Housing support services are a vital yet underappreciated part of the homelessness system in Wales, a Senedd Committee has heard.
Workforce pressures, caused by low pay and staff burnout, have become so acute that some support workers are themselves facing homelessness, while helping prevent homelessness for others.
The Local Government and Housing Committee’s inquiry into housing support for vulnerable people examined services funded by the Welsh Government’s Housing Support Grant (HSG).
Ahead of a Senedd debate this Wednesday 8 October, this article looks at the Committee’s conclusions and recommendations and how the Welsh Government has responded to them so far.
‘Having to make life or death decisions on their own and they’re paid pennies’
Often confused with care workers, housing support workers aren’t part of health and social care, and they don’t just work in supported housing.
Working with around 60,000 people a year, their main aim is to prevent people from becoming homeless, stabilise housing situations, and help potentially homeless people to find and keep accommodation.
Some housing support services are delivered on a ‘floating’ basis within the community while others are delivered in ‘fixed’ supported accommodation, a broad category that includes homeless hostels, young people’s accommodation, residential rehabilitation centres, sheltered housing, and domestic abuse refuges.
Research by Cardiff Metropolitan University and Alma Economics found that HSG services deliver a net saving of £1.40 for every £1 invested by preventing homelessness, easing pressure on health and social care, and reducing interaction with the criminal justice system.
A support professional, who took part in a focus group for the inquiry, said:
You’ve got frontline staff in the hostels who are more or less on minimum wage, doing a night shift, doing 12-hour shifts… You’ve got maybe two support workers managing overdoses, managing challenging behaviour… They’re sometimes having to make life or death decisions on their own and they’re paid pennies.
Sector pressures have ramped up in recent years with rising homelessness among service users and, increasingly, among staff. Sian Aldridge of homelessness charity The Wallich told the Committee:
we see staff who are themselves at risk of homelessness, and they're trying to support others in their homelessness journey, and that's just not right.
The HSG – £203.4 million revenue in the 2025-26 budget – is distributed on a ringfenced basis to local authorities to deliver, administer and commission services.
The budget has been the focus of third sector campaigning. Following two consecutive years of flatline budgets, the Welsh Government uplifted HSG by £13 million in 2024-25 and a further £21 million in 2025-26. The Welsh Government said this would support the sector to pay staff the Real Living Wage and build capacity to respond to increased demand.
Cabinet Secretary Jayne Bryant MS told the Committee that she recognised the ‘miraculous work that staff do under pressure’. She said that besides the budget uplifts, ‘I know we need to do more’.
The Welsh Government has established a Workforce Task and Finish group, which will make recommendations on pay, support systems for staff, qualifications, and best practice in recruitment and commissioning. The group is due to report back in ‘early autumn’,
‘A lack of evidence’
The Committee made three recommendations, one of which was accepted in full and two in principle. The report also made 11 conclusions, which the Welsh Government responded to but did not formally accept or reject.
The Welsh Government fully accepted the recommendation that data on service performance should be published so that providers and local authorities can evaluate their services against others and identify good practice. The Committee said:
A vast amount of data is being gathered, and we believe much better use could be made of that.
The Welsh Government promised that a ‘national summary’ of data will be published later this year.
Another recommendation related to the Welsh Government’s ambition to implement ‘rapid rehousing’ transformation.
Rapid rehousing has significant implications for HSG services, as it means a long-term shift away from transitional forms of accommodation, such as homeless hostels, in favour of giving people permanent homes as quickly as possible plus whatever floating support they may need.
The Committee recommended that the Welsh Government should make better use of evidence to ‘set clear expectations’ on local authorities and social landlords about the types of support and accommodation they should be commissioning.
The report urged the Welsh Government to be clearer about what rapid rehousing good practice models actually look like:
It is concerning that there appears to be a lack of evidence informing the types of services and accommodation that are being commissioned under the banner of rapid rehousing
The Welsh Government responded that it is organising ‘a national summit’ in the autumn to share evidence from an in-depth analysis of data from three local authorities.
The third recommendation was also about the Welsh Government’s willingness to use evidence to be assertive in driving forward change. This time it was in relation to joint working.
The Committee heard about two multi-agency projects involving health and housing, one led by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board and the other by Cardiff and Vale Health Board. These two were repeatedly cited as good practice by the Welsh Government and by other stakeholders.
But the Committee’s view was that two examples aren’t enough on their own:
We believe that where there is evidence to prove an approach is effective, other local authorities should be required to follow that evidence.
It recommended that the Welsh Government should lead in rolling out good practice in joint working, ‘not just by disseminating information but by being more assertive, such as by placing conditions on grant funding’.
The Welsh Government responded that it is seeking to strengthen the statutory framework for joint working through a number of provisions in the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill, currently at Stage 1 scrutiny.
Preventing crisis
The Committee’s conclusions focused on areas including data, accommodation for young people, the quality of the Welsh Government’s communication with the wider sector, and the extent to which local authorities are commissioning services based on a realistic assessment of the true costs of delivering those services.
The Committee heard that housing support can be ‘life-saving’, preventing crisis situations that would cost other organisations, such as the NHS, a lot more money to deal with. It is central to the Welsh Government’s homelessness ambitions.
But the inquiry’s witnesses were clear that achieving those ambitions will depend on long-term planning, funding stability, strong multi-agency partnerships, and a large increase in social housing supply.
Follow the debate
The Senedd will debate the Local Government and Housing Committee report in Plenary on Wednesday 8 October 2025. You can follow proceedings on Senedd.tv.
Article by Jennie Bibbings, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament.
