Affordable homes and homelessness prevention: reporting back from our Plaid Cymru conference fringe event

Panellists at the Plaid Cymru autumn conference session, including Sian Gwenllian MS and Community Housing Cymru director of policy and external affairs/deputy CEO Clarissa Corbisiero (right).

As autumn comes around, public affairs minds in Wales turn to budget discussions. For us here at Community Housing Cymru, we have two main priorities: new affordable homes and homelessness prevention.

Earlier this year, Welsh Government announced an additional £5m for the Social Housing Grant. We welcomed this increase: building affordable homes is a key part of setting a sustainable course out of the housing crisis - but it has never been more difficult to do so, with cost inflation restricting the impact of government investment in recent years.

After our annual Housing Matters campaign with Cymorth Cymru, Welsh Government also allocated an additional £13m to the Housing Support Grant for 2024/25 to support the continuation of homelessness and housing support services for another year - and, importantly, workers on the frontline who directly change lives can be paid fairly.

However, that budget only covered a single financial year. Now as we look to 2025/26, we are once again working hard to show just how crucial funding these budget lines is to the people of Wales.

Housing Support Grant

On 11 October, we held a fringe event at the Plaid Cymru autumn conference, with Cymorth Cymru and Sian Gwenllian MS.

Speaking at the session, our director of policy and external affairs/deputy CEO Clarissa Corbisiero called attention to the sobering statistics behind the homelessness and housing crisis:

• between August 2020 and December 2023, on average 1,338 people moved into temporary accommodation per month and only 594 moved on to long term settled homes.

• As of 31 July 2024, 11,384 individuals were living in temporary accommodation, nearly a third of these were children and young people.

Clarissa also spoke about the political and legislative activity that has been undertaken since 2018 to respond to this crisis. Including setting up the Ending Homelessness National Advisory Board, the Expert Review Panel (both of which CHC is a member of) and Welsh Government releasing its Ending Homelessness White Paper in 2023.

However, she highlighted that now is the time for urgent action and a coordinated response across all public services to tackle the homelessness and housing crisis.

A key part of ending homelessness is through increasing the supply of affordable social homes. Housing associations are doing all they can do to deliver the homes people so desperately need across Wales but there are systemic barriers in place that are slowing delivery. These must be removed.

Looking in more detail at the Housing Support Grant, Cymorth Cymru director Katie Dalton explained how it compares in real terms to the budget in 2011/12. Had the budget increased with inflation, the £139m allocated in 2012 equates to approximately £191m today. That is a real terms cut of £24m - and there is the additional consideration that since 2012 demand for services has increased significantly.

Katie spoke about the challenges being experienced by frontline workers - many of whom are experiencing similar financial difficulties to the clients they support, because service providers do not have sufficient budgets to pay workers fairly for the life-changing work that they do.

While service providers and housing associations have support and policies in place to help staff who are struggling, they desperately want to increase pay for frontline workers. To do this they must be sufficiently funded by Welsh Government.

View from the frontline

Three homelessness and housing support workers also spoke at the session, sharing their experiences on the frontline.

Clare Jenkins, a project support worker from Pobl, said that the withdrawal of public services has meant that to be a good support worker she has to fill in the gaps - and this is particularly noticeable in her work supporting young people aged 16-17 years old.

Clare also told the room how she had supported a client to overcome adversity and achieve his dream of becoming a chef in the navy. While he was selected for the navy, he was sadly involved in a serious accident. However, after many months of physiotherapy he went on to compete in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

The Wallich’s Gail Robinson spoke of her experience returning to the sector after a career break due to burnout. Having been a support worker for a total of 12 years, Gail shared how much she has seen pressures on the sector increase; how much harder it is for clients to get the long term homes they deserve; and how much longer clients are staying in temporary accommodation.

Gail also talked about her experience supporting a deaf and partially blind client and taking the time to find the best way to communicate with them. She remembered how she had to advocate tirelessly for her client who struggled to read letters and fill out forms without assistance. The client has now moved on to a long term settled home.

Rhian Richards Manning, who also works for The Wallich, highlighted the whole system issues that act as barriers when supporting homeless clients. These include the lack of GP appointments and available NHS dentists; eligibility criteria for benefits often creating a cliff edge; and the lack of affordable transport options for those living in rural areas.

Rhian also spoke about the financial challenges that she has seen fellow sector staff experience, saying, ‘We are losing good staff who can no longer afford to stay in the job”

Closing the event, Sian Gwellian MS thanked the workers for their dedication, passion and care for the invaluable work that they do to improve peoples’ lives.

Sian also noted Plaid Cymru’s work to improve the homelessness and housing issue. In 2017, it fought alongside campaigning organisations to protect ring fenced funding for housing support services. And in 2023, Plaid Cymru worked with us and Cymorth Cymru to achieve the additional £13m of funding for HSG mentioned above.

Sian shared that the party is now continuing its work to protect and increase the HSG. Recently, she has challenged the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government during Senedd questions and Local Government and Housing Committee meetings, asking for a commitment to protect and increase the HSG now.

Beyond HSG, Sian noted other levers that are essential to tackling the housing crisis, including the sufficient supply of affordable homes - a vital component of a homelessness prevention and alleviation system.