Mayor's Blog: A Bed Every Night and groundbreaking work tackling homelessness and rough sleeping

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Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has published the latest in a series of blog posts on homelessness and rough sleeping.

In the latest edition, Andy addresses:

• The deaths of two men, believed to have been sleeping rough, in Manchester city centre over the weekend
• Developing a comprehensive commitment in Greater Manchester to recording, investigating and learning from all homeless deaths
• The launch of A Bed Every Night, a commitment to specialist overnight provision for people sleeping rough every night this winter
• The latest on the innovative Social Impact Bond and Housing First schemes, and how they are making a tangible difference in the city-region
• A call for a “whole-society” approach, appealing for contributions and support from across all sectors of Greater Manchester society - public, private, voluntary and faith – as part of the same single strategy

The Mayor writes: "The difficult news over the weekend should serve to strengthen our resolve to make A Bed Every Night a reality. This tragic loss of life should not be happening on UK streets in 2018. 

"More positively, I hope that this blog shows that real progress is being made. While I wish we could move even faster, I can assure you that a lot of people across Greater Manchester are working flat out to improve things and I can confidently say that our city-region is way ahead the rest of the country. 

"Two weeks ago, on World Homeless Day, I did my regular early-morning walk around the city centre with Cllr Sue Murphy, who leads on homelessness for Manchester City Council, and colleagues from Riverside Housing. We all agreed that the situation was better than it was a year ago.

"We are making a difference. But it is not yet good enough. There are still too many people forced to sleep rough and we won’t rest until we have given everyone somewhere to go every night."