Deborah_Garvie
About
As our policy manager, Deborah leads our work on homelessness. This includes the new Homelessness Reduction Act, homelessness prevention, and the availability of suitable housing where most needed.
Self-isolation? Try it as a homeless family living in one room
Self-isolation? Try it as a homeless family living in one room
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Ministers must go further to help homeless families during this health crisis.

With the COVID-19 pandemic now taking hold in England, schools are now closed, and people being advised to work from home, many of us are wondering how we’ll cope with weeks of self-isolation and social distancing. 

Experts are providing tips on how to deal with feeling like the walls are closing in. But in all the chaos, spare a thought for the homeless families living in cramped temporary accommodation, often for months on end, while they wait to be given a permanent home. 

For some, this can mean a … Read more

Grenfell: Ministers can and must regulate to protect social tenants
Grenfell: Ministers can and must regulate to protect social tenants
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Today marks 21 long months since the devastating fire in Grenfell Tower – the biggest housing tragedy in our history.

Yet still, we await the government’s new deal on social housing. It’s been seven months since they acknowledged there was a powerful case for strengthening regulation, to make sure it focuses not just on the governance and financial viability of housing associations, but also on how residents are treated and the level of service they should expect.

12 months after … Read more

Right to Rent – time to end this discriminatory policy
Right to Rent – time to end this discriminatory policy
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Today, the High Court delivered a damning judgment on the Government’s Right to Rent scheme, finding that the desired effects of the policy have been outweighed by its potential for race discrimination.

From the outset, we argued that the scheme, which criminalised landlords who let to those without the right to rent (such as people with unsettled immigration status), would lead to further discrimination in the rental market, including for some who have every right to rent.

We provided … Read more

Housing’s big week: will the Rough Sleeping Strategy and Social Housing Green Paper deliver?
Housing’s big week: will the Rough Sleeping Strategy and Social Housing Green Paper deliver?
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Last week was an important week for housing policy.

An important week for the thousands of men and women bedding down on our streets tonight; nearly 80,000 households going home to temporary accommodation; 1.2 million families waiting for their names to come to the top of the social housing waiting list and half a million social housing tenants without a decent home.

Rough sleeper strategy

On Monday, the Secretary of State published the Rough Sleeping Strategy, setting out the … Read more

Housing First: what so many street homeless people need
Housing First: what so many street homeless people need
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Last week’s announcement from the new Secretary of State of funding for three Housing First pilots in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, and the West Midlands Combined Authority is very welcome.

We have long advocated a Housing First approach as a solution for many of the homeless and excluded people with multiple and complex needs with whom we work. In 2016, we launched a two-year Housing First pilot in Manchester, which was recently extended to a small scheme for women … Read more

Shake up to council duties to tackle homelessness starts today
Shake up to council duties to tackle homelessness starts today
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From today, councils must change the way they help homeless people, as the Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force.

The new legislation is certainly needed. Homelessness in England has reached crisis point, as the tragic reports of people dying on our streets during the recent cold weather have brought into sharp focus.

Few of us can say we haven’t noticed an increase in men and women bedding down. Street homelessness has more than doubled in five years: last autumn over … Read more

On International Women’s Day, we mustn't ignore homeless women
On International Women’s Day, we mustn't ignore homeless women
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International Women’s Day is a day to remember how badly women are being affected by our housing crisis.

While most people, when thinking about homelessness, might think of street homeless men, it’s important that we’re fully aware of the facts.

Women sleeping on the streets

It’s true that the majority of people captured by homeless street counts are men. Government data shows that only 14% of people sleeping on our streets on a given night are women.

But the women … Read more

Homelessness Reduction: time to get your Act together
Homelessness Reduction: time to get your Act together
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Last week, new Homelessness Minister, Heather Wheeler, announced the publication of a new Homelessness Code of Guidance for local housing authorities following new regulations confirming that the Homelessness Reduction Act will come into force on 3 April 2018.

This means that local authorities, and those who advise homeless people, now have just over a month to familiarise themselves with the guidance and prepare for implementation.

The new legislation heralds a fundamental change to the rights of homeless people – and … Read more

Personalised plans – putting service users at the centre of new homelessness services
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Today, we publish a new briefing on how local housing authorities should implement new duties to homeless people, which are due to come into force in April 2018 under the Homelessness Reduction Act. This includes the recommendations of an Expert Panel of Shelter service users, with lived experience of approaching their local housing authority for homelessness assistance.

From next spring, we’re set to see a big shake-up in the services councils are legally required to provide to people asking for … Read more

BAME homelessness matters and is disproportionately rising – time for the government to act
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Yesterday’s government Race Disparity Audit highlights the disparity among homeless households.  But this isn’t inevitable and its high time it was addressed.  Ending the freeze to local housing allowance would be a very good start.

The government’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures website, launched yesterday, tells us nothing new about race and homelessness.  The data was already there.  But it provides a focus to ask why race is still affecting people’s housing options in 21st century England.

Let’s face the … Read more

Homelessness Reduction Act 2017: we’d like your examples of personalised housing plans
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The Homelessness Reduction Act, due to come into force next April, will result in personalised housing plans becoming an important part of statutory homelessness assistance. Ahead of a forthcoming Shelter publication on homelessness assessment and personalised housing plans, we’re calling for examples of personalised housing plans already developed and used by local authorities.

The Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force next April and is one of the biggest changes to homeless legislation for 15 years.

Local housing authorities, and others … Read more

Government auditors say housing benefit freeze is a driver of homelessness
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A National Audit Office report, published today, finds that the freeze on housing benefit is “likely” driving the increase in homelessness.  Shelter is calling on the Chancellor to show the Government is serious about homelessness prevention and announce an end to the freeze.

“The decrease in affordability of properties in the private rented sector, of which welfare reforms such as the capping of Local Housing Allowance [housing benefit in private rented housing] are an element, have driven the increase in … Read more