Your Place responds to the new Homelessness Strategy

At Your Place, we have been working alongside other homelessness organisations and directly with MPs and government departments to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience of homelessness remain central to discussions. We welcome the government’s new homelessness strategy, which uses lived experience and service expertise to guide its direction.

Before the strategy, there was a strong emphasis on prevention, and it’s clear this is a necessary focus given the rises in homelessness and rough sleeping in recent years.

We’re encouraged by the government’s cross-government, lived experience-led approach, which highlights the systemic causes of homelessness, such as leaving prison and hospital.

However, this strategy also needs to address the crisis end of homelessness. Services are struggling with relentless funding cuts and reduced partner services, including mental and physical health and substance use support services, while the housing crisis increasingly limits housing options for our residents and so many others.

The £214 million investment into supported housing is a hopeful development, helping to ensure that accommodation and support services – like Your Place – are adequately funded to provide long-term solutions, ending homelessness for people in a way that is sustainable and meaningful.

The proposed toolkit to help services and local authorities on homelessness prevention and support for survivors of domestic abuse is another positive development. 50% of our female residents have come to Your Place following domestic abuse, and this tool will hopefully help them navigate the additional trauma of losing their home and having to relocate.

We look forward to seeing these new resources and funding come to fruition. Your Place will continue working with partner organisations and engaging with the government to ensure that the voices of our residents are heard and that their experiences of homelessness shape future policies.