Homelessness charities across Salford and Greater Manchester have weighed in on Andy Burnham’s promise to eradicate rough sleeping in Britain.
Standing outside 10 Downing Street on Monday, the Prime Minister pledged an additional £340 million to tackle homelessness, alongside the £3.6 billion allocated to the National Plan to End Homelessness, announced by the government in December.
Burnham said the funding will help to get people off the streets at “the earliest possible opportunity.”
Following his election as Greater Manchester mayor in 2017, the Labour politician committed to end rough sleeping in the region by 2020. Burnham was unable to make good on that ambitious promise and his critics are sceptical about his chances of bringing about significant change on a larger, nationwide scale.
While several homelessness charities operating in Salford were delighted that Burnham’s pledge to end rough sleeping was at the centre of his first prime ministerial address to the nation, another said the homelessness crisis “got worse” during his tenure as Greater Manchester mayor and suggested the current pathways to get people off the streets are unfit for purpose.
Salford Loaves and Fishes, a Pendleton-based charity which supports homeless and vulnerable people in the city, welcomed Burnham’s “achievable” pledge to end rough sleeping nationwide.
Jenni Smith, chief executive of the charity, believes the 59th prime minister of the UK has the credentials and compassion needed to tackle the rough sleeping problem.
When Burnham took up the Greater Manchester mayoral post in 2017, he began donating 15 per cent of his salary to homelessness initiatives and will donate the same proportion of his MP’s salary to charities in his Makerfield constituency.
Smith said his pledge feels more doable than “similar promises made by other politicians” because he has a “strong understanding of how the current system operates and where it falls short.”
She added that time spent in homelessness and support centres like Salford Loaves and Fishes has equipped him with a “deeper appreciation” of the “barriers which can restrict people from moving on from rough sleeping,” including health issues and addiction problems.
“Addressing rough sleeping therefore requires a coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach rather than a single policy solution,” Smith said.
“His understanding of these complexities, combined with his experience of engaging directly with frontline services across Greater Manchester, means we feel his pledge is grounded in the realities of the issue rather than simply being a political commitment.”
It is expected the £340 million funding will support at least 3,000 rough sleepers over five years.
“We also welcome the news that it’s being properly resourced,” Smith noted.
However, not everyone holds the same optimism about Burnham’s bold promise to tackle rough sleeping across Britain.
Amanda Thompson, co-founder of Salford homelessness charity Two Brews, told Salford Now he failed to support the organisation during his time as Greater Manchester mayor.
While Thompson said the A Bed Every Night scheme, introduced by Burnham to provide emergency accommodation for rough sleepers, was good, she described some of the hostels used to house rough sleepers as “full of mould and damp.
“The hostels which they are put in aren’t for rats to live in, let alone human beings,” Thompson said, calling the current system of getting people off the streets a “tick box exercise” lacking the focus on rehabilitation needed to tackle the issue long term.
“I personally think that more focus and money need to be spent on rehabilitation units and mental health. There’s a massive clog in the system that is broken and no aftercare is given once the homeless move in from the streets.
“It’s such a delicate process to transition from the streets into accommodation and no proper help for it is available.”
In May, the Manchester Mill reported that the number of rough sleepers had increased for the fourth year in a row across Greater Manchester but was down 26 per cent from when he became mayor in 2017.
The estimates are a snapshot gathered on a single night each year.
“Burnham has not helped us,” Thompson said.
“If you ask anyone who is on the streets now, they will say: ‘He’s not supported us’.”
Thompson shared photos she said were taken inside a Greater Manchester hotel regularly used to accommodate people experiencing homelessness; the images show signs of black mould in the rooms.
“When people are saying that the streets of Manchester are cleaner than the accommodation for them, something’s wrong,” she added.
Elsewhere, a Salford homelessness charity at the centre of a painstaking fundraising campaign to secure its future in the city called Burnham’s premiership a “huge opportunity” in the long-running battle to combat rough sleeping.
The lease on Emmaus Salford’s Pendleton base is due to expire in 2028, and the charity says it needs to raise £200,000 to acquire a permanent location that will allow it to provide shelter, food and education to help people move on from homelessness.
Its branch in the city has played a key role in the A Bed Every Night scheme, providing access to fully furnished pods with beds, storage, toilet access and electricity through a partnership with Salford Council.
Sam Dalton, Policy, Campaigns and External Affairs Manager at Emmaus UK, released a public statement hailing Burnham’s arrival as PM.
“Andy Burnham has a track record of taking homelessness seriously,” he said. “During his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester, he visited Emmaus communities in both Salford and Mossley to see first-hand how the Emmaus model of supported housing works in practice.”
Dalton added: “Burnham highlighted a number of policies which could lie at the heart of the government’s work on homelessness, in an earlier speech at the end of June.
“These included embarking on the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period, expanding Housing First provision, and looking again at the decision to freeze Local Housing Allowance, which ‘makes families homeless.’
“We recognise that the Labour government since July 2024 has made important progress in addressing homelessness.
“It committed £39bn towards affordable housing over a ten-year period, enacted the Renters’ Rights Act to abolish no-fault evictions, scrapped the Vagrancy Act which continued to criminalise homelessness, and published a cross-departmental National Plan to End Homelessness.
“All of these have been crucial, but we welcome the new Prime Minister’s resolution to go further.”
