Supported housing is the key

Another summer, and soon we’ll have another new Homelessness Minister.  Whoever it is will need to be more effective than Rushanara Ali.  She presided over a further rise in rough sleeping – the estimate of 7,718 in March 2025 being a record for the month.  So is the figure of 131,140 households who resided in temporary accommodation at the same time.

It’s argued that the levers needing to be pulled aren’t in the Minister’s hands.  This is largely true, but the occupant must at least understand the issues to inform their case to the Treasury.  Only once did I evade Rushanara’s minders for long enough to engage her in discussion about homelessness and supported housing; she manifestly struggled to grasp the linkage between the two.

So it didn’t surprise me that her introduction to the recent Consultation on Supported Housing Regulation – jointly authored with the DWP Minister Sir Stephen Timms, was so simplistic.  An uninformed reader would joyously conclude from it that everything in the supported housing garden is rosy, but for the selfish actions of a few rogues who spoil it for everyone else.  Their Ministerial Foreword makes no mention of the wider crisis, rooted in the fact that no-one pays for housing-related support.

If the situation was less grave, one could perhaps admire the achievement of Civil Servants in writing a consultation that asks ninety-three questions without even acknowledging, let alone addressing, the fundamental issue.  But the problem is extremely serious – and urgent.  Not just for its impacts on single and family homelessness but those on health, social care, criminal justice, employment and other public services that are trying to up their game.  So an extensive consultation on how to improve supported housing without a single word on how it’s paid for, is not to be celebrated.  The responsible Ministers should have understood that.

The new Minister for Homelessness – whose brief includes supported housing, will inherit a huge challenge with an even bigger opportunity.  This is to initiate the revival of supported housing in its various forms, to take its place in a modernised public service offer.  The first step is to change the narrative – away from the symptomatic focus on rogue landlords towards the strategy, resourcing and commissioning of better services that will wipe out their market. 

As part of this the need for a national, ring-fenced programme to fund the provision of support can’t just be ignored as if it didn’t exist.  Having rescued those good services that are now in peril, it will take time to secure the resources for a more effective offer.  Many will make representations to the new Minister on what their priorities should be.  The NHF ‘Starts at Home’ campaign points clearly to one of the highest and most urgent.  Whoever you are, I say: Put this at the top of your list.