The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly highlighted the progress made in preventing and tackling homelessness, 40 years on from the broadcast of the landmark TV programme Cathy Come Home. She also outlined the Government's determination to help vulnerable people into settled homes.
In Ken Loach's play, Cathy was a married mother who fell on hard times through no fault of her own, which ultimately left her destitute and having her three children taken into care. The play was a major factor that led to new legislation in 2002, which introduced significant protection for families with children like Cathy's.
Local authorities now have a duty to provide good quality accommodation, families are kept together, and the long-term use of bed and breakfast hotels has been banned. In many cases prevention methods are put into place, so that the crisis point of homelessness is never reached. The level of such protection is significantly higher than in most other countries.
The latest published statistics illustrate the success of prevention methods, with new cases of homelessness falling by 23% compared to same period last year and continuing the overall downward trend since early 2004. The number of households living in temporary accommodation has also continued to fall, with a 5% reduction since the same time last year.
Ruth Kelly said: "Cathy in the modern day would find herself in a much changed situation. In fact her family, like many others today, would have been prevented from being homeless in the first place. We now have a strong safety net to ensure families and vulnerable people no longer face the disgraceful consequences of becoming homeless that they did in the 1960s. Alongside this, we have reduced rough sleeping to a record low and ended the scandal of families living in bed and breakfast hotels.
"We also need to go further to help today's Cathys and that means helping more people out of temporary accommodation and overcrowded accommodation, including by building more homes."
The Government already has plans to build an additional 10,000 social homes a year by 2008. The Government announced it would go further and make social housing a priority in the next spending review to help address the needs of vulnerable people in temporary accommodation and those in overcrowded conditions.
The consequences of Cathy Come Home included:
Recent developments of note have included:
The Government announced the successful bids that will benefit from the £3 million Ethnic Minorities Innovation Fund (EMIF), which will help to tackle homelessness among ethnic minority groups.
The fund will provide financial support to voluntary and community groups working in partnership with local authorities, to help deliver innovative projects that aim to reduce levels of homelessness amongst ethnic minority groups. Successful projects range from helping victims of domestic violence to supporting 11-25 year olds to gain life skills so that they avoid experiencing homelessness.
Ethnic minority households face a disproportionate risk of experiencing homelessness. They represented 21% of households accepted as homeless by local authorities in 2004-05 but comprise only 8% of the UK population.
The announcement delivers on a commitment made in the Government's homelessness strategy published in March 2005 - Sustainable Communities: Settled Homes, Changing Lives - to fund and support innovative approaches to tackle homelessness amongst ethnic minority groups.
The EMIF will provide grants in 2006/07 and 2007/08 and is a further strand to the Homelessness Innovation Fund.
