The newly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has launched a Homelessness Fund aimed at ending rough sleeping in the city region by 2020. And he’s putting his own money behind the scheme.
On his first day in his new position, the Labour mayor created the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Homelessness Fund, pledging to donate 15 per cent of his £110,000 salary to the new fund.
I have made ending rough sleeping across the city region by 2020 one of my top Mayoral priorities
The charity Shelter estimates that more than 3,200 people are homeless in Greater Manchester. The latest figures also suggest the number of people sleeping rough in Manchester has increased ten-fold since 2010, with an 11 per cent rise in the last year.
“Greater Manchester has been fortunate enough to witness some of the fastest economic growth nationally over the past decade, but alongside this we have seen a growing inequality which damages us all,” said Burnham, who won a decisive victory with 63 per cent of the vote to become the region’s first directly elected mayor.
“Rough sleeping and homelessness are not inevitable consequences of a 21st-century economy. We all have a duty to ensure no one is forced to spend a night on the streets and every Greater Mancunian has a stable place to call home.