Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Preventing and ending homelessness in all its forms is a priority for this Government. Ensuring no-one was left without accommodation and support during this emergency made that priority all the more urgent. In March, at the start of the lockdown, I took early action to provide an additional £10 million of funding and clear guidance on how people should be sheltered and supported. I am proud of our response in Wales; the decisive and compassionate action taken by Welsh Government and local authorities, in partnership with health, third sector, registered social landlords and voluntary organisations, to bring people in from the streets has undoubtedly saved lives.

Our collective efforts have made sure that everyone was included in the measures designed to protect people and communities. More than 800 people have been provided emergency accommodation and support since the lockdown began. Many were previously sleeping on our streets, others were destitute because they had no recourse to public funds, and many were hidden homeless, living precariously as sofa surfers or in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Local authorities have supported people facing homelessness into safe and stable accommodation, perhaps for the first time in their lives, and have helped people to start to build trust in services they have never, or rarely, engaged with before, and all in just a few short weeks. The response to this emergency has brought us closer together in many ways, recognising our shared common purpose, but also closer to achieving our vision of making homelessness in Wales rare, brief and non-repeated.

We are acutely aware that providing temporary accommodation is not ending homelessness. It does provide us with a unique opportunity to harness the creativity, innovation, collaboration and willingness to work differently to make a long-term, sustainable and fundamental change to homelessness services in Wales. It also provides us with a unique opportunity to transform people’s lives.

We cannot fall back from the huge progress we have made. We must work to ensure that people facing homelessness continue to be protected from the virus, that they are included in any continued or new public health protection measures introduced, and that no-one is forced to return to the streets or any other form of homelessness. I announced last week additional funding of up to £20 million, revenue and capital, to support the next phase of our response to homelessness in the context of COVID-19.

We are asking every local authority in Wales to prepare a phase 2 plan that sets out how they will ensure that no-one need return to the street, focusing on innovation, building and re-modelling to transform the accommodation offer across Wales. I have today published a framework document to set clear expectations and assist local authorities and their partners in developing their phase 2 plans. The framework document is based firmly on the recommendations I received from the homelessness action group just before lockdown. I am once again very grateful for their expert input and their ongoing engagement in this work.

We are not just asking others to reform the way they work; we are reforming our ways of working as well. We have gained enormously from the close working with local authorities that my officials have been undertaking during this first phase. I know authorities have positively welcomed the closer engagement and support; it has helped to quickly identify and resolve issues, and is informing better policy development. We intend to learn and build on this closer working in the next phase, assisting in the development of the plans, and ensuring we can quickly begin to implement them from July onwards.

This support will also include a series of engagement events to support local authorities and their partners. I took part in the launch event last week and was heartened by the positive response, and to hear of the innovative, multi-agency work and planning already under way in some areas across Wales.

Our collective aim is to ensure that everyone we have brought in to temporary accommodation is supported into long-term accommodation. This requires a collective effort. As I have said on many occasions, homelessness is not solely a housing issue; it is a public service issue and requires a cross-public service response. We aim to transform our whole approach to homelessness provision so that those who present as homeless each and every day experience a system focused on real prevention.

In this next phase, I expect to see creativity, partnership and a willingness to invest in these programmes, which will bring long-term savings and benefits to our public services, as well as the potential to transform the lives of the people involved. Innovation, remodelling and building must form the bedrock of how we address, prevent and end homelessness for good in Wales. 

I set out last year in our revised homelessness strategy our aim to move away from temporary accommodation solutions and to adapt a rapid rehousing approach—adopt, I should say, a rapid rehousing approach. We have an opportunity to move more quickly to implement this strategy. In this next phase, we are asking local authorities to commit to and plan how to rapidly move away from the use of night shelters and floor space and approaches where significant resource, particularly from the voluntary sector, is required to support people sleeping rough.

We are asking that they prioritise rapid rehousing and long-term plans, backed up by better quality emergency provision. Our focus is on quickly supporting people back into permanent housing, providing high-quality and dignified interim options and being clear that street services are prioritised for professional assertive outreach focused on resolving homelessness. This next phase is not only about ensuring no-one need return to sleeping rough, but is also about transformation.

This plan is rightly ambitious. It challenges us all to think, plan and work differently. The new investment I have announced to support this plan clearly reflects our commitment as Welsh Government to lead and invest in what we believe in. It will also require local authorities and their partners to invest, using existing funding and grants, and leverage borrowing. This is investment for the long term.

The last few weeks have shown us how much greater than the sum of our parts we can be when we work together. I am truly excited about the opportunity we have before us. It will be a challenge, but based on what we have achieved together thus far, I am confident that we can now make a significant step change towards achieving our goal of ending homelessness in Wales. Diolch.