00:00As of autumn 2025 here in England there is estimated to be 4,795 people sleeping rough
00:08in one single night and now Prime Minister Andy Burnham has made tackling this issue a central
00:14policy within his government. I think it's a great idea people fall on hard times for different
00:20reasons so if we can put a roof over their head I think it's a win-win for everyone. There
00:25are so
00:25many issues what do you prioritize and of course homelessness is important but I kind of consider
00:32feel that everything is interlinked so I guess this is the let down of previous governments as well.
00:43There's a lot of derelict properties around not alone this city but the country as a whole which
00:48are unused there's a lot of millionaires and people that live in other countries which abandon their
00:52houses which would be happy to take commission to house people in it. Emergency accommodation will
00:59be provided to those rough sleeping as part of a £442 million package. In addition to this immediate
01:07relief the funding hopes to deliver 1,000 homes across the next three years to provide permanent
01:13accommodation. The announcement seeks to build on the everyone in scheme which was set up during
01:18the Covid-19 pandemic and placed thousands of rough sleepers in hotels and temporary accommodation but
01:25what does the future of this plan look like? It's great that there's that ambition and then that money
01:31right from the centre of government right from the Prime Minister that does set a tone that does set an
01:38urgency but to be honest with you the extent to which it changes or doesn't change is to a certain
01:44extent up to all of us. All of us who are working in Kent on this and it means people
01:49working in local
01:51authorities, in the NHS, in charities need to seize this opportunity and respond to this challenge really
01:58and we need to make it work in our communities and we need to make it real and we can
02:03have all the
02:04central direction and all the money in the world but we have to do it in our communities.
02:09However, there are still some concerns that Burnham's policies fail to address some of the deeper
02:15issues surrounding homelessness and rough sleeping and there are calls for even more of a plan.
02:21Etterley Reynolds for KMTV
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