"Covid showed it was possible": Charity says action needed to tackle rough sleeper crisis
Alabaré CEO says the pandemic created a sense of urgency to get people off the streets
A homelessness charity boss says he wants to see greater action to help get people living on the streets into accommodation, citing the Covid pandemic as showing it is possible.
Alabaré CEO Andrew Lord MBE told Greatest Hits Radio that the Government's Everybody In initiative was a success in giving vulnerable people somewhere safe to go.
It comes as the final phase of the Covid Inquiry is assessing the impact the pandemic had on vulnerable people, including the homeless.
Looking back, Andrew said it was a difficult time, but there was a major positive to come from it.
"Collectively we managed to get people off the streets and into temporary accommodation," he said. "While some of that accommodation wasn't perfect, but fundamentally we got people off the streets.
"When I look at the position now on homelessness and the rise again, in rough sleeping, it would be good to have another everybody in type initiative."
Last week, the Government's latest Homelessness Snapshot showed a 66% rise in rough sleeping in Wiltshire, while the South West saw an 11% increase.
The charity described it as "shocking and upsetting", but not a surprise.
The Homelessness Snapshot is where Government officials count how many rough sleepers are in an area on a single night in the Autumn.
Reflecting on the impact of the pandemic six years on, Andrew said it taught us a lot of good lessons, but he worries some them are being forgotten.
"If I go back to the everybody in initiative, we got everybody off the street collectively. Sadly, people are back on the streets, rough sleeping again as well.
"We don't want another pandemic, But how do we recreate the urgency that was perhaps missing over the last few years?"
The Government has ring-fenced £50 million to help tackle the rough sleeper crisis with two new funds aimed at halving the number of people rough sleeping by 2029.
Community strength, the "big positive"
Andrew said the pandemic was a challenging time, as it was for everyone, but told us of his pride in how the Salisbury community rallied together to support each other.
He praised his team for continuing to deliver critical care and support for vulnerable people, but also to members of the local community making a difference.
"It was a time where additional costs were incurred and actually the supporters of Alabaré stepped forward and increase their donations to us as well," he said.
"We also had people ringing up wanting to volunteer with us as well. At the time we couldn't take up everybody's request to volunteer because we had to safely manage the volunteers as well.
"It was a really difficult time, very uncertain, but the big positive was actually how everybody did come together.