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<p>Every person who dies while they do not have a place to call home is one too many
and we have a moral duty to act.</p><p>Whilst we recognise that suitable housing is
a key part of the solution, health services have a significant role to play, alongside
other public services. My Department is working with the Department of Health and
Social Care to ensure that rough sleepers have the health care they need, when they
need it. In its Long-Term Plan, the National Health Service will invest up to £30
million extra on meeting the needs of rough sleepers, to ensure that the parts of
England most affected by rough sleeping will have better access to specialist homelessness
NHS mental health support, integrated with existing outreach services.</p><p> </p><p>We
are also ensuring that when a homeless person dies or is seriously injured as a result
of abuse or neglect and there is concern that partner agencies could have worked more
effectively to protect the adult, Safeguarding Adult Reviews take place so that local
services can learn lessons from these tragic events to better prevent them from happening
in the future.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to reducing homelessness
and ending rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we
published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This 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. In its first year, the Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed
spaces and 500 staff.</p>
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