A City Summit for Change

 It was incredibly depressing but also motivating today to be at the "A City Summit for Change" conference about homelessness in Leeds.

Although Leeds has a good record, the sad reality is that a decade and a half of under investment in support services due to budget cuts has now created a crisis in homelessness across the UK, including seeing homelessness and rough sleeping increasing in Leeds.

Although the numbers are numerically low in terms of rough sleeping, around 70 people, every one of those is a humanbeing with a story to tell, and many of them have such significant challenges in their lives that providing them with the support they need is incredibly difficult.

Today's conference was about looking at new ways of working and collecting ideas about how we can deal with this ongoing challenge.

It will take years to repair the damage of the last decade and a half of under investment, but there is clear commitment across the city, the public, the private and the third sector to make this happen.