Is rough sleeping set to rocket amid claim Tories are quietly withdrawing hotel room funding scheme
Back to the streets: do the Tories think the coronavirus crisis is over so they can dump homeless people back on the streets?
Homeless people are set to be forced back onto the streets after it was claimed the Tory government is quietly scrapping a scheme to house them in hotels during the coronavirus crisis.
According to the Manchester Evening News,
Civil servants have told Greater Manchester officials that the scheme – known as ‘Everyone In’ – is no longer being funded by central government and that March’s original Covid guidance to local authorities has been scrapped.
So far 1,600 homeless people with nowhere to self-isolate have been put up in emergency accommodation here during the crisis, including hundreds in hotels, as authorities were directed to protect them from the spread of the virus.
But a leaked report to the region’s combined authority reveals the Ministry for Communities, Housing and Local Government has now ‘drawn a line’ under its programme and has told councils it will no longer be funded, although no ministerial statement has been made to that effect.
The government denies reneging on its commitments.
Indeed. Here‘s RightsNet:
The government has said that it does not recognise clams that it is winding up its support for rough sleepers helped off the streets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government press office has said:
“We do not recognise the claims made by Greater Manchester Combined Authority in one of their internal reports which was leaked to the media.
“Any suggestion that the government is reneging on the commitment set out at the start of this national emergency is entirely wrong. We have been clear councils should continue to provide safe accommodation for those who need it, and any suggestion that funding is being withdrawn or people asked to leave hotels by central government is entirely incorrect. This misleading information causes unneeded anxiety and confusion for vulnerable people at an already difficult time.”
Others see the matter differently:
https://twitter.com/CorbynistaTeen/status/1261392134118076416
Who’s right?
Well, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?
All we have to do is check whether we see more people sleeping on the streets.
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I suspect that the usual cynical tactic of raising the bar for eligibility will now apply.
That’s the Tory way when they get caught out,
They can pretend to still be helping whilst outsourcing the responsibilty to the local councils to stop helping.