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Council announces new plan to tackle homelessness
A Midlands council has unveiled a new five-year strategy to tackle homelessness.
Labour-led Leicester City Council has been consulting on the nine-point strategy for a year.
Its priorities include offering more support to single people at risk of becoming homeless and combining outreach and repeat homelessness teams to improve help for rough sleepers.
The authority also wants to promote cross-departmental working between housing staff and children’s service, as well as working more with other organisations such as schools and prisons.
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Sir Peter Soulsby, mayor of Leicester City Council, said: “Cuts to housing benefit, increases in private sector rents and a massive shortfall in affordable housing mean that we – along with other cities across the country – are dealing with a growing homelessness crisis.
“This strategy sets out clearly how we plan to adapt our services to meet changing needs and also puts forward new and innovative solutions to dealing with them.”
Last year, more than 3,000 households faced with homelessness came to the council for help, while its homeless services bill was around £5m.
Earlier this month, Leicester City Council announced plans to set up a company to build affordable housing, with a target of 50 units in its first year of operation.
