The Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategic Partnership Board brings organisations and partners together to end homelessness and rough sleeping across the Wigan borough.
The group oversees the delivery of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025-2030, to find new ways to end homelessness and make homelessness everyone’s business.
The chair of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategic Partnership Board is Councillor Susan Gambles, cabinet member for housing and welfare.
The board is made up of representatives from Wigan Council, health and emergency services, housing providers, voluntary sector organisations, and people with lived experience:
Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategy aims for Wigan Borough
While the board is responsible for a wide range of activity to prevent homelessness and provide support to those at risk or in crisis, it also follows three main aims outlined in the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy:
- Understanding homelessness and playing your part - homelessness can be misunderstood and extends beyond rough sleeping to include people in temporary accommodation, sofa surfing, overcrowded housing, or at risk of losing their home. By improving understanding, education and awareness, the board aims to help people recognise the many forms of homelessness and empower everyone to play a role in supporting people towards stable housing.
- Increasing access to affordable, safe, secure accommodation - ending homelessness requires increasing the supply of affordable, safe and secure housing, expanding access to stable homes, and providing a range of accommodation options for people experiencing homelessness, or domestic abuse. Wigan Council is investing in affordable housing, support for rough sleepers and stronger partnerships with landlords and housing providers, while also improving information, advice and move-on housing options to help people achieve long-term housing stability.
- Improving outcomes, improving lives - providing affordable permanent housing is only part of the solution, as many people experiencing homelessness face complex challenges such as poor mental health, substance misuse, ill health and social isolation that can make it difficult to maintain stable housing. Tackling homelessness effectively requires a coordinated, holistic approach, combining safe housing with wraparound support services and strong partnerships between councils, health services, charities and community organisations.