Charities and health bodies warn of ‘risk to life’ of people facing homelessness and COVID-19 this winter

Open letter to the Prime Minister highlights risk of coronavirus transmission in night shelters and urges government to provide self-contained accommodation

Eighteen charities and health bodies have written to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning of the ‘risk to life’ of people facing homelessness and coronavirus (COVID-19) this winter.

The open letter to the Prime Minister - signed by Crisis and seventeen other health and homelessness organisations - highlights that the government's 'Everyone In' scheme meant that at the start of the coronavirus crisis nearly 15,000 people were offered emergency accommodation in hotels and hostels, and that recent research in the Lancet suggests that the policy avoided 266 deaths in the first wave of the pandemic.

Highlighting the risks to life this winter if homeless people are left sleeping rough or forced into communal night shelters where the risk of coronavirus transmission is high, the letter urges - 

'Now, with cases of coronavirus once again rapidly rising across England, combined with the threat that winter already poses to the health of people sleeping rough, we are urgently calling on you to ensure that local authorities can provide people sleeping rough with safe, self-contained accommodation during the pandemic. This must be followed up with increased funding, which is critically needed to enable local authorities to provide effective support. The support into accommodation from local authorities must apply to all those who need it across the country, as we saw with the early approach of the Everyone In scheme.'

While welcoming the government's 'quick and decisive' action at the start of the pandemic, the letter concludes - 

'We implore you to take similar bold action ahead of the winter months to ensure that everyone who needs it has self-contained accommodation to stay in throughout this public health crisis. This will require a cross-departmental approach to meet people’s holistic needs. With this action and help for people to move on from homelessness for good, we can save lives and end rough sleeping in this country.'

The letter to the Prime Minister is available from crisis.org.uk