An update report on homelessness in Manchester outlines how progress is being made against a still challenging backdrop.
The report, which will be considered by the Council’s Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee when it meets on Tuesday 3 September, records that the number of households in temporary accommodation has reduced slightly – from a peak of 3,316 households in December 2022 to 2,826 at the end of June 2024.
This reduction is in contrast to rising numbers nationally, with the number of households in temporary accommodation nationwide increasing by more than 13% between September 2022 and December 2023.
But the most dramatic reductions have been in the use of B&B-type accommodation for families, something which the Council deemed unacceptable and committed to all but eradicate. From a peak of 227 families in B&Bs in February 2023, this had been reduced to just seven families by the end of June this year. In February 2023, 131 of those families had been in B&B accommodation for more than six weeks. In June 2024 the figure was zero. This is in stark contrast to the national picture where the number of households in B&B jumped by 63.4% between September 2022 and December 2023.
With Manchester significantly and sustainably reducing B&B usage – alongside a continuing emphasis on homelessness prevention – the focus will now shift to reducing temporary accommodation placements outside the Manchester City Council area.
Pressure on temporary accommodation caused by demand relative to supply means that people are sometimes temporarily accommodated in neighbouring Greater Manchester boroughs. It is recognised that such out-of-area placements are far from ideal and can impact on the education, health and wider welfare of households.
While there has been a small reduction in the number of households temporarily accommodated in other parts of Greater Manchester from 1,205 in December 2022 to 1,108 in June 2024 this is still too many.
Tackling this issue by replacing properties outside Manchester with alternatives within the city will not happen overnight and will require a concerted focus over an estimated two to three years.
However, work is well underway to bring forward an increased supply of suitable alternative temporary accommodation within the city, and especially in central and south Manchester to address an historic imbalance where for reasons of cost such accommodation has tended to be concentrated in the north of the city.
For example, the Council plans to enter into longer term (10 year plus) leases for temporary accommodation properties within the Manchester City Council area, with higher rental levels paid in south and central Manchester. It is anticipated that hundreds of properties will be secured through this approach to increase supply.
The Council will look to support opportunities to develop self-contained temporary accommodation for families.
For single homeless people, the goal is to increase the amount of supported temporary accommodation in the south of Manchester. Many of those presenting as homeless are from the south of the city but they are currently having to move elsewhere, away from support networks.
The Council is working to identify surplus or disused accommodation it owns which can be converted for use as temporary accommodation.
Examples include:
- A disused children’s home in central Manchester which will be converted into 24 self-contained units for people who are homeless at the point they are being discharged from hospital.
- A former Sure Start centre in north Manchester which will be turned into a 16-bedspace hostel.
- A former probation office in Wythenshawe which is being brought back into use as 19-bed temporary accommodation hostel for homeless people.
From 2025, an extra 42 one-bed flats will also be available in Ardwick (24), Whalley Range (12) and other parts of the city to be identified (6) funded through the Government’s Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme.
Caritas House in Newton Heath, owned by charity Caritas Salford, will also bring another 16 units into use from this autumn.
In addition, a new Empty Homes Team – to be run by the homelessness service – is being established to help bring long term empty homes back into use, including potentially as temporary accommodation.
Council Leader Cllr Bev Craig said: “Tackling homelessness remains a key priority for us and a huge challenge. After meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, we are looking forward to working with the new Government to support a national homelessness strategy to address the underlying issues.
“We are doing all we can - including building more council, social and genuinely affordable homes that at any point in the last 20 years - to tackle some of the local structural factors but it’s a complex challenge much of which can only be addressed at a national level.”
Deputy Council Leader Cllr Joanna Midgley said: “It is encouraging that progress continues to be made in tackling homelessness in Manchester and that there is a clear sense of direction in our efforts, alongside those of other members of the city’s homelessness partnership.
“But there are still too many people without a home to call their own and we do not underestimate the scale of the continuing challenge.”