<p>Rough Sleeping</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 21 March 2017.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 1:34, 21 March 2017

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?