Responding to the report by Crisis, which sets out plans to make homelessness ‘a thing of the past’, Ed Tytherleigh said:
“We back this excellent report and agree that it’s definitely possible to end homelessness if we work together as a society to do so.
In fact we already have plans underway to eliminate homelessness among the Veterans’ community, which we hope will help the thousand plus ex-service personnel who, research shows, need urgent support each year to find accommodation.
We have also developed a comprehensive plan on the back of the Call to Action we launched earlier this year. As a result, we are now working with the Minister for Defence People and Veterans, the Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood MP, to explore ways that we can take positive action to help us significantly reduce the levels of homelessness among Veterans, for example by ensuring that Local Authority housing departments can provide a consistent response to Veterans who approach them for support.
Practical steps are in progress, such as introducing the Veterans Housing Advice service telephone support for homeless Veterans and launching a vacancies dashboard listing all available properties across the country that have been ring-fenced for Veterans.
This week, Stoll will open its latest development of 34 purpose-built homes for Veterans and their families in Aldershot to address the lack of housing among former members of the Armed Forces.
The Cobseo Housing Cluster will keep chipping away at this problem, because like Crisis, we want homelessness stamped out.”
ENDS
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