(Title Image: BBC Wales)
Delyth Jewell MS (Plaid, South Wales East) raised a recent BBC Wales report which claimed that up to a quarter of rough-sleepers who were housed during the first lockdown in March were sleeping rough again in August 2020.
Whilst accepting that some people will have complex needs, it brings into question why they weren’t provided with heightened levels of support when they were first housed?
Minister for Housing & Local Government, Julie James (Lab, Swansea West) said the BBC report underestimated the scale of the issue and there were nowhere near a quarter of rough-sleepers who had returned to the streets (it was 101 of around 3,500 who were helped in total).
Many more people were picked up during the first lockdown, like sofa surfers and people sleeping in cars. The Welsh Government has made a complaint to the BBC and the Minister believed the broadcaster had disrespected those who “worked their socks off” to get people off the street and hadn’t truly appreciated the scale of the work that had gone on.
That said, there was an overall need to get on top of the pandemic and the subsequent economic consequences which are likely to drive homelessness.
Shadow Communities Minister, Mark Isherwood MS (Con, North Wales), mentioned a report which believed the skills and strengths of local people should be used to shape local services. However, these words weren’t being backed with action due to silo mentalities and risk aversion, which were all barriers to greater community action. How could the Welsh Government design and deliver a better model of local government co-production?
The Minister told the Senedd that several organisations were working with the Welsh Government to ensure communities are involved in shaping their local areas (a concept called “place-making”).
While there was a need for some services to be universal regardless of where someone lives to ensure consistency, other services need local voices to be “heard loud and clear”. Planning policies and the National Development Framework are all designed to ensure local people have that voice.
