MD2740 Next Steps Accommodation Programme and Protect Programme

1.1 In March 2020, the GLA, in partnership with boroughs, charities, the NHS and businesses, pioneered Everyone In – the initiative to ensure that rough sleepers at risk of COVID-19 were safely accommodated during the pandemic. To date, over 6,000 rough sleepers have been provided with emergency accommodation and support across London, including over 1,700 in GLA-procured hotels. At the peak, the GLA had 14 hotels with capacity for around 1,400 people.

1.2 This rapid and comprehensive response has kept the rates of COVID-19 infection among London’s rough sleepers far below that seen in other world cities. For example, London’s rate of infection amongst rough sleepers has been 3-4% compared to 66% in San Francisco.

1.3 In June, as lockdown started to ease, those accommodated were supported to move on and the number of spaces in hotels and other emergency accommodation started to reduce. The response has given the GLA and the boroughs a unique opportunity to support people to exit homelessness. Through the Mayor’s In For Good policy, over 3,340 people in the capital have positively moved on, including over 740 from the GLA-procured hotels. However, as at 7 January, 3,228 rough sleepers were still accommodated, of which around 700 (mainly non-UK nationals with very limited move-on options) were in the remaining six GLA-procured hotels.

1.4 The continuing pandemic, the onset of winter and the lack of move-on options for many of those remaining in the hotels means that accommodation will be needed for many months to come – for those still accommodated, for the c900 people currently sleeping rough and for those that will come onto the streets over the coming months.

1.5 The Mayor has so far approved £28.73m of funding for the GLA’s COVID-19 rough sleeping response. This comprises:

• £10.55m (via MD2627): £9m from the first tranche of the Government’s COVID-19 emergency funding for local authorities, plus £1.05m of reprioritised GLA funding diverted from existing budgets and £0.5m of Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) funding diverted from other GLA rough sleeping services; and

• £18.18m (via MD2671): £7.18m from the second tranche of Government COVID-19 emergency funding for local authorities, an initial allocation of £9m from the Government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP) (from a national pot of £105m), £1m of MHCLG funding received by the GLA from the Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) fund and £1m of reprioritised GLA funding diverted from existing budgets.

1.6 The Mayor has since secured £14.81m, as follows:

• a further £10m from NSAP, the purpose of which is to fund temporary accommodation, support, food and other provision for rough sleepers who need to self-isolate, as well as services and longer-term accommodation to enable them to move on and rebuild their lives. This funding will be spent as follows:

 £9.6m to extend the period of operation of GLA-procured hotels and support and provide move on options to residents, including resources for a hotel to support the Mayor’s new triage hubs for new rough sleepers (including a dedicated service for young people) via DePaul;

 £0.3m to grant fund St Mungo’s for a new initiative to target support at a cohort of London’s most entrenched rough sleepers, known as the Target 1,000 (T1000); and

 £0.1m to expand Routes Home to provide Roma mediators in areas of London with high number of Roma people on the streets (and vary the GLA’s contract with St Mungo’s for this service);

• £4.2m from the Government’s new Protect Programme (PP), the purpose of which is to fund support to rough sleepers over the winter, prioritising those who are clinically vulnerable and those with a history of rough sleeping. In addition, those London boroughs with the highest rates of rough sleeping have been allocated a further £2.68m. This funding will be spent as follows:

 to provide additional COVID-safe accommodation plus support and related services this winter, including dedicated provision for those who are COVID-positive or symptomatic;

• £0.14m from the Government’s Cold Weather Fund, the purpose of which is to fund provision during severe weather; and

• £0.47m from the Government’s Suspension of the Derogation fund. In September 2019, the Government suspended an EU derogation (normally applied through Article 24(2) of the EU Free Movement Directive) in four areas (including London), to enable accommodation and support to be provided to a specific group of rough sleeping EEA nationals for up to 12 weeks. These powers, which were extended to across the country nationally in June 2020, allow local authorities to support certain EEA nationals who are not eligible for other types of support until the end of the transition period (31 December 2020), at which point new rules will apply under the new immigration system. This funding can cover up to three months of emergency accommodation, alongside floating support, to be offered to EEA rough sleepers. It will allow an increase in the support provided during the pandemic to this cohort to ensure assessments and accommodation are available to all those at risk of Covid-19, including EEA rough sleepers. The £0.47m of funding will be spent as follows:

