A Bed Every Night (ABEN) Provision

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (TMBC) has a corporate target “nobody sleeping rough on the streets of Tameside” by 2030.

TMBC is part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which has focussed on reducing rough sleeping by developing and funding services which provide “A Bed Every Night” (ABEN). A Bed Every Night was set up by the Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2018 and supports people sleeping rough in Greater Manchester or those at risk of sleeping rough. This includes people who are not eligible for statutory accommodation and those who have No Recourse to Public Funds.

The Council’s ABEN provision is currently a communal night shelter, the Town House, which was set up during the Covid pandemic and is no longer suitable for the borough’s needs.

TMBC is currently undertaking a wider review of its Homelessness Services, looking into:
• Housing register, housing allocation policy and offering choice
• Housing advice, homelessness prevention and options
• Homelessness strategy, rough sleeping services and homelessness applications
• Temporary accommodation

This will result in a recommendations for actions, a new Homelessness Strategy and a revised Housing Allocations Policy. However, prior to the review and strategy being finalised, TMBC intends to act on draft recommendations around the provision of emergency accommodation for people rough sleeping as a matter of urgency.

This soft-market test exercise is intended to seek advice from specialist providers of homelessness and rough sleeper services in order to provide a suitable ABEN provision in Tameside.