PERMANENT accommodation for homeless people in Wales must be available if efforts to keep people off the streets are to succeed, a Newport AM has said.

Speaking in the Assembly this week, Newport East's John Griffiths said he believed the Welsh Government's Housing First policy - which aims to get rough sleepers and people at risk of homelessness into permanent, affordable housing rather than hostels and is due to be rolled out across the whole of Wales - was an effective way of dealing with the issue.

But he said the necessary housing must be available if it was to succeed.

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Addressing first minister Mark Drakeford he said: "Homelessness and rough-sleeping are major problems, and obviously many years of UK Tory Government austerity have had a grave impact on our public services and on vulnerable people in our communities.

"It is a cumulative impact year on year.

"In trying to counter that, I do believe that Welsh Government's Housing First policy is an important part of the necessary and the right approach, and the pilot areas, I believe, are very welcome.

"But we do need to have the appropriate accommodation available right across Wales if Housing First is to be rolled out across the length and breadth of our country.

"So, I wonder if you could offer any reassurance that that necessary accommodation will be available throughout Wales, and, if so, when it would be in place."

Replying, the first minister said: "(Mr Griffiths) is right to say that there is no more visible sign of the impact of a decade of austerity than the on-the-street homelessness that we see today, and which, in my earlier lifetime, was never seen at all."

He added the Welsh Government is investing £20 million into homelessness services this year and a group led by charity Crisis looking at services has been set up.

It's why we are putting £20 million more into housing homelessness services in this year alone.

"Our ambition, as (Mr Griffiths) knows, is that, where homelessness takes place, it should be rare, it should be brief, and it should be non-recurrent, and Housing First is a very important part of that.

One of Mr Drakeford's pledges before he was elected first minister was to create a cabinet post with responsibility for housing - and once he was in the role he handed responsibility for the area to Swansea West AM Julie James.