Cyrenians respond to Andy Burnham's pledge to 'end rough sleeping'

This week Andy Burnham delivered his maiden speech with a pledge to end rough sleeping in England. Cyrenians CEO Kate Wallace responds:  

Rough sleeping numbers have been on the rise in the last few years – particularly in Edinburgh where Cyrenians carries out most of its services. We know the effect that rough sleeping can have on an individual’s health and wellbeing can be devastating – often fatal. For that reason, we must urgently start to view all forms of homelessness as a serious risk to public health.

This week Andy Burnham delivered his maiden speech with a pledge to end rough sleeping in England. Whilst housing and homelessness is devolved to the Scottish Government, we are delighted to see a commitment to tackling homelessness on a national scale. We hope this is the beginning of tangible action, and that the political will to not just respond to rough sleeping, but address its root cause, is mirrored across the UK.  

We need to move away from seeing homelessness as inevitable - we can prevent homelessness, but it takes time and money. That is why we at Cyrenians are calling for a Homelessness Prevention Fund, designed not just to sustain effective prevention services, but to study the impact of those services with the ambition to scale up what we know works.