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<p>Our veterans play a vital role in keeping our country safe and many have dedicated
their lives to the services. For those who fall on hard times it is only right that
we give them all the support they need to put a roof over their head.</p><p>In April
2018, MHCLG introduced a new homelessness data collection called Homelessness Case
Level Information Collection (H-CLIC). H-CLIC captures information on all those who
engage with local authority homelessness services, including those eligible for temporary
accommodation and collects information on the support needs of a household, including
support need resulting from being in the armed forces. These show that during October
to December 2018, of the 61,410 households owed a homelessness duty in England, 440
required additional support because they formerly served in the armed forces. There
are no plans to expand this collection to cover all former armed service personnel
to include those who don’t require additional support.</p><p>The majority of data
collected by MHCLG from local authorities for households in temporary accommodation
pre dates the reporting changes in the H-CLIC data collection introduced in April
2018. This means data on armed forces support needs of those in temporary accommodation
is not available for MHCLG to collect.</p><p>The latest statistics are available here:</p><p><a
href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804329/Statutory_Homelessness_Statistical_Release_October_to_December__2018.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804329/Statutory_Homelessness_Statistical_Release_October_to_December__2018.pdf</a></p><p>The
annual single night snapshot of people sleeping rough across all local areas in England
provides some basic demographic information (age, gender, nationality).</p><p>The
latest statistics are available here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018</a></p><p>The
Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) is a multi-agency database which
records information about people seen rough sleeping by outreach teams in London across
the year. Overall, 6 per cent of people seen sleeping rough by outreach workers across
London during 2018/19 had served in the armed forces at some point in their lives.
2 per cent of these were UK nationals - around 115 people. The latest statistics are
available here:</p><p><a href="https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports" target="_blank">https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports</a></p><p>Whilst
we have a programme of work underway to improve the broader evidence base for homelessness
and rough sleeping, we are not planning any major changes to the single night snapshot
methodology but continue to encourage users to provide feedback on how these statistics
are used and how well they meet their needs</p><p>MHCLG is actively encouraging local
authorities with significant numbers of rough sleepers to improve their year-round
data on rough sleeping and is working collaboratively with local authorities to develop
improved homelessness data and outcomes that can measure progress in reducing rough
sleeping and homelessness. We are also establishing local data pilots which will seek
to improve the data collected by a wide range of services which people who sleep rough
access.</p><p>This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping.
No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping
Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now,
but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all.
The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over
the spending review period. This year, Rough Sleeping Initiative investment totals
£46 million and has been allocated to 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated
750 additional staff and over 2,600 bed spaces.</p><p>In March, we allocated an additional
£1 million of bespoke funding to support former members of the armed forces who are
or are at risk of becoming homeless. The funding has been allocated between the Combined
Authorities and the Greater London Authority, and will be used to develop new services
and support them in engaging with existing service provision.</p>
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