Greater Manchester has turned to Finland for its inspiration to tackle homelessness as Andy Burnham has set out his plans to follow Finland and turn a pioneering homelessness pilot into a guiding philosophy to end the housing crisis.
The Mayor addressed a conference of housing and homelessness policy experts in Manchester, including a delegation from Finland, where Housing First was adopted as a national philosophy and resulted in major reductions in homelessness across the country.
He explained how Greater Manchester will learn the lessons of the pilot scheme and set up a Housing First Unit to drive forward the mission of ending the housing crisis – because good health, good education, and good jobs cannot come without a good, permanent home.
The Housing First pilot recognises that a good home has to be the first step to a good life. The scheme helps people with chronic and long-standing experiences of homelessness into homes of their own without preconditions, and offers personalised, ongoing wraparound support to manage issues ranging from mental health problems to substance misuse.
Greater Manchester’s pilot scheme was rolled out in 2019, and since then has helped 413 people find good, safe homes. Around 75 per cent have sustained their tenancies, with some going on to form part of Housing First’s co-production panel – sharing their experiences and ensuring that the service continues to meet people’s needs. Greater Manchester is now calling for these lessons to be embedded into a new national approach to tackling the housing crisis.
The conference comes as new research from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) shows that local councils spend at least around £75 million on renting Temporary Accommodation to house people every year. This does not include costs for support staff or other services – meaning the true cost is much higher.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:
“Following the second report from the Grenfell Inquiry, it is abundantly clear that a sea change is needed in the way Britain thinks about housing.
“Rather than a money-making opportunity, or just a commodity to be bought and sold, we need to see housing as an essential service. Giving everyone a good, safe home would be one of the best investments the country could make, and would take pressure off other public services and public finances. We are ready to pilot this approach in Greater Manchester and become the first UK city-region to adopt a Finnish-style Housing First philosophy.
“The evidence is clear that it works, and when a pilot scheme gets results it shouldn’t end there – it should become the new normal. Housing First has shown that if you give people an unconditional right to safe and secure housing, backed up with personalised support, you set them up to succeed.
“Instead of winding it down, we should be scaling it up and turning it into a national mission – and we’re starting that here in Greater Manchester. We’re bringing in new protections for renters, tackling bad landlords, and with the right powers and funding we can deliver 75,000 new homes in this parliament.
“Our new Housing First Unit will drive this work forward, bringing together partners across our city-region with a clear goal: a healthy home for everyone in Greater Manchester by 2038.
“The growing cost of not solving the housing crisis – both on our communities and on the public purse – is plain to see.”
