Rough sleeping

Rehousing people in urgent need

During the coronavirus pandemic, housing associations partnered with local authorities to accommodate and sustainably rehouse rough sleepers and people fleeing domestic abuse quickly into housing with support, as part of the Everyone In effort.

Find out more about housing associations’ work to house rough sleepers during coronavirus

Housing associations prioritised vulnerable groups, including people fleeing domestic abuse/harassment, care leavers, hospital discharge, homeless families, overcrowded households for new lettings and transfers, often while local authority normal lettings were suspended.

Housing associations also worked with local refuges to rehouse people ready for move-on. We developed guidance with the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA on how this could be done, fed into the Local Government Association (LGA) guidance on rehousing rough sleepers, and held a webinar with the LGA on examples of working together to rehouse people. Our 2021 event with the LGA also looked at learning from the pandemic on how local authorities and housing associations can work together to end rough sleeping and homelessness.

Some housing associations also agreed with the local authority and police that perpetrators of domestic abuse removed through a domestic violence protection notice (DVPN) would be treated like rough sleepers and provided hotel accommodation, so they remained housed separately from the survivor.

Working with the government on move-on accommodation

Following the accommodation and rehousing effort during the pandemic, we fed back to government that there needed to be a coordinated effort with funding available to provide long-term rehousing options for rough sleepers.

We wrote a joint letter to Dame Louise Casey, who headed up the Rough Sleeping Taskforce during ‘Everyone In’ asking for sustainable solutions for people currently accommodated and for those at risk of homelessness.

We then fed into government thinking around its move-on accommodation funds, the Next Steps Accommodation Fund and Rough Sleeping Accommodation Fund, including giving member feedback around bidding into and using the fund through a series of roundtables with DLUHC.