What action is the Minister taking to prevent homelessness among Ukrainian refugees in Wales?
The Welsh Government is investing more than £210m this year in homelessness and housing support services to support all those in housing need. This includes the Housing Support Grant (£166.8m) which is the main homelessness prevention grant provided to local authorities to provide essential housing support services to support people to sustain tenancies and avoid homelessness in addition to wrap-around support to those who are experiencing homelessness.
We established the Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme (TACP) in 2022-23 to provide good quality longer-term accommodation for everyone in housing need. In its first year, it provided £76.4m to local authorities and Registered Social Landlords to bring forward 936 homes. TACP opened to new applications in 2023-24 to deliver more homes for people in temporary accommodation, including those being resettled from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Supporting our Ukrainian guests into longer-term accommodation remains our priority and there continues to be targeted move-on support for the households remaining in initial accommodation. This is made possible through our Team Wales approach. I am grateful to our key partners for making this happen.