Homeless people could die on the streets, ITV News reports

Homeless people could ‘die on streets’ as Welsh charities ‘at risk of collapse’.

ITV News has reported on the worsening of the Welsh homelessness crisis, while charities warn of total collapse.

A group of 90 Welsh charities say the homelessness sector is at risk of collapse due to a surge in demand and successive real term budget cuts by the Welsh government.

The body which represents the charities has told ITV News that more than three quarters of its members are running statutory services at a loss and are using emergency reserves to plug the gap.

Cymorth Cymru and Community Housing Cymru says without an urgent increase in the Housing Support Grant (HSG), which funds the vast majority of support for the homeless in Wales, the entire system will collapse.

The Welsh government’s Housing Support Grant currently stands at £167million, more than 12% (£24million) less in real terms than it was a decade ago. The Welsh government says it recognises the immense pressures facing frontline services but froze its Housing Support Grant due to an extraordinarily difficult budgetary position.

ITV News spent an evening with Helping our Homeless Wales, a self-funded charity currently seeing a huge rise in the number of people coming to them for support.

Volunteer Kelly De-Winton says: “Thirty people would have been a busy night for us but in the last six months we are seeing around 80 people a night”.

Read the full article and watch films of the report on ITV News…