Housing First
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to promote Housing First as an effective response to rough sleeping.
Answered by Alison McGovern
Housing First is an important intervention which evidence has shown can transform the lives of people with complex needs. We are funding Housing First and other forms of housing-led accommodation in 2025/26 through our £255.5 million Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, which goes to local authorities.
From 2026/27-2028/29 we are providing over £2.2 billion through the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping portion of the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant. Local authorities have the flexibility to commission the services that meet the needs of people in their local communities. For people with complex needs Housing First can be a very effective model, alongside other housing-led models.
The government has published an evaluation of Housing First and a toolkit to support local authorities who want to commission the intervention on gov.uk here.
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