Covid: Bid to reopen homeless night shelters criticised
- Published
A homeless charity has criticised government plans to allow communal night shelters for rough sleepers to reopen this winter.
Ministers published safety guidance on Tuesday, external detailing how the shelters, closed earlier this year due to Covid, could reopen if required.
An extra £10m has also been announced to help councils in England provide individual accommodation.
But Crisis said the funding "falls short of the bold action we need".
The charity was among 18 health and homeless organisations who last week warned social distancing in shelters would prove "all but impossible".
They are worried that, without more funding for councils, people will be forced into communal accommodation with a higher risk of transmission.
Night shelters - mostly run by charities and volunteer groups - were closed during the Covid-19 lockdown earlier this year.
Using extra funding provided to councils, thousands were moved into emergency self-contained accommodation such as hotels.
Councils in England are now set to receive £10m under the Cold Weather Fund, originally set up in 2018, to help provide emergency accommodation.
Faith and community groups will also receive £2m to help provide more individual emergency accommodation.
The government says this comes on top of £3.7bn in funding earlier this year, which councils could put towards homeless services among other areas.
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The new guidance says there should be a "balanced risk assessment" before re-opening night shelters, and they "should only be used as a last resort to protect against the risk to health and life of individuals remaining on the streets when other alternative options are unavailable".
The shelters will also be exempt from the so-called "rule of six", limiting the number of people who can gather, but the advice says contact between staff and those sleeping there "should be minimised" and staff should ensure groups do not gather inside the shelter.
The government says the "default" for the centres should be self-contained rooms with individual washing facilities, and there should be contacts taken so people can be traced in case of infection.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the guidance, alongside the extra funding, would mean "some of the most vulnerable people in society are given support and a safe place to stay this winter".
Homeless Link, an umbrella organisation for homelessness groups that helped produce the guidance, agreed night shelters should only open as a last resort.
Its chief executive, Rick Henderson, said the new rules would "help make shelters open as safely as possible if they do become a necessity".
'Completely unacceptable'
But Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, urged the government to "see sense" and keep night shelters closed.
"Back in March, the government rightly decided that night shelters and hostels were not a safe environment for people during the pandemic," he said.
"It's completely unacceptable that this approach should now change as we go into winter when the threat remains the same.
"We must not force people to choose between freezing on the street or a shelter, when both needlessly put lives at risk."
He added councils should instead get the "crucial funding" required to provide all rough sleepers with self-contained accommodation.
Labour said the £10m in funding for the Cold Weather Fund represented a fall from the figure last year.
The party's shadow housing secretary, Thangam Debbonaire, said: "As we enter a second Covid spike, the government's failure to prepare for a winter homelessness crisis risks lives and public health.
"We need strong leadership from the government to keep its promise to end rough sleeping for good."
- Published16 May 2020
