CHC responds to inquiry into rough sleeping

Today the Assembly Equalities, Communities & Local Government Committee published a report on rough sleeping in Wales.

Will Atkinson, Policy and Programmes Manager at Community Housing Cymru said:

“We welcome the publication of the Assembly Equalities, Communities & Local Government Committee inquiry into rough sleeping.

"Sleeping on the streets is extremely harmful for people. Housing associations in Wales work tirelessly to prevent and alleviate rough sleeping through the provision of temporary accommodation, support services and long term safe and secure housing. Housing associations currently allocate a significant proportion of their housing to homeless households. In some cases as many as four in every ten housing association homes are let to a homeless family or individual.

“We support the committee’s recommendation to assess the levels of homeless households being allocated in local authority or housing association social housing. We recognise the need for constant improvement and next week will be launching a research report looking at access to social tenancies in Wales. Commissioned with the WLGA, this report will be shared with a toolkit to support housing associations to improve tenancy access for homeless households.

Community Housing Cymru looks forward to working closely with Welsh Government and partners to tackle rough sleeping in Wales.”