 £0.14m to expand the Mayor’s Routes Home service for non-UK nationals sleeping rough to provide additional EU national bed spaces and staffing (through variation of the current contract with St Mungo’s);

 £0.05m for personalised budgets for EU nationals through the Mayor’s London Street Rescue outreach service (through variation of the current contract with Thames Reach); and

 £0.28m to extend the period of a GLA-procured hotel for the COVID-19 response for staffing and client costs for EU nationals accommodated.

1.7 In addition, £0.09m from the Mayor’s rough sleeping budget will grant fund Stonewall Housing and the Outside Project to deliver a 10-bed night shelter for vulnerable homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people, to prevent rough sleeping for this usually hidden group.

1.8 The currently approved COVID-19 response funding would enable the Mayor to retain some but not all of the current hotel provision until the end of the winter, and continue to offer accommodation during the pandemic where there is a risk to life or whilst support is necessary to assess the entitlements of the individual . The above additional funding for which approval is sought will enable a boost in provision plus the creation of additional services. However, even with the additional accommodation and support that boroughs are being funded to provide, there is unlikely to be sufficient provision to keep all rough sleepers in the capital safe this winter – particularly as most of London’s usual c800 spaces in communal winter night shelters cannot be provided this year. It is estimated that a further £24m would be needed to ensure that all rough sleepers have the accommodation and support they need this winter.

2.1 To support at least 250 rough sleepers at risk of COVID 19 to help prevent the spread of the virus, by enabling them to self-isolate and otherwise follow Government guidance around COVID 19, protecting both them and the wider community. This includes both extending the stay of rough sleepers accommodated in the hotels since July 2020 when the NSAP funding was announced and providing accommodation for at least an additional 250 rough sleepers with the PP funding.

2.2 It is not possible to accurately predict the number of infections, hospital admissions and deaths that will be prevented as a result of the funding in this Mayoral Decision. However, information about the estimated impact of the measures to date provides an indication of potential outcomes:

• a recent article in the Lancet estimated that the Everyone In measures might have avoided 21,092 infections, 266 deaths, 1,164 hospital admissions, and 338 ICU admissions nationally among the homeless population in the first wave of the pandemic. On the basis that about a third of the emergency accommodation provided was in London, it is estimated that the response potentially avoided around 7,000 infections, 90 deaths and 390 hospital and 115 ICU admissions in the capital; and

• London’s ‘Everyone In’ response has helped keep infection rates amongst the homeless population lower than in many other world cities. There were six COVID-19 related deaths in the capital among people who were homeless up to the end of June. This compares with, for example, New York City, where 86 homeless people had died of COVID-19 by the end of May, and 104 by mid- October.

2.3 To support rough sleepers provided with interim accommodation procured by the GLA to move on and rebuild their lives. To date, over 740 of the c1,700 rough sleepers accommodated in the GLA-procured hotels have been supported to positively move on. NSAP funding has been used to part-fund this work, and will continue to be, along with the PP funding.

2.4 Routes Home will provide safe shelter and support for 13 EU nationals through the SotD funding, providing support to ensure a sustainable route off the streets for this cohort within six months.

2.5 LSR will be able to accommodate 16 low support needs EU nationals currently sleeping rough in temporary accommodation and continue to support this cohort to find employment or other alternative options that are a sustainable route off the streets.

2.6 The Outside Project shelter has, since 2019, successfully supported 94 homeless LGBTQ+ people into emergency shelter accommodation, alongside providing holistic case work and support relating to housing and employment. Between September 2019 and September 2020, 76 per cent of those placed in emergency accommodation were moved on positively. This funding will provide 10 bedspaces at any one time and around 45 people are expected to utilise these over the seven-month time period.

3.1 Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as public authorities, the Mayor and GLA are subject to a public-sector equality duty and must have ‘due regard’ to the need to (i) eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; (ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and (iii) foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being “relevant” protected characteristics).

