<p>Homelessness in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 21 March 2017.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 2:09, 21 March 2017

There are a number of issues that my friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney has identified, and that is, quite often, people cannot get themselves out of the rut they find themselves in: they can’t get a job, because they haven’t got an address; they can’t look the part for a job, because they haven’t got any money; they find it difficult to access help for mental health problems or for addiction problems. There are pathways that people can follow that are provided by a number of third sector organisations, but getting people onto that pathway is often the difficult part. I suspect that, for many individuals, it’s a tailor-made approach to that individual that will work most effectively, but, of course, we also face a situation where people are homeless because they literally have nowhere to live and they can’t claim housing benefit because of their age. Because of that, they find themselves living on the streets as a result of that, and that is something that could have been prevented by the UK Government.