Greater Manchester has a proud history of innovation and resilience in tackling homelessness. Yet, today, homelessness has reached record levels, and the urgency to address this growing crisis is more pressing than ever.

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Last year Mayor Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester embarked on a housing first city-region initiative, built on three pillars: Supply, Standards, and Support.

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The Centre for Homelessness Impact is working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority to accelerate its collective impact towards this mission across the city-region and to ensure progress is sustained.

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How are we going about it?

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The Accelerator programmes work across three operational strands: 

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1. Systems coordination and capacity
To strengthen governance structures and build capacity across Greater Manchester, enabling more effective coordinated responses to homelessness and ensuring local authorities have the skills and resources needed to sustain long-term progress.​

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2. Data-led solutions
To create a unified, data-driven approach to ending homelessness across Greater Manchester. This strand aims to enhance decision-making, streamline service delivery, and drive coordinated efforts through shared data systems and cross-borough learning. 

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3. Test & Learn interventions
To test and scale evidence-based interventions that effectively address homelessness across Greater Manchester. This strand will focus on identifying successful approaches, adapting them to local contexts, and expanding proven solutions across boroughs to drive meaningful, system-wide change. This is built on the rigorous evaluation of interventions, strengthening the evidence-base on what we know works. 

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This initiative will provide targeted support, expert guidance, and a framework for collective impact to accelerate implementation, drive system change, and ensure that Greater Manchester's housing first vision becomes a lasting reality.

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The Housing First Accelerator is currently in its design phase, where we seek to engage with stakeholders from all sectors and areas of Greater Manchester to develop and test programme deliverables.