Manchester’s homelessness figures have improved significantly, with numbers in temporary accommodation (including B&Bs) and sleeping on the streets both falling.
The reduction – which the Council’s homelessness transformation programme has helped bring about – is detailed in an update report to the Council’s Communities and Equalities Scrutiny committee, which meets on Tuesday 20 June.
Improving figures
The report shows that overall numbers in temporary accommodation have fallen to 2,775 households since a peak of 3,194 at the end of last year – a 13.1% reduction, equating to 419 fewer households.
Reductions have been particularly marked in B&B accommodation. The overall number of households has gone down from 814 at its peak in February this year to 278 – a 65.8% reduction, or 536 households. The number of families in B&Bs has dropped from 227 at its peak in February this year to 46 – a 79.7% reduction. And the number of families in B&B accommodation for six weeks or more has plummeted 93.9% from 131 in February to just 8.
This bucks the national trend, which is seeing an increase in temporary accommodation placements, including B&Bs.
Meanwhile the rough sleeper count has also shown a marked decrease, down from a peak of 61 in September 2022 to 37 last month, May 2023.
The scrutiny report also details how changes through the transformation programme have helped bring about the improvements.
Reducing temporary accommodation and B&B use
One key factor has been changes to the Council’s social housing allocation policy introduced in February this year. One change gave people at risk of homelessness the same priority on the waiting list as those already experiencing it – this has encouraged people to seek support earlier, when more can be done to help them, rather than wait until they have already become homeless. This has had a positive impact on prevention.
Another change has been to allow people to keep the same priority on the waiting list if they move into private rented sector housing rather than temporary accommodation on an interim basis while they are waiting to be re-housed. This has had a positive impact in reducing temporary accommodation, especially B&B, numbers.
The increased emphasis on prevention has also seen more intensive scrutiny of homelessness cases, to identify opportunities for innovative solutions and the opening of Homelessness Prevention Hubs in Harpurhey and Moss Side (now expanded to also cover Hulme) to offer early help to residents who may be struggling with debt, have had an eviction notice, or experiencing other early indicators of potential homelessness.
There have also been a range of initiatives to increase the amount of suitable temporary and move-on accommodation available.
These include:
- Up to 200 family-sized properties being leased by the Council from private providers to provide temporary accommodation as an alternative to B&B accommodation for families.
- 140 properties for use as longer-term accommodation for either homelessness prevention or for people moving on from temporary accommodation -funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities (DLUHC) via a grant to Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
- Better retention and management of existing temporary accommodation properties due to an uplift in the rent paid to landlords.
Reducing numbers sleeping on the streets
The reduction in number rough sleeping has been brought about through a combination of ‘assertive’ outreach, working with people who have previously declined offers of support and ensuring that help is focused on those who are consistently sleeping rough and do not have other accommodation to go to.
Extra accommodation has also been made available for those moving off the streets.
- Etrop Grange, which opened at the beginning of October 2022, provides 64 single rooms to people who have been sleeping on the streets. To date 184 people have had positive move-ons to supported accommodation, longer term accommodation or been reconnected with friends.
- 135 properties have been acquired or refurbished by the Council and housing Registered Providers to accommodate people with a history of rough sleeping, with another 53 in the pipeline.
- The Council will lease up to 50 one-bed self contained properties for people moving on from Etrop Grange, with a funding contribution from DLHUC.
- Further accommodation for those with higher support will be sourced via funding from the Government’s Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP.)
The Council continues to work closely with the city’s Homelessness Partnership and Greater Manchester Combined Authority to help co-ordinate and enhance the support available to those experiencing homelessness.
Deputy Council Leader Cllr Joanna Midgley said:
“These figures are encouraging evidence that our homelessness transformation programme is beginning to bear fruits and help make a positive difference in people’s lives.
“They are not, of course, a cause for jubilation. We are clear that that the number of people who are homeless is still too high. The challenges of the cost-of-living crisis, the ongoing impacts of austerity, a difficult housing market and other factors driving homelessness are not going away.
“What the numbers do demonstrate, though, is that things are moving in the right direction. The work that we and our partners are doing to tackle this problem head on – whether through increased prevention or a range of measures to move people out of temporary accommodation and into more settled housing more quickly – is having promising results.
“It’s particularly pleasing that we have made such progress in cutting the use of B&B accommodation for families, which we know is always unsuitable and which we have made it a priority to reduce.
“There are also urgent actions we would like to see from the Government to address this challenge – for example increasing Local Housing Allowance, which has fallen below average rents across the city, would make a huge difference."
Stephanie Moore, CEO and Co-founder of Reach Out to the Community – one of the member organisations of the city’s Homelessness Partnership – said:
"Reach Out to the Community participates in regular multi-agency work and this has produced positive results in getting both newly and long-term street homeless people into accommodation, or the relevant services to meet their needs.
“The multi-agency partnership enables the team to address the complex needs of the individuals who have previously been hard for services to engage with. Finding the right accommodation for some people with complex needs can be challenging so to have different options of accommodation services across Manchester is essential.
“We believe a multiagency approach has proved more effective in engaging with the harder to reach people sleeping rough and, although more needs to be done, the Manchester Homelessness Partnership is working harder than ever to help reduce the number of people sleeping on the streets.”