5. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:11 pm on 29 April 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:11, 29 April 2020

Thank you, David. Yes, it has been a serious challenge to get people in off the streets, and I really do have an enormous amount of respect for the numbers of people working across Wales to get that to happen so quickly. There is still an ongoing challenge, and we know that most local authorities are working at close to, or at capacity in all areas. I don't have a global figure as such, but I can tell you that it's nil in most authorities, and in low single figures in the main cities. It changes on a daily basis as people present, so it's very difficult to pinpoint a point in time and say, 'There are seven' or whatever, but it's very low. But, obviously, we have had to accommodate a large number of people who would have otherwise been hidden homeless. You'll remember we were running a campaign before this happened to get people to identify as homeless if they were sofa surfing or sleeping in spare rooms, and so on, and, of course, people have been reluctant to keep those arrangements going, and so we've had a lot more people to get into accommodation. That has been done, and I'm grateful to all of our partners across Wales who've worked so very hard to do that. 

We also have an increased problem where the Home Office has been using limited accommodation capacity to house asylum seekers, and that's placing a strain on the system, and we've had to work very hard to make sure that we're talking to each other properly to ensure that we're not both trying to secure the same accommodation at the same time in some areas, and we have had those conversations. But there's no doubt that puts an increased strain on the system. 

And then, the last thing we're dealing with at the moment is the need to accommodate prisoners who are being released. So, we have the normal prison releases. Just to be clear, those are still ongoing; if you've come to the end of your time, you've served your time, you get released regardless. No prisoners who are up for early release would have the virus, but we do have occasions where a prisoner who's just up for release in the normal course of that might be showing symptoms. There is a pathway now in place to ensure that those prisoners are properly accommodated, properly transported, with all of the safety for both the released prisoner and the staff dealing with them, and the accommodation that they're returning to, in place. I'm very grateful to the partners who've worked with us so very hard to get those things catered for in the system as well.