The VS6 Housing Assembly: Updates on Housing First and LCR homelessness ambitions

The VS6 Housing Assembly: Updates on Housing First and LCR homelessness ambitions

This November, VS6 hosted the third annual LCR Housing Assembly attended by numerous representatives from the LCR VCFSE housing sector. This follows on from the second VS6 Housing Assembly held last November which focused on the Combined Authority Housing First pilot and the VCFSE sector’s role in contributing towards the design of delivery models.

This year’s event was chaired by Gill Bainbridge, Chief Executive of Merseyside Youth Association and VS6 representative on the Housing First Steering Group, joined by Victoria Kell, LCR CA Strategic Policy lead for Homelessness, attending again as our guest speaker.

The progress to date of the LCR CA Housing First Pilot was discussed, with Victoria providing an update on the outcomes and achievements of the programme so far. Funding for the pilot unfortunately ends in August 2022, however the CA are currently exploring alternative funding options available to extend the programme to be able to support more people into sustainable tenancies.

Victoria also introduced LCR CA’s ambitions around developing a city region wide approach to housing and homelessness, linking in closely with local authority homelessness strategies, to support a consistent approach to homelessness at a city region level. Attendees had an opportunity to provide feedback and suggestions for this piece of work from the perspective of the VCFSE sector with further opportunity for VCFSE consultation happening over the next few months.

You can find a more detailed overview of the Housing Assembly by viewing our Briefing document here.

VS6 would like to extend our thanks to Victoria for engaging with the VCFSE sector again, and we look forward to working closely to develop robust housing and homelessness intentions for LCR.