3.2 Of those seen rough sleeping in 2019/20:

• 52 per cent were non-UK nationals;

• 6 per cent were from Gypsy/Romany/Traveller communities;

• 47 per cent had a mental health need;

• 17 per cent were women;

• most of those seen rough sleeping (59 per cent) were in the 26-45 age group;

• eight per cent were under 26 years old;

• 11 per cent were over 55; and

• one person was under 18.

3.3 Those with protected characteristics of race and disability are over-represented among rough sleepers; as the client group for these services is people with a history of sleeping rough the proposals in this paper are likely to have positive impacts on BAME Londoners and those with disabilities. As the majority of people sleeping rough are men, more men than women are likely to access these services. However, the services will provide personalised, specialist support for women and non-binary people which meets the needs of these groups.

3.4 The provision of Roma mediators through Routes Home is likely to have positive impacts on Roma rough sleepers. The project will consider the specific needs of this community to support them to positively access relevant services and work towards ultimately securing a sustainable route off the street.

Key risks and issues

Link to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1 Since 2016, the Mayor has coordinated efforts through his ‘Life off the Streets’ taskforce to identify, implement, lobby for, and monitor the effectiveness of interventions to tackle rough sleeping. In his London Housing Strategy, the Mayor set out his aim that there should be a sustainable route off the streets for every rough sleeper in London. In June 2018, he published his ‘Rough Sleeping Plan of Action’ which outlines the steps that need to be taken by City Hall, the Government, and others to achieve this.

4.2 Since taking office, the Mayor has been expanding the pan-London rough sleeping services the GLA funds and commissions. These services collectively form his ‘Life off the Streets’ programme. They are services for rough sleepers, or initiatives to tackle rough sleeping, that cannot or would not be provided at a London borough level, as they are pan London or multi borough in their remit.

Conflicts of interest

4.3 There are no known conflicts of interest for those involved in the drafting or clearance of this report.

5.1 This decision requests approval to receive funding of £14.81m from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – £10m from the Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP), £4.2m from the Protect Programme (PP), £0.47m from the Suspension of the Derogation (SotD) and £0.14m from the Cold Weather Fund (CWF).

5.2 Funding for the SotD and CWF are claimed in arrears once expenditure is incurred.

5.3 This decision also requests approval to expend funding of £14.81m in 2020/21:

• £9.88m to extend the period of operation of GLA-procured hotels and support and provide move on options to residents;

• £0.29m for a new grant funded initiative to target support at London’s most entrenched rough sleepers;

• £0.25m to expand Routes Home to provide additional Routes Home support and Roma mediators (and vary the GLA’s contract with St Mungo’s for this service) (all from NSAP);

• £4.2m for additional COVID-safe accommodation and support for rough sleepers this winter, including dedicated provision for those who are COVID-positive or symptomatic (from PP);

• £0.05m for personalised budgets for EU nationals sleeping rough through London Street Rescue (LSR) (and vary the contract with Thames Reach for this service) (from SotD); and

• £0.14m for provision for rough sleepers during severe weather in the winter (from CWF).

5.4 This decision requests up to £0.09m to grant fund Stonewall Housing and the Outside Project to deliver a 10-bed night shelter for vulnerable homeless LGBTIQ people to prevent rough sleeping. This expenditure will be funded from the Rough Sleeping Programme in 2020/21.

Receipt by the Authority of funding

6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the promotion of social development in Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 In taking the decisions requested of him, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Grant to Stonewall

6.3 The proposed grant to Stonewall of up to £0.09m may be viewed as a conditional gift rather than a contract for services and supplies. Section 12 of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code sets out the requirements governing the Authority’s provision of grants to third parties. The officers have set out in section 1 of this report how they have met those requirements. Furthermore, the officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement be put in place between the Authority and Stonewall before any part of the funding be paid over.

Delegation of authority

6.4 Any functions exercisable by the Mayor on behalf of the Authority may also be exercised by a member of the Authority’s staff albeit subject to any conditions, which the Mayor sees fit to impose. To this end, the Mayor may make the requested delegation to the Executive Director of Housing and Land if he so chooses.