Everyone has a fundamental right to housing. People have the right to a safe, secure, habitable and affordable home with freedom from forced eviction. It is the obligation of Government to guarantee that everyone can exercise their right to live in secure, peaceful and dignified place. It is a matter of concern, therefore, that recent housing statistics reveal a downturn in house building in Wales. The number of new dwellings started in the second quarter of this year is 7 per cent less than a year earlier. In addition, the number of households in Wales threatened with homelessness has increased.

Rough-sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness. We live in one of the most advanced and successful countries in the world—as a matter of fact, the fifth richest—and look at this, people still living on the streets and under the motorways, which is totally unacceptable. The fact that we still have people without a home and sleeping rough on our streets is a shame to us all. In our towns and cities, the sight of tents appearing on roundabouts and grass banks and roadsides is all too common these days. Last year, local authorities in Wales counted 158 people sleeping rough across Wales. However, the method used in making this count has been widely criticised. Shelter Cymru called it outdated with Denbighshire council reporting only one rough-sleeper.

Historically, homelessness services for rough-sleepers have been provided by hostels, yet many rough-sleepers choose not to use hostels. The reasons they give include overwhelming drug, alcohol and violence issues. Homeless people have often accumulated serious mental health and addiction problems while living on the streets. All these factors combine to make hostels an unattractive option. I have called in the past, in this Chamber, for innovative solutions to be found to get homeless people off the streets. In Newport, the charity Amazing Grace Spaces opened sleeping pods to provide safe temporary shelters. In response to my question, welcoming this, the First Minister said:

'innovative solutions may help in the here and now, a long-term answer to tackling the housing problems that we face across the nation are more permanent homes'.

I agree with this quote, Presiding Officer. We need to meet the complex needs of people who find themselves sleeping on our streets. We need bold and urgent action. We need a strategy that prevents rough-sleeping before it happens, a strategy that intervenes at all crisis points and helps people to recover, with flexible support that meets their needs. That is why I welcome my colleague David Melding's strategy document, 'More than a Refuge'. Thank you very much, David; well done. This document puts the issue of homelessness and rough-sleeping at the forefront of our political priorities. It commits us to the ambitious targets of ending rough-sleeping in Wales by 2026. A nationwide taskforce will undertake an extensive programme to uncover the full extent of homelessness in Wales. The problems associated with hostels would be addressed by a review into emergency and temporary accommodation. This would lead to the setting of a target for providing long-term housing solutions. The Royal British Legion estimates that there are 6,000 homeless veterans in the United Kingdom. This strategy calls for 150 empty social housing properties to be brought back, which was just mentioned by our colleague, back into use specifically for military veterans at risk of homelessness, and it calls for the appointment of a homeless tsar to co-ordinate policy development and delivery.

Deputy Presiding Officer, this report has been welcomed by many housing charities and organisations. If we work together across the Assembly, we can eradicate rough-sleeping and prevent homelessness in Wales; we can give people the opportunity to access safe and secure homes and provide a solid foundation to improve their quality of life. I personally met some of the homeless people in Newport and everybody had a different story to tell. I think I need another half an hour to tell my colleagues, but I've got only a few seconds. But, believe me, nobody—nobody—wants to live on those rough streets, they need safe, secure and protected homes where they can live their lives peacefully and they can contribute to the community, because there's a sad story to tell about every one of the 158 homeless people in this country and as I said earlier, it's a shame to us. We must do something and it's about time; we have to do it now. Thank you.