Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 3 October 2017.
Well, it’s one thing to have the powers, it’s another thing to have the money. It’s one thing to say, ‘We’re going to do something’; if the money isn’t there to do it, then it becomes more difficult. What have we done? Well, we’ve just announced an additional £2.6 million to support services for rough sleepers and young people, and crucially we’ve introduced legislation to prevent homelessness in the first place. Dealing with people who are already on the street is important, but surely it must be the case as well that prevention is a priority for us. The legislation has meant more help for more people and help at an earlier stage, including rough sleepers, and the latest homelessness statistics for the first quarter of this financial year show a steady rate of success in times of increasing demand—63 per cent of all households threatened with homelessness had their homelessness prevented in Wales. That would not have happened anywhere else, and that’s as a result of the legislation.