Rough-sleepers

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 24 November 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:27, 24 November 2020

Llywydd, I think we can give that assurance. It's two things together, it seems to me. It is assertive outreach and then it's a proper level of support for those people after they have been reached and after they have been placed in accommodation. We know that amongst the 101 people who were sleeping rough in August, there will be some people whose level of addiction to alcohol or to drugs has taken them back onto the streets again. We will know that in some settings, where people who were previously homeless have been temporarily housed, there is a level of anti-social behaviour that has an impact on staff and on other tenants alike and which some people find they're just not able to deal with. So, as well as reaching people through assertive outreach services, we also have to make sure that we have the help that is then necessary to sustain people in temporary accommodation to begin with, and then into permanent accommodation in the way that we wish to see. I know that David Melding will be aware of the fact that in the £50 million next phase of our homelessness response, nearly £10 million of that is for that wraparound support in mental health and substance misuse, to try and make sure that people do not feel that the answer that's right for them is a return to rough-sleeping from which they otherwise would have been relieved.