After the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, Robert Jenrick, put out a statement about the #EveryoneIn scheme we asked Paul Atherton what he thought about it all.
#EveryoneIn has helped 34,000 people into safe and secure accommodation so far in this pandemic. Today I’m asking local councils to redouble their efforts to help rough-sleepers off the streets – and to urgently GP register as a precursor to widespread vaccination. 1/3
We want to protect more vulnerable people from Covid-19 and protect the NHS – both of which #EveryoneIn has been proven to do. We want to ensure as many rough sleepers as possible get GP registered and get vaccinated in due course – to protect their health into the future. 2/3
I’m grateful for the tremendous efforts of councils across England and of charities who have helped us develop and refine these plans throughout the pandemic. We’re backing this with further funding, bringing the total investment since the start of Covid-19 to almost£700m. 3/3
– Robert Jenrick, January 8 2021
This is simply a pass the buck response from the government, placing all the onus on local authorities to deliver outcomes with a simple request for them to do so.
Everyone In was a clear order from the government to everyone involved, with a set timescale, Boris Johnson announced it publicly & personally – Everyone In by the end of the weekend.
The public, charities, businesses and local authorities knew how to comply and did so.
This tweet is definitely not a reinstatement of Everyone In, not even remotely. A request is not an order, the lack of clarity an obvious tell tale sign that nothing is meant to be taken seriously.
That £700 million is spurious too, Everyone In specifically housed 15,000 people (over 7 times more than the government had said were sleeping rough at the time and I have no idea where this new 34,000 figure, has come from) for a period of 3 months (it ended in June 2020) which would mean each person had been funded approximately £47,000 for a period of 10 Months for those still housed.
That’s the equivalent of a £60,000 year salary – I could live like a king on approx £5k a month.
So no, by no stretch of the imagination is this announcement declaring a return to Everyone In. Which is why of course Crisis launched their celebrity video on 12th January 2021 encouraging another U-turn from the government to bring it back.
