By Tony O’Riley
Councillor Donald Nannestad, the deputy leader of Lincoln Council has criticised the limitation in funding to combat homelessness. Although he acknowledges that funding has been pumped into fighting homelessness, he said cuts to funding from councils like Lincolnshire,
A £1,1m funding the council received has been helpful in getting many of the homeless of the streets into bed and Breakfast hotels, but there there aren’t enough hotels for everybody he said. When the hotels get filled, those left over have to manage alternative arrangements like sleeping in Churches.
”More accommodation needs to be freed up and it will require more money”, he told The Eye Of Media.Com. A planned reduction in housing related support budget from March 2021 would “only make the situation worse in the coming years,” he added“. Homelessness continues to be a significant issue in Lincoln as in many towns and cities across the country,” he said. There have been some useful initiatives such as the Nomad Trust’s new premises that have tackled homelessness but that more needed to be done to increase the amount of accommodation available.
FUNDING
The Ministry Of Housing has injected millions of pounds of funding into homelessness across the country and a chunk of the money has not even yet been used because of the required process.
The Rough Sleeper Project – a partnership with YMCA, P3, Framework, LEAP and Addiction made some strides last year by housing 73 people in its first year and assisted 146 people with mental health issues. The council managed to put nearly 300 people in bed and breakfast last year and has been accommodating more people since then in bed and breakfast. The problem the few homeless people left face is when the bed and breakfast become full. He feels more needs to be done to secure long term accommodation for the homeless.