Greater Manchester is looking overseas to fix a ‘fundamental’ problem which has blighted the region for ‘since the eighties’.
Andy Burnham is trying to gather momentum for his ‘housing first’ initiative, which he unveiled in his mayoral re-election bid earlier this year.
Housing first is a ‘philosophy’ that gives people at risk of becoming homeless a place to live in an effort to prevent other issues from coming up, like being drawn into crime and repeated health woes.
A pilot of the same name ran in Greater Manchester from 2019 to 2022, and helped re-home 118 people in that time. Now, the mayor wants to rapidly expand the programme — and bring in employment support services, usually delivered via Job Centres, in order to create a coherent method of taking a rough sleeper and reboot their life. READ MORE: 'She's not been naughty, she's just got sore feet' Foundational to housing first is a basic human right, Mr Burnham said as he hosted the Finnish ambassador to the UK this week in an effort on Tuesday (September 10). “A good home should be a human right, enshrined in UK law.