Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:08 pm on 29 April 2020.
Can I thank the Minister for her statement and also for the very open approach she's taken to scrutiny and arranging meetings with spokespeople, which I found very valuable? I think the Government is to be congratulated for moving quickly on the rough-sleeper issue, and there's no doubt that a lot of resources and technical expertise, I think, from the Welsh Government has gone in to help those local authorities. I wonder if any of them are still struggling a bit with the challenge and the sustainability of their approaches, and can you just tell us how you are supporting those that are perhaps finding it a bit more difficult than others?
And whilst single figures in Cardiff, Swansea, Newport is a genuine achievement, obviously we've got 22 local authorities, and if there were five rough-sleepers in each, we'd have about 100 rough-sleepers still, compared to the annual estimate of 340 to 350 that we had. So, do you have any idea of what the global figure is? I think that would be helpful. And, as we move on, how confident are you that we have the next phase, because much of this is enhanced emergency accommodation?
I know much more fundamental approaches have been taken around support, but a lot of these people are not in the accommodation they will need to be in the time ahead, in the months and years to come. So, what are we doing to ensure that this cohort of rough-sleepers who have now been brought into accommodation do not slip back onto the streets? And do we have any idea of people who are presenting as homeless at the moment because of the difficulties that COVID is presenting? Many people in fairly fragile accommodation are finding that friends don't want to accommodate them and sofa surfing is more difficult, and, therefore, it slips into the more extreme form of homelessness and rough-sleeping.
And—