𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

When Andy Burnham stood outside Number 10 earlier this week as the incoming new Prime Minister, he used his very first speech to make an ambitious pledge: he would end rough sleeping in the UK. Rough sleeping is a scandal that should not exist in 21st century Britain, and it is momentous to see Burnham acknowledging this, right on the doorstep of Number 10. Now, he needs to own this pledge as his personal Prime Ministerial commitment. We stand ready to work to help him achieve this together.

It is not the first time we have heard this pledge from the leader of our country. Only those who have personally committed to the issue have brought about progress. Burnham also has a rare advantage; he has spent the last decade trying to achieve the same thing in Manchester. Now his challenge is drawing on what worked there, and scaling it nationally.

As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham previously pledged to end rough sleeping in the city by 2020. He oversaw a dramatic reduction during the pandemic, with new funding and accommodation unlocked as part of the government’s national Everyone In initiative. Like everywhere, rough sleeping levels then rose again, albeit to almost half of 2017’s record highs, after this shorter-term resource came to an end.

But this does show that when instruction comes from the very top, rough sleeping is not inevitable, and that local action must be accompanied by bold national reform that engages directly with the key drivers of homelessness.

Burnham’s biggest success in Manchester was that he recognised that homelessness is not simply a housing problem. At St Mungo’s, we know that people who have experienced homelessness may have also experienced trauma, violence and abuse in their lives, and very often have mental and physical health conditions and other complex needs.

They may have fought hard to access safety and support services in the past and felt unheard. The people we support tell us that recovery only feels possible when safe and stable housing is combined with the right support, at the right time.

Our outreach teams work tirelessly to find people during their very first night rough sleeping in order to get them into emergency accommodation as quickly as possible, but we also work with many people who have spent years living on the streets.

It is equally important that we are here with creative solutions and individualised support for people who have experienced long-term rough sleeping.

Getting a person into safe emergency accommodation is always the priority, but for someone to recover from homelessness and flourish, they also need tailored support every step of the way as they rebuild their life.

Burnham recognised the need for urgent intervention in Manchester with his emergency accommodation programme A Bed For Every Night, alongside the need for the longer-term stability offered by the scheme Housing First, which supports people into a long-term tenancy as soon as possible, while providing wraparound support alongside.

We supported more than 28,000 people experiencing homelessness last year, and know that no two stories are the same, which means that no single solution can ever be enough. That is why we have launched our campaign I Was Here, highlighting the stories of four different people who were supported by St Mungo’s to move away from the streets for good.

We have collaborated with the artist Luke Embden to draw on the unique experiences of Lee, Lawretta, Ray and Tamika in four compelling street art murals in London, Bristol and Reading. They are powerful stories of resilience, which remind us that effective solutions must be built around individuals, rather than one-size-fits-all systems.

This is because homelessness does not exist in a vacuum: it is a symptom of countless social issues. A lack of affordable and social housing, rising costs, stretched and under-funded support services are all continuing to drive rough sleeping, and Burnham will need to get a grip on all of this, galvanising action across Government.

Burnham has also inherited a housing crisis, and a cost of living crisis, which both impacted how successful his innovative model in Manchester could be. These were not his responsibility then, but they are now that he is in Number 10.

This is his time to personally own and drive his commitment to ending rough sleeping for good. We stand ready to collaborate and work alongside him, to end the moral tragedy of people sleeping on our pavements for good.

Emma Haddad is Chief Executive of St Mungo’s. To find out more about the We Were Here campaign and listen to the stories of people the charity helped, visit mungos.org/we-are-here/