Since the start of the Covid pandemic, through the ‘Everyone In’ campaign, approximately 15,000 people, affected by homelessness, across England have been accommodated in hotels and other forms of emergency accommodation.
This national response has proved to be one of the most positive elements of Britain’s response to Covid-19.
Riverside joined the response in Manchester, Liverpool and London and our work in Manchester was subject to an initial piece of research published earlier this year. We have now returned to complete a subsequent follow up report to understand the ongoing lessons this approach has taught us and is available to download below.
The Holiday Inn Manchester
In March, as part of this ‘Everyone In’ initiative Greater Manchester Combined Authority announced it would spend £5 million in order to house 1,000 rough sleepers and individuals living in emergency accommodation in hotels.
The Holiday Inn Manchester East was the focus of our evaluation and contracted to Manchester City Council. Provision was planned for an initial 45 rooms out of the 100-room hotel. Residents were in ‘Category 1’ of Greater Manchester’s emergency planning, that is people sleeping rough or housed in unsuitable emergency accommodation and night shelters.
Our initial evaluation was conducted in April and May 2020 (four to six weeks into the contract). This research identified a range of findings which showed that the service was very successful and warmly received by residents.
Follow Up Research
During July and August researchers returned to the hotel conducting a number of follow up interviews with the Service Manager and some of the residents who had participated in the first piece of research. The aim was to see how things had progressed within the service and a number of key findings included:
- Continuing improvement in residents physical and mental health and engagement in recovery.
- Residents reconnecting with family.
- Residents feeling that, largely, they have received all the help they needed.
- …and seeing their time in the hotel as an opportunity to move on with their lives.
- Residents successfully ‘moving on’ into accommodation.
While for the service itself…
- Partnership working has been paramount in the success of the project.
- The role of security staff is still vital in supporting residents.
- There is much greater diversity amongst new residents.
- There have been increasing numbers of new residents who are economic migrants.
- The easing of lockdown presented challenges.
The main report and summary documents are available to download here and summarise these follow up findings and a range of insights into the impact that this unprecedented approach to addressing street homelessness has had.
Full report
Summary
Hear some of our customer stories in these short films…
New research from @RiversideEHT explores what is different about the accommodation provided under Everybody In and what we can learn for long-term provision of supported housing.
