Heather Wheeler says she does not believe welfare reform and council cuts are factorsThe UK’s new homelessness minister has told the Guardian she does not know why the number of rough sleepers has increased so significantly in recent years. A government-funded study in Liverpool concluded that Housing First could save £4m compared with current homelessness services in the area. The homelessness and rough sleeping action group, commissioned by the Scottish government and chaired by Sparkes, set out its first recommendations in November, which were immediately implemented. They included giving credit cards to frontline workers who need to make emergency purchases for rough sleepers, and rapid rehousing in settled accommodation rather than leaving people for months or years in temporary placements. If you don’t sort out supply of affordable housing, there’s another million people living in our lovely country, we need to have greater supply of affordable housing.

Source: The Guardian March 18, 2018 14:00 UTC