3. How will the First Minister ensure the success of the Welsh Government's long-term strategy to combat homelessness? (OAQ51168)

Our commitment to dealing with homelessness is found, of course, in the budget that we published last week.

I didn’t hear your answer there, First Minister, because of the mutterings to your rear. Would you mind answering again?

I’ll repeat it. Our commitment to dealing with homelessness—

The First Minister will repeat the answer and his backbenchers will be slightly quieter.

Our commitment to dealing with homelessness is found in the budget that was published last week.

First Minister, last week when I asked you, you revealed that your plan to address the homelessness crisis that we face in Wales was to wait for a Labour Government to come to power in Westminster. Now, I’m sure that will be of great comfort to the many rough sleepers in Wales ahead of the fast-approaching winter. If we had powers over Jobcentre Plus and administrative control over payments, something that Plaid Cymru has called for for many years, you would have the power to prevent sanctions and to prevent the administrative fiascos that leave people destitute. Now, preventing homelessness, as you know, saves money in other public services. It also saves lives, because the increase in recent drug-related deaths is linked to homelessness. It’s for those reasons that we prioritised the Supporting People budget as part of our recent budget negotiations. Now, given all of this, aside from the Supporting People budget that I’ve just mentioned, are you seriously saying that there is nothing else that you can do to stop this growing crisis in homelessness until there is another Labour Government elected in Westminster some time in the distant future? Is that the best that you can come up with for rough sleepers in this country?

Well, we look forward to the day when there is a Labour Government in Westminster, but she asked me to list what we have done. Well, 11,000 people have been helped since April 2015; the recent homelessness statistics for the first quarter of 2017-18 show a steady rate of success in times of increasing demand; 63 per cent of all households threatened with homelessness have had their homelessness prevented in Wales because of legislation that we introduced—the legislation we know has been influential enough because England is now looking to copy us; we’ve clearly demonstrated our determination to drive down homelessness in the draft budget—the additional £10 million for each of the next two years will enable local authorities to intensify their efforts to achieve the best outcome for those at risk of homelessness; we’ve just announced an additional £2.6 million of funding for innovative projects to tackle rough sleeping and youth homelessness; we are committed to supporting the End Youth Homelessness campaign and we’re working with it to develop an action plan to tackle that problem; and, of course, we have another round of distinct approaches, which includes a housing pathway to help ex-service personnel, the national pathway for ex-offenders, the pathway to help young people avoid homelessness, and an accommodation framework for care leavers to ensure they get the help they need to find suitable accommodation. It doesn’t sound like torpor to me.

First Minister, I’m sure you’ll join with me in commending the work of the Wallich. In a recent report launched in the Assembly last week, I’ve found that there has been an increase in rough sleepers in Cardiff and Swansea and that those sleeping on the streets are 70 times more likely to die from substance misuse and 11 times more likely to die as a result of alcohol. We’ve heard that the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 does place an emphasis on preventing homelessness. That is very, very important, but the most severe type of homelessness is that that affects rough sleepers, and what are we doing to help resolve those problems of those who are actually now living on the streets?

Well, the Wallich I know very well. Oddly enough, their headquarters in Bridgend are on the street where I live—literally down the road. We’ve worked with them on a constituency basis over many years to help people who’ve been faced with homelessness. I refer the Member back to the point I made earlier on that we’ve allocated £2.6 million of the funding for innovative projects to tackle rough sleeping and youth homelessness. It’s important, I believe, to work with organisations that have experience on the ground and to allow them to develop the solutions that they believe are right, while providing, of course, funding from the Welsh Government.

First Minister, I went on the breakfast run with the Wallich the week before last, and it was very impressive to see the support and services they offer—hot food, hot drinks, clothing, advice about accommodation, GP appointments; there is a whole range of very important support measures and advice offered by the Wallich. We also heard first-hand from rough sleepers just what they thought the practical solutions were—for example, the consistent availability of showers at a particular time during the morning and somewhere to dry clothing, which isn’t generally available in Newport at the current time and they feel should be. So, I would very much agree with David Melding that the Wallich have such a strong track record of delivery and a deal of knowledge of the practical solutions that will help rough sleepers. So, I do believe that Welsh Government should be working ever more closely with the third sector and organisations like the Wallich.

Yes. There’s no need to replicate what’s already being done or to reinvent the wheel. We know there are organisations that have first-hand experience on the ground of helping people. The job of Government in those circumstances is to help those organisations, and that, of course, is what we’re going to do with the funding we’ve announced to enable projects to come forward that are innovative but, importantly, of course, can receive the funding.