night during October and November 2021 which is a 9% reduction from 2020, and the lowest for eight years.

The figures show that there has been a decrease in every region of England compared to the previous year.

While some individual local authorities have recorded increases, others have seen significant reductions including a 23% fall in the number of people seen sleeping rough in Westminster (from 242 to 187) and of 36% in Manchester from (68 to 43).

Of the people experiencing street homelessness:

• 85% were male (same as 2020)
• 86% were aged over 26 (down from 87% in 2020)
• 67% were from the UK (a fall from 72% last year), and
• 9% were aged between 18-25 (an increase of 2% on the previous year)

The Kerslake Commission was convened in 2021 to capture the learning from the emergency response to rough sleeping during the first Coronavirus lockdown.

Chaired by the former head of the Civil Service Lord Bob Kerslake, with the secretariat function being provided by leading homelessness charity St Mungo’s, the Commission is made up of 22 board members including politicians, experts from the health, housing, homelessness sectors as well as people with lived experience.

Reacting to today’s figures, Lord Kerslake said: “It is very positive to see the number of people sleeping on our streets continuing to fall. This is a direct result of the continuing effect of the emergency response to the pandemic, and the wider changes that it has brought about.

“We continue to see what can be achieved when the ambition to end rough sleeping is backed by the appropriate resourcing.

“Many of the recommendations made by the Kerslake Commission are already being implemented by the Government, including longer term funding settlements and allowing local authorities more power in allocating resources, but the job is not done.

“We must sustain the impetus, and the effort. The Commission was never intended to end with a report that sits on a shelf gathering dust. It has provided a blueprint for tackling rough sleeping and the wider issues of homelessness, and its work continues.

“We meet again next month to chart progress against the recommendations, and we will be assessing what more needs to be done. We must not lose momentum now when we are making such strides towards making ending street homelessness a reality.”

The snapshot figures are based on a street count which every local authority in England undertakes each year on one night between 1 October and 30 November, or estimates from local councils which are verified and agreed by Homeless Link.

The Kerslake Commission published its main report in September 2021, making 48 recommendations for local and national government and across the health, homelessness and criminal justice sectors.

For more information about the Commission, its work and its members visit commissiononroughsleeping.org

The Commission’s final report A new way of working: ending rough sleeping together, has now been published and can be read here. It sends a clear message that without urgent action the benefits and lessons learned from the joint working during the pandemic will be wasted, and the number of people having to sleep on the streets will rise again.

The stark assessment comes as the pandemic support measures – including the £20-a-week uplift in Universal Credit and the furlough scheme – are due to end. This, coupled with rises in energy prices, inflation and National Insurance, is likely to put more and more people at risk of homelessness.

The Commission’s final report makes 12 key recommendations which it says must be actioned if the positives achieved during the pandemic are not to be lost.

These include: the Government developing a longer term rough sleeping strategy built on the success of their Everyone In policy; the maintenance of the £20 Universal Credit uplift; increased joint working by all organisations involved in homelessness by extending the Homelessness Reduction Act’s Duty to Refer, to make it a Duty to Collaborate; introducing a Quality Assurance framework for those providing homelessness accommodation; establishing a clear policy position that limiting access to benefits for non UK nationals should stop short of causing destitution; reducing the reliance on communal shelters through improving planning in relation to extreme cold or severe heat.

The Commission’s interim report When we work together: learning the lessons, was published in July, can be read here.

A key part of the Kerslake Commission’s work is examining the relationship between health and homelessness. In this video, Lord Victor Adebowale, Chair of the NHS Confederation, discusses the link between them, the effects of the pandemic and structural changes to the NHS on healthcare for those experiencing homelessness, and thoughts for the future.