On Friday parliament debated and passed the Homelessness Reduction Bill, a Government supported private members bill, which will make a real impact on this issue. The BBC description is here but it has received massive support from Crisis, St Mungos and the other key charities:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38736168
The Bill changes the point at which a person is classed as being threatened with homelessness from 28 days before a person is likely to be homeless, to 56 days. A new duty - backed up by financial support - is placed on local housing authorities to take steps for 56 days to relieve that homelessness by helping any eligible homeless applicant to secure accommodation. Provision is also made for certain care leavers, to make it easier for them to show they have a local connection with both the area of the local authority responsible for them and the area in which they lived while in care if that was different. I hope that this will really be a step change for those in priority need.
