Ben Howarth, the founder and managing director of Oldham's Howarth Housing Group, which provides temporary and supported accommodation, has warned homelessness is only going to spiral in the borough after an already unprecedented year.

Homelessness across Greater Manchester is going to get worse. With the cost-of-living crisis, ongoing price increases and rent and mortgage rates fluctuating, the demand for emergency, temporary and supported accommodation is on the rise.

Providing the services that we do at the Howarth Housing Group, we have been able to assist those who are the most vulnerable, having provided accommodation for 61 families with children, single people and couples across Oldham since January 2023.

These new placements are now part of the 132 active placements already effective, and there are also around 20 units soon to be available, enabling us to house more vulnerable people.

Providing accommodation is just one of the services, with food provisions and support also available to those on a placement with us.

The Howarth Housing Group has also supplied 48 food packages across Oldham since January and has delivered around 1,295 hours of direct one-to-one support to vulnerable residents.

As a bigger picture, throughout the whole of last year, the group received 412 requests for accommodation in Oldham.

Unfortunately, we were only able to provide accommodation for 351 of those, mainly due to available property.

But, across the board, spanning Greater Manchester, we received 819 requests for properties in 2022 and were able to grant this accommodation to 698 families and single people.

We also provided 14,080 hours of direct one-to-one support and 765 food packages.

Creating a personal approach is the best way to drive a success rate. Moving clients into permanent residences and allowing them the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with domestic life again is key to the service we provide.

We have seen a great move on success rate in Oldham with 93.2 per cent of people being able to leave homelessness behind and move into their own home.

By working closely with local authorities, we can provide a service not previously seen in the Manchester region.

We place clients in self-contained properties which have already undergone thorough risk management and safeguarding procedures, giving those placed the chance to experience a sense of normality in their time of need.