2. What is the Welsh Government doing to tackle rough sleeping in Wales? OAQ(5)0518(FM)

Rough sleeping, we know, is a problem in many parts of Wales, which is why we have the legislation that we’ve passed in order to ensure that rough sleeping was dealt with. There is a question mark at the moment in terms of us being able to understand the numbers of people who are sleeping rough. It can be a difficult people to assess, but we are not complacent, and we are continuing to invest through our Supporting People programme and homelessness prevention grants.

I thank the First Minister for that response. Last week, press reports highlighted the experience of people sleeping rough in Neath. The people who were interviewed had been through job loss, difficulty in claiming benefits, prison and addiction, and they spoke movingly about the impact on their health and their sense of loneliness. The legislation that the First Minister has referred to is acknowledged as having made great progress, in particular around prevention, and I welcome the preservation of Supporting People, as he mentioned in his response. But Shelter believes that the way the Welsh Government monitors rough sleeping means, in their words:

‘We simply don’t know enough about…rough sleeping to be able to fix it.’

They also highlight the comparative lack of Housing First accommodation in Wales. In addition to the measures already in place, will the First Minister therefore look at how the Welsh Government monitors rough sleeping, so that we can understand how best to tackle it, and will he also look at the availability of Housing First stock in Wales?

Yes. An independent evaluation of the implementation of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 has been commissioned, and an interim report is expected in draft format by June of this year. That work will help us to understand how rough sleepers are being treated under the legislation, and I can say that alternative monitoring systems are being explored in order to assist with the annual monitoring that takes place. There’ll be further information on that later in the year. And, of course, we’re looking to work with local authorities, who are responsible for meeting needs in their local areas, to ensure that people don’t become homeless in the first place, which, of course, is the intention of the legislation.

First Minister, as has already been mentioned, Shelter are gravely concerned about the lack of data available to monitor what is happening in Wales. I believe with many of your other programmes such as Communities First and Communities for Work, the data and the lack of data is an emerging theme for your Government. With such an important issue in the fact that we do have such strong legislation, why does a situation arise where there is a lack of data on such an important issue? What work in addition to that that you’ve just outlined in your response to Jeremy Miles will be ongoing in order to ensure that there is no growth next year in the number of homeless people in Wales?

One thing from the data that is important to say is that the statistics from 2015-16 show that the legislation was successful in helping 65 per cent of families who were under pressure and perhaps lost their house because of that. And so we know that that has worked extremely well. But as I said earlier, it is extremely important to ensure that the data that we have is adequate in order to ensure that the legislation works in the most effective way possible.

As a member of the multiagency and cross-party working group that successfully campaigned under the leadership of community campaigners Together Creating Communities to establish the Tŷ Nos night shelter in Wrexham, it’s particularly frustrating that the Welsh Government’s latest national rough sleeper count not only shows a 72 per cent increase in rough sleepers across Wales, but the numbers in Wrexham on the night of the count were up from 17 to 27 on the previous years, and at 61, Wrexham had the highest proportion of people sleeping rough over a two-week period in Wales—significantly higher, even, than Cardiff. How, therefore, do you propose that the Welsh Government should engage with Wrexham town centre forum steering group, whose chair, Andrew Atkinson, has said that it’s time for everyone to put politics aside, stop blaming each other and work together mutually to get to grips with the town’s issues?

The Member quotes a Conservative candidate, who, as we know, may not be perhaps the most objective person to quote at this stage. But I have to say that his party has to take responsibility for this. Many people become homeless because of the changes in welfare benefits. The hammering that people have through the bedroom tax—[Interruption.] Yes, it’s true to say that we look to use legislation and other means in order to look to prevent homelessness, but of course, the UK Government is responsible for taking money away from people and putting them in danger of being homeless. And so, his party has to accept responsibility for much of the threat of homelessness that people have to face.

First Minister, unfortunately, the narrative around rough sleeping has been completely toxic. Rather than seeing rough sleepers as poor, unfortunate souls forced to find shelter in shop doorways facing hypothermia and starvation, many have seen them and branded them as delinquents and a scourge to be removed from our high streets. First Minister, do you agree with me that, rather than serving anti-social behaviour orders on these people or locking them up for vagrancy, councils across Wales should be providing shelter and working with the various agencies and partnerships to find them permanent accommodation and support?

Well, I’m not sure you can lock people up for vagrancy anymore, but I take the point about stigma. I have been to the Salvation Army’s purple bus that appears in Cathays Park in Cardiff. I’ve seen and met many of the people who are homeless. They have very different stories to tell. Some of them have to wrestle with addiction, some of them find it very difficult to remain in accommodation when they get their accommodation, and there are many problems that individuals have to face. But through the work of groups like the Salvation Army with the accommodation that they provide, working with local authorities and Government, we aim to provide a holistic solution to the problems that so many people face that make them homeless in the first place.