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Government pledges £66m winter help for rough sleepers
The government has announced £66m of funding to provide accommodation for rough sleepers over the coming winter.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said the extra funding will provide services such as counselling and rehabilitation to support rough sleepers with drug and alcohol problems.
It said the new fund forms part of the government’s £640m drive to end rough sleeping by the end of 2024.
Eddie Hughes, the minister for rough sleeping and housing, said: “Rough sleepers are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and we must help them off the streets and end the plight of rough sleeping once and for all.
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“That means providing somewhere safe and warm for them to stay, and this funding will be a lifeline for thousands as the temperature drops this winter.”
According to the DLUHC, the fund will build on the success of the Everyone In initiative, which supported 37,000 vulnerable people into longer-term accommodation during the pandemic.
More than 60 councils have been allocated a share of the up to £52m Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant scheme for specialist support services for rough sleepers and those at risk, including one-to-one support and mentoring.
The DLUHC also said that voluntary, faith and community groups have been awarded grants from the £3.8m Homelessness Transformation Fund to transform shared accommodation into COVID-secure, self-contained accommodation, giving rough sleepers safe places to stay.
Additionally, up to 3,500 rough sleepers will be provided with emergency accommodation. Areas most in need of support to tackle rough sleeping will be invited to bid for funding from the £10m Winter Pressures Grant.
Last week during his Budget and Spending Review announcement, chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak revealed that the government would be spending £1.9bn of resource funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the next three years.
