One month on.......has anyone responded to my enquiry about tackling homelessness?

Just over a month ago I emailed the Leader of each political party, and the London Mayor, to ask what was being done to tackle homelessness in the country. My emails disappeared off into cyber space, and as I blogged a couple of days later, I have no idea what happened to them after that.

So, a month on, what has happened?

I have had just three responses, one of which is more of a holding response whilst it is passed to the correct person (but at least it is an acknowledgement of receipt). The London Mayor's Office came first with a reply on the 10th Feb, well within the 20 working day response time I had been quoted. This was followed by a response from the Government on 25 February, and lastly an email today from Suzanne Evans of UKIP, who has passed this on to her successor for response.

I am delighted that the Mayor's office and the Government have actually taken the time to read and respond to my concerns. Interestingly, these were the only two email addresses who offered auto responses confirming receipt of my original email.

I am deeply disappointed that I have heard nothing from the other parties, even if was a mere acknowledgement, or a thanks, we are aware of this issue and doing our best to ensure it is tackled. Politicians have problems with credibility, and accountability, and they really aren't helping themselves at all.

I directly emailed the following MP's to the email address listed on the Parliament, or party website:

Jeremy Corbyn - Labour Party
Tim Farron - Liberal Democrats
Natalie Bennett - Green Party
Alex Salmond - SNP

None of the above are insignificant in politics, and I think it is terrible that they are not made more accountable for acknowledging emails sent to them. I appreciate they are probably very busy, and my correspondence isn't top of their agenda, but even still! If I was to ignore email correspondence sent to me in a job I know what would happen - I would be disciplined and eventually fired!


Anyway, if anyone is interested in what is being done about homelessness, here are the replies I have had.

Reply from the London Mayors Office

Dear Ms Stratton 

Thank you for your email of 3 February to the Mayor of London to which I have been asked to respond. 
The Mayor is concerned about rough sleeping on the streets of London and committed to ending rough sleeping. Last year, he slept out as part of a campaign to support homeless veterans led by The Independent and The Evening Standard. 

There are a range of complex, individual circumstances that may lead an individual to sleep rough, not just housing but often health issues, including mental health. The Mayor is working with local authorities, the government and voluntary sector organisations to try and prevent individuals from ending up on the street and to help those who do to leave the streets. This work includes investing in the region of £9m a year in London-wide services for rough sleepers, including his flagship service No Second Night Out. He also funds the development and improvement of hostels where those who have ended up on the streets can receive the support they need to get their lives back on track. He recently awarded a total of £18.5 million to fourteen different accommodation schemes.
 
If you are concerned about a specific person or people rough sleeping in Brixton, you can alert local services by using the Street Link websitehttp://www.streetlink.org.uk/ or by calling 0300 500 0914. 
More information about the numbers and profile of those sleeping rough in London is regularly published here: http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports. 
 
Yours sincerely, 

Ruth Phillips 
Public Liaison Officer 
City Hall 


The reply from a government representative:

Dear Ms Stratton,
 

Thank you for your email of 3 February to the Prime Minister about homeless people. Your email has been passed to me in the Department for Communities and Local Government to respond as I work in the team responsible for housing and homelessness policy. I am sorry for the delay in replying.

This Government remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. That is why since 2010 we’ve invested more than £500 million to prevent and tackle homelessness in England. But even one person without a home is one too many, which is why we’ve committed in the Spending Review to increase central investment over the next four years to £139m for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. I am pleased to let you know that we have secured the future of homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315m by 2019/20.

More widely, the Government’s strategy for tackling rough sleeping and single homelessness has three main strands – prevention, intervention and recovery.

We want local authorities to work better together and to work with partners like health, JobCentre Plus and probation services so people can be prevented from becoming homeless in the first place. The £8 million Help for Single Homeless funding, is helping 22,000 individuals across 34 projects in 168 local authority areas. Successful schemes include projects to help to expand services to prevent rough sleeping, help homeless young people with mental health issues and get hostel residents into work.

When individuals end up on the streets, the key is to intervene and get them off as quickly as possible so that they do not become entrenched. In London, the Government has invested £5 million investment in the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond to help turn the lives around of 830 of the most entrenched rough sleepers. We have also supported the roll out of the No Second Night Out approach, through the £20 million Homelessness Transition Fund. In 20 key areas outside London, over two-thirds of rough sleepers only spent one night on the street.

The Government is also helping single homeless people find accommodation in the private rented sector. The Access to Private Rented programme, which we have funded Crisis to run, has already been a real success. By 2016 we expect the programme to have helped 10,000 single homeless people, including former rough sleepers, access and sustain accommodation in the private rented sector. We have also provided £42.5 million capital funding under the Homelessness Change Programme to provide 1,500 new and refurbished bed spaces in hostels, which can be accessed by rough sleepers, including ex-service personnel.

We have supported an initiative called StreetLink which means that anyone you see sleeping rough can be referred to an outreach worker who will go out and make contact with the person and link them to services which are available in the local area. Since it started in December 2012, StreetLink has made 38,817 rough sleeping referrals to councils to investigate, leading to 16,895 rough sleepers being found and connected with local services of which 2,973 resulted in a specific housing outcome. You can contact Streetlink on Tel: 0300 500 0914 or via the website http://www.streetlink.org.uk

The homelessness charity, Crisis, is funded by Government to help support single homeless people - including offenders - access private rented sector accommodation (PRS).  Details of PRS access schemes operating in your area can be obtained by using the following website and selecting the relevant Borough: http://www.crisis.org.uk/find-pr-scheme.php.

Thank you again for writing about these important issues. I hope you are reassured that the Government remains committed to preventing and tackling homelessness.

Yours sincerely,

Natasha Nwoko

Homelessness & Support Team