Campaign launched to tackle homelessness in Sheffield

By Baillor Jalloh

South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SAYMAAG) and NOMAD, a local based housing charity that supports homeless people in Sheffield have launched a campaign to provide safe, secure and sustainable housing to people facing homelessness in the city. Earlier this month, Sheffield City Council announced the number of people registered as homeless with the local authority has reached an all-time high. More than 4,000 people or families contacted the council, they were without a home in the year 2022-23. The local authority acknowledged the number of homeless people living in the city's B&Bs and hotels as “unsustainable and unaffordable, and "urgent action" is needed to tackle the issue.

The 2022-23 financial year at Sheffield City Council states, there was an increase of 500 applications from people or families seeking to be officially registered as homeless compared to the previous year. However, the UK central government has said it had given local authorities across the country a total of £1.2bn to help people move out of temporary accommodation.

Photo credit: African Voices Platform. From left to right, Baillor Jalloh, Holly Rooke and Karen Awdhali

Karen Awdhali, Head of Services at Nomad and Holly Rooke, a PhD student at Sheffield university and member of SYMAAG joined Baillor Jalloh in the studio to discuss the housing crisis and the campaign that has been launched to tackle the problem.