Matt Downie

@mattdownie.bsky.social

Trying this out…desperately seeking sanity. CEO of Crisis. Chair of London Youth Theatre.

Welcome to the world of the absurd. Housing Benefit is frozen, leaving less than 3% of the rental market accessible to those in need. Homelessness skyrockets. Local government foots the bill, spending £2.3bn keeping people homeless in temporary accommodation www.theguardian.com/money/2025/a...

Only 2.5% of private rentals in England affordable on housing benefit, study finds

Exclusive: Charities say freeze to housing benefit will push more people into rent arrears and homelessness

theguardian.com

This brilliant piece from @tom-clark.bsky.social nails the current homelessness dilemma for the Government. 'We must choose between the flimsy plaster of nightly-paid lets and the sturdy bandage that a higher Local Housing Allowance would provide.' www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/lab...

Sticking plaster politics and the sticky realities of the housing crisis

The prime minister has vowed to move beyond Elastoplast solutions. But with homelessness, he has a long way to go

prospectmagazine.co.uk

Great to be on the Beeb this morning, talking about the money announced for tackling homelessness today. Money for councils v welcome. Also need a massive scale up of social housing, and to start preventing homelessness.

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Good news - the Government have extended the move on period for newly granted refugees from 28 to 56 days. In our world, this is fantastic news, giving a fighting chance that people can avoid homelessness. Hooray!

I’m sick of the speculation about Ange’s future. We are fully behind him as a club, and confident we will beat City tomorrow, once again. (Also, great to speak to the club foundation about homelessness today).

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