By Jay Tavares-
The Ministry of Housing is to allocate £91.5 million to 274 councils in England to help vulnerable people housed during the pandemic, with bids submitted for £161 million support to help secure 3,300 longer-term homes.
London leads the list of cities to benefit from the massive funding, with a huge £143,000 devoted to ensuring accommodation for its residents there. After that is the South East, which will receive a total of £15,066 to be shared among them in achieving accommodation for rough sleepers.
Thousands of vulnerable people who were housed during the pandemic will be helped to stay in accommodation this year, due to the fresh boost announced by Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick. There had previously been doubts expressed that the government was about t abandon its commitment to the homeless, as homeless charities raised alarm about the prospect if homelessness rising again.
The goal of this fresh cash injection is to ensure interim accommodation and support for the most vulnerable people, including providing help to people into the private rented sector, and to secure interim accommodation such as supported housing, and assess the wider support these people need in order to rebuild their lives.
The Ministry of Housing said that an additional £13.5 million fund will be used to enable local authorities to tackle new or emerging challenges.
Secretary of State for Housing, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:
”The incredible national effort to support rough sleepers during the pandemic has protected many lives and is widely regarded as one of the most successful programmes of its kind in the world. I’m hugely grateful to all those involved.
This funding will ensure that vulnerable people and rough sleepers continue to have safe accommodation and the care and support they need, to ensure as few as possible return to the streets.
Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Kelly Tolhurst MP said:
This funding will make a difference to many thousands of vulnerable peoples’ lives, continuing to help them address complex needs, and to rebuild their lives, away from the streets in safer interim accommodation.
I want to commend the Rough Sleeping Taskforce, council, providers and partners for the support they’ve provided so far. Together, we’re providing the support required to end rough sleeping and break the cycle of homelessness once and for all.
Chief Executive of St Mungo’s Steve Douglas said:
We welcome the speed with which this funding has been allocated. It will be for both homes and support, and will build on the success of the ‘Everyone In’ initiative, which enabled us, and other homelessness charities and service providers, to help almost 15,000 people sleeping rough or at risk of homelessness to move into emergency accommodation during the pandemic, and to receive the support they needed. This undoubtedly saved lives.
We have seen what can be achieved when we work together. Going forward we want to work with government and partners on longer term solutions and hope that the homelessness review for a long term strategy will begin this autumn.