There’s lots of coverage at the moment about Communities minister Andrew Stunell talking about the number of empty council properties and the 700,000 people on waiting lists who could benefit from this being remedied. There’s also been a mention of the fantastic work that Canopy in Leeds is doing to renovate properties and get people into them.
There is an issue though, talking about housing stock and homeless projects in same breath make it all too easy for the press and others to conclude that if we had enough housing all the problems would go away. We need the houses but without the time and effort spent on supporting people with their other needs for some, things will not get much better.