THE YEAR ROUGH SLEEPING ENDED. FOR A WHILE.
Westminster took the “unprecedented action” of launching the Everyone In scheme on March 26 last year. In total, 37,000 people have been put up in hotels, B&Bs and other emergency accommodation through the scheme – a figure nine times the official rough sleeping count. As well as uncovering the scale of homelessness, the scheme has undoubtedly saved lives – University College London experts found 266 people would have died without the intervention during the first lockdown. Ministers have thrown money at the problem – £750m will be spent on protecting people in hotels and finding them a permanent home, with ministers last week announcing £212m to find 6,000 homes for rough sleepers alongside wraparound support to keep them housed. That model is widely known as Housing First and has been making waves in…