THE shocking number of homeless deaths in York has been raised in Parliament today.

The Press exclusively revealed that 11 homeless people died in York in 2017 - five on the city's streets and six in hostels or other properties in the city - accounting for a quarter of all homeless deaths in Yorkshire and Humberside in that period.

Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, took to the floor in the House of Commons on Wednesday, and told the Prime Minister her Government's attempts to reduce homelessness were not working and demanded to know what would be done to improve the situation in future.

 

Ms Maskell said: "York has been in shock as we have learnt that 11 homeless people in our city died last year.

"Whilst we know this is an issue across the nation, we know substance misuse services have been cut. We know the social housing hasn't been built in our city, and we know that mental health services are desperately underfunded and understaffed. Prime Minister, I don't want to hear what you have done, because clearly it has failed. I want to know what you're going to do differently so no homeless person dies this year."

 

In response, Prime Minister Theresa May said: "Every death of someone while homeless or sleeping rough on our streets is one too many, and that's why we have the commitment to rough sleeping, to ending it by 2027 and halving it by 2022.

"She says she doesn't want to know what we've done, but we have committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. And she mentioned mental health services, and asks what we are going to do in the future. What we're doing in the future is putting an extra £2.3 billion into mental health services to ensure that we're providing those mental health services for those people who sadly currently are not able to access them."