St Mungo's Opening doors for homeless people

St Mungo's Party Conference Season 2009

St Mungo's teamed up with Crisis at Party Conferences this year to host an array of fringe meetings at Brighton and Manchester on homelessness, work and mental health.

At the Labour Party Conference one focus was mental health, an enduring problem amongst many socially excluded groups including homeless people, and a subject of joint working from Crisis and St Mungo's over the last six months.

Care Minister Phil Hope MP spoke alongside Peter Cockersell from St Mungo's, Duncan Shrubsole from Crisis, and Martyn Warr, a former rough sleeper and a peer researcher for Happiness Matters, a research project on homeless people's views about homelessness and mental ill health. Alison Benjamin, Editor of Guardian Society, chaired the event.

Phil Hope MP communicated his hopes for New Horizons, a forthcoming new strategy to promote good mental health and well-being. Peter Cockersell and Duncan Shrubsole queried whether the strategy would indeed meet the needs of homeless people. Services need to be specialist enough for people with multiple needs, and accessible enough to uphold the principle of universal healthcare provision.

Work was another core theme, at both Labour and Conservative conference. At Labour, Work and Pensions Minister Helen Goodman MP reassured delegates that the Government would not help the newly unemployed at the expense of those furthest from the labour market - the long term unemployed. She also confirmed that the awaited review of housing benefit was forthcoming. Debbie Coulter from the National Labour Executive, chaired the event, with Phil de Montmorency, Director of Work Programmes at St Mungo's and Duncan Shrubsole from Crisis making up the panel.

At the Conservatives, Lord Freud, Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, called for the welfare system to be overhauled. He said that the benefits, tax credits and housing benefit system needed to be remodelled and the tax system simplified. Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, chaired the event with Phil de Montmorency from St Mungo's and Dr Stephen Brien speaking. Dr Brien is chair of the Economic Dependency Working Group at the Centre for Social Justice, who have recently published the report "Dynamic Benefits: Towards Welfare That Works".

Finally, in Manchester Crisis and St Mungo's asked 'Will the Conservatives be the party to end homelessness?' On the panel were Grant Shapps MP, Shadow Housing Minister, Richard Blakeway, the Mayors Housing Advisor, Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis and Sarah Clark, Outside In member and peer researcher for a project on women and homelessness. Tanya English, Director of Communications at St Mungo's acted as chair.

Grant Shapps MP committed the Conservatives to matching the Mayor of London's ambitious target to end rough sleeping by 2012 and agreed on the need to address the range of factors contributing to homelessness. He promised to work in a cross-departmental manner and review housing benefit.

For a detailed account of the individual meetings, click on Party Conferences 2009

To download a copy of Happiness Matters, click on Happiness Matters - Full